Review: Rockdale Musical Society's LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Showcases Some Great New Talent.

Thursday 31 May 2018, 8pm Rockdale Town Hall

Alan Menken (Music) and Howard Ashman's (Lyrics and Book) cult classic musical LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is presented with polish by Rockdale Musical Society. With a surprisingly high production standard for an amateur theatre company, director Rod Herbert has gathered a strong cast and team of creatives to deliver an engaging and entertaining evening of musical theatre.

For those unfamiliar with the work, the rock, du-wop, motown science fiction musical which premiered Off-Broadway in 1982 is based on Roger Corman's 1960's farcical film THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS which was originally run as the B movie in the favoured double-features of the time. Utilising the elements of B grade science fiction horror films LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS takes the audience into a 1960's Skid Row world of poverty, minimal education to follow the hapless aspiring botanist Seymour Krelborn (Dave Collins). The exploited orphan who works in the cantankerous Mr Mushnik's (Tim Martin) flower shop has discovered a fascinating new plant which he has dubed Audrey II (voiced by Daniel Kenyon), or Twoey for short. The mysterious talking plant promises to make all of Seymour's dreams come true so long as he complies with the plant's demands to "feed me" but normal plant food won't satisfy Twoey.

Whilst this production has a very limited run of one week, Herbert has not cut corners. Herbert has worked with Jason Blair to devise a large set that includes a detailed expression of Mushnik's flower shop complete with shop window, retail counter and spiral staircase up to upstairs rooms even though this space is not used. Elements of an American urban streetscape are implied with a short set of stairs representing the stoops of the skid row houses and corrugated iron and wooden bench giving the scene a derelict feel. A large screen filling the space of the proscenium drops in to allow alternate scenes and an animated backdrop, produced by Chae Rogan and Adam Ring, which includes an impressive illustration of Seymour's love interest Audrey's (Emily Engeman) dream for Somewhere That's Green. Donna Brotherson and Rhiannon de Margheriti's costume design ensures that the characters are easily recognised and understood as they draw on stereotypes, from Seymour's daggy argyle sweater to Audrey's tight mini skirt and the street urchin's juvenile skirts, cardigans and bobby socks.

A significant element of any LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS production is how Audrey II is represented and the plant's growth is expressed. Herbert and Craig Winterburn have devised an intriguing array of Audrey II plants, from the saplings to the mature beast capable of 'swallowing' whole humans, by utilising an array of puppetry techniques. Lead puppeteer Rachel Milburn and her team of Tim Murphy, Harry Herbert, Ana Lawford and Oliver Becroft ensure that Audrey II is lifelike and adequately animated with tendrils moving in addition to the expected 'mouth'.

The casting for this production is solid with most voices being strong and clear and the core characters delivering good dramatic performances with the appropriate level of realism whilst still hitting the comic moments. Accents are based on the boroughs of New York with variances for individual characters such as Sharonne Lipman giving urchin Crystal a Puerto Rican twist and Engeman giving Audrey a more submissive tone. Tim Martin adopts a blend of New York Jewish with an Eastern European tone in keeping with the character's Czechoslovakian heritage for his speaking voice but presents his key musical number Mushnik & Son without the accent to focus on the text and vocal quality. Collins incorporates little comic moments to his vocal interpretations to emphasise Seymour's timid character without overselling the detail. Gabriel Burke ensures that the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello, Audrey's boyfriend, stands out from the regular inhabitants of Skid Row by giving him a southern accent and a hilariously camp characterisation that could possibly be alluding to an insecurity and need to appear masculine and powerful by beating up Audrey.

There were however issues with over amplification on the night reviewed resulting in the bold rock and motown deafening members of the audience with hands seen raised to protect ears. Sound balance, particularly for larger group numbers also rendered some of the lyrics unintelligible which was also disappointing. Hopefully this balance will be ironed out on subsequent nights as aside from this issue Rockdale Musical Society's interpretation of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS is a well crafted production which showcases some emerging talent that will hopefully make the progression out of community theatre into independent theatre.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

30 May - 3 June 2018

Rockdale Town Hall

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