No movies last weekend, what with being at Ravencon and all, but the previous weekend TYG took me to Little Shop of Horrors by the local Playmakers theatre company. The tickets were a Christmas present, and the show proved well worth waiting for.
As you probably know, this was a 1980s musical inspired by Roger Corman’s low-budget SF comedy movie, Little Shop of Horrors, built around the time-honored concept of “what if a plant ate us instead of vice-versa?” The play, I think, is way better than the original film (the musical would, of course, return to the screen with Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene and Steve Martin among the cast).
Our protagonist Seymour, is an orphan raised and used as an indentured servant in Mushnik’s skid row flower shop. An idea TYG mocked — who goes to skid row to buy flowers? — and sure enough, Mushnik makes the same point early on. Things turn around when Seymour acquires the strange, exotic flower … but the only way to feed it is with human blood. Need I say things take a dark turn?
This was a well-done production, great-looking set and some amazing singers in the cast. Where the original show and movie were 1950s-set, this opted for the 1970s, arguing it’s a parallel for our current era (corrupt president, economy floundering, intense struggles over white male supremacy), not that that affects the show any. This gave it a different visual look from other versions but it did make most of the references in “Somewhere That’s Green” weirdly anachronistic (Leavittown! A “big 12-inch TV screen!”). That’s a minor flaw in an excellent production — even TYG liked it and she’s not a musical theater person. “Downtown, where the men are drips/Downtown, where they tear your slips!/Downtown, where relationships/are no-go!”
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