Review: Greene Glimmers in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

The singer isn't Edith Piaf and the song isn't "La Vie En Rose" but for a few minutes on the City Center stage, there really isn't very much difference as Ellen Greene, playing a woman who endures beatings and verbal abuse from her lover because she doesn't think she deserves any better, sings of her simple dream to marry a nice, kind man and live happily ever after in the comfortable conformity pushed by television commercials as early 1960s American heaven.

"Somewhere That's Green," the song that's the emotional centerpiece of Encores! Off-Center's concert mounting of Howard Ashman (book/lyrics) and Alan Menken's (music) tremendously popular Little Shop of Horrors is a funny song. Its lyric idealizing clichéd suburban living, dotted with product placements and period pop culture references to Howdy Doody, Betty Crocker and, "the Pine-Sol scented air," still draws laughs from fans who probably sing it themselves in piano bars twice a week. And Greene's performance as Audrey, the friendly flower shop clerk who pines for her sweet co-worker Seymour while dating a sadistic dentist - which she originated in 1982 and, thankfully, was allowed to preserve four years later in the musical's film adaptation - remains a very funny take on the not-as-ditzy-as-she-looks blonde. At age 64 (you'd never guess) she still conveys a pin-point display of campy comic inflection, pathos and physicality.

And yet for those few minutes, the authors give Greene the opportunity to bring Audrey's sad subtext to the surface. She begins with the hushed, fragile tones of a wounded kitten, full of longing and wound-licking, that gradually build in strength and hopefulness, only to wistfully settle into the comfort and safety of a pleasant dream.

If Ellen Greene simply showed up and gave a reasonable facsimile of the performance she is most adored for, the thousands jamming City Center for this very brief run would certainly give her a big hand and go home happy. Instead, in between those familiar facial expressions and line readings, she has taken the role to deeper degrees of warmth and dignity, while remaining true to the musical's dark and campy silliness.

Director Dick Scanlan has surrounded her with a fine showcase. Though audiences have grown accustomed to Encores! productions being performed without scripts in hand, there was a good amount of reading at Wednesday night's opening (Greene had it all memorized.) and the limited production values made it clear that this was to be taken more as a concert. Still, the evening was spirited, entertaining and a mega love-fest.

As the timid Seymour, who adopts and cares for an odd-looking sprout that grows to monstrous proportions while feeding on human blood, Jake Gyllenhaal makes a game effort in his first stab at musical theatre, not seeming fully comfortable with singing in character. The discovery of the evening is Saturday Night Live's Taran Killam, who sings with snazzy comic brio and nails every lyrical joke as the maniacal dentist who's hooked on nitrous oxide and revels in causing pain. Also making highlights out of smaller additional roles, he gives the kind of musical theatre debut that makes you hope he chooses a Broadway career.

Chuck Cooper was originally slated to play the ravenous plant that Seymour lovingly names Audrey II, but with dad currently previewing in Amazing Grace, Eddie Cooper has dutifully stepped in. Inheriting his father's imposing size, booming vocals and comic panache, the younger Cooper makes a meal of it. Though full productions of Little Shop use a series of plant puppets to portray the fast-growing Audrey II, Cooper accomplishes it all just by sitting in a chair with a hungry look and a furry green coat. Young Anwar Kareem does a fine job as the newly sprouting Audrey II, standing attentively and holding a potted plant.

Joe Grifasi injects some old-time 2nd Avenue humor as shop owner Mr. Mushnik and the trio of Tracy Nicole Chapman, Marva Hicks and Ramona Keller (choreographed by Patricia Wilcox) do a supreme job of recreating girl group excitement as the ensemble of street urchins.

The production appropriately ends with a brief, but touching tribute to Howard Ashman, a victim of the AIDS epidemic who passed on at age 40, less than a decade after the initial success of Little Shop of Horrors led to opportunities to write for Broadway (Smile) and to team again with Alan Menken on three enormously successful Disney films, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast and Aladdin. As with their star's performance of "Somewhere That's Green," enjoying the satirical cleverness of his words matched with his partner's infinitely catchy tributes to early 60s pop styles doesn't come without shedding a few tears.

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