Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, which is at Theatr Clwyd until Saturday 31st October.
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! This play contains the worst rock and roll joke ever.
The 1960s B movie of ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ was shot on the cheap in just two days. Editing time was so tight, the actors fluffs were left in. Watch it and weep.
But you’ll cry with joy at Tim Baker’s new stage production of the much loved sci fi story. The prescribed nature of the show doesn’t give him much artistic licence. The challenge is just getting it right; which his tremendously hard working team does with flying colours (mainly green).
The show opens outside Mushnik’s deadbeat florist on America’s skid row. Business is so bad he’s closing up for good. But he has a young assistant Seymour played – as a nerd on the road to Damascus – by a lively Daniel Boys. When he turns up with a strange plant that suddenly appeared during a total eclipse of the sun, it becomes a crowd puller. The trouble is the potted plant has special dietary requirements. When Seymour pricks his finger on a rose stem, it seems strangely interested. For this plant is far from veggie.
Like Prince Charles, he talks to it. Unlike Prince Charles, he gets a reply. He makes a pact with the plant and christens it Audrey II in honour of the girl he shyly loves.
It’s a fun and frolicsome show that won’t scare anyone. When I tell you that the opening number is performed by a trio of black beauties named Ronette, Chiffon and Crystal, you’ll correctly conclude that the music is very 60s; very rocky, wacky and catchy.
The lyrics, however, are past a joke. By now Seymour is singing to his hungry companion. “I’ve given you sunshine, I’ve given you rain. But you’re not happy till I open a vein”; which is topped in cheesiness only by the memorable, “You betcha. Something’s gonna getcha”.
Seymour’s search for food brings the musical’s craziest character on stage. Starey-eyed Garry Lake steals the show with his outrageous portrayal of ‘orrible Orin the orthodontist; the human Audrey’s bullying boyfriend. It’s a fabulously over the top portrayal of a messed up man, hooked on Novocain, who arrives on his bike in black leathers.
A biking dentist, eh? He must be ‘The Leader of the Plaque’. (Well, I did warn you).
The plant is now so enormous it is no surprise when the dentist falls down its throat … and with jokes like that he jolly well deserves to. Luckily for us the versatile Mr Lake reappears in a variety of other crazy guises.
It’s strangely difficult to take Phylip Harries seriously without a frock on. He’s the regular Clwyd pantomime dame and, now bearded, he seems politely restrained as the florist Mushnik. For once he isn’t flamboyantly upstaging everyone. Instead he puts in a solid, self-sacrificial performance for the team. Naturally, the plant welcomed his sacrifice.
The ‘American Dame’ of the show is the wonderful Georgina White, tottering around in pencil skirt, tight steps and tattered stockings. She fits the cliché blond beautifully and her own sacrifice for Seymour would be almost tear jerking if it wasn’t so terribly trite.
The plant sings too, with a rich, soulful voice supplied by another Clywd pantomime regular Daniel Lloyd, whose off-stage lip sync is spot on. I suppose there is a bit of a moral about honesty and greed lurking under Audrey II’s tendrils, but otherwise it’s all played for laughs…of which there are plenty.
So yes, panto has indeed come early to Clwyd.
Visit www.clwyd-theatr-cymru.co.uk for bookings & information about Clwyd Theatr Cymru.
Photographer : Catherine Ashmore