The Roundabout’s Scotland, PA off-Broadway and Little Shop of Horrors in a commercial run at the Westside Theater translate weird, dark little movies into weird dark little musicals. Both shows feature frighteningly fun, gruesome murders and spoofy scores, ribbing the music of their respective eras. The rollicking, good-time Little Shop (1982) took Roger Corman’s 1960 Grade-Z horror schlocker about a monstrous plant for its inspiration and went on to run five years Off-Broadway, then launch a 1986 film remake and a 2003 Broadway revival, plus numerous tours and amateur productions.
The show unabashedly celebrates the original film’s guilty-pleasure sleaziness. Featuring a sterling pop-rock-doo-wop score by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the new revival, directed with ghoulish glee by Michael Mayer, retains this little gem’s wacky charm. The 2003 revival was somewhat lost in the large Virginia Theater (now the August Wilson), but this production fits snugly in the intimate Westside Theater as does Nicholas Mahon’s monstrous puppet design of Audrey II, the carnivorous plant. Julian Crouch’s spooky set evokes Sweeney Todd and low-grade horror pix.
Jonathan Groff is appropriately sweet, nerdy and secretly sinister as Seymour, the clerk who feeds human blood to the ever-growing Audrey II. Tammy Blanchard’s pathetic Audrey, the shopgirl Seymour pines for, is bit too close to her Hedy LaRue from the 2011 How to Succeed in Business—a tough gal who can take care of herself. Audrey needs to be a fragile victim for the show to work. Despite this incongruity, Blanchard and Groff have some magic moments together, particularly during the iconic “Suddenly Seymour” duet.
The versatile Christian Borle nearly steals the shows in a variety of roles including Orin, Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend who is addicted to laughing gas. Watch as Borle takes hit after hit of the goofy stuff and barely contains the rush. He even manages to shine in tiny cameos such as an over-enthusiastic customer and a female publishing executive.
Tom Alan Robbins brings heft to Mushnik, the beleaguered florist, Kingsley Leggs provides the dark, menacing voice of Audrey II, and Ari Groover, Salome Smith and Joy Woods are back-up dreamboats as the girl-group urchins.
