Review: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Blackwood Memorial Hall

Reviewed by Christine Pyman, Friday 26th May 2017

Little Shop of Horrors is a beautifully gory, horror, love story, musical, with underlying themes of understanding self-worth and urban survival, delivered with a great deal of humour. When you pack all of this into one show, it is no wonder that this has become a cult classic. Blackwood Players are no strangers to the hard work that goes into any theatrical performance, particularly when such well-loved shows as Little Shop of Horrors are staged, and their work, love and dedication certainly pays off for their audiences.

Starting with a set that allowed a number of scene changes with minimal disruption to the narrative, and supported by an eight-piece band playing the original music by Alan Menken under the musical direction of Carol Hollis, Ronette (Lauren Bannard), Crystal (Elle Nichelle) and Chiffon (Tammy Shields) pranced onto the stage as our chorus. Their practised gestures were perfectly downtown tacky, immediately transporting us to a 1960's poor backstreet area of New York. Their very good voices were, unfortunately, drowned by the band, which was a recurring problem throughout the show. Even the fabulous power and quality of Elle Nichelles voice was hard to hear during many numbers.

This play relies on over the top characterisation for much of its humour, and the actors threw themselves into their roles with what seemed like joyous abandon but was, no doubt, the result of hours of practice. Chris Overton, as the conniving, struggling Jewish proprietor of Mushniks Flowers, was a joy to behold with his very physical interpretation of Mr. Mushnik, and included almost every Jewish stage characteristic possible.

Karina Black was simply outstanding as main character Audrey, her body language alone clearly convincing us that the boyfriend was violent and abusive. For a comedy, she managed to carry the pathos of her character to such an extent as to make the watcher uncomfortable during the discomfort of the abuse scenes, whilst still keeping comedic timing. She stayed in accent throughout, even during some of her more difficult songs.

Seymour, played by James Barbary, was a classic bumbling nerd, good-hearted, trusting, and unworldly, but with a great voice.

Ron Densley, who played multiple characters all with equal zest, deserves his own mention. From the moment he stepped onto the stage, he owned it, whether he was crotch thrusting, laughing maniacally, or in drag, he was the centre of attention. The character of Orion Scrivello could've been written for his obvious joy of excess.

No review of Little Shop of Horrors would be complete without mentioning Audrey 2, in this case, the beautiful bass of Georgie Bannard, who was also the director, giving us that booming smart arse voice, and Georgina Lumb, who had the difficult job of being the puppeteer behind (and under) Audrey 2.

This show was extremely enjoyable, with good performances, music and singing, with only sound mixing being a problem. This problem was exacerbated in the final song, which instead of being an all singing, all dancing, joyous finale of energy, just became a droning mush of noise. If you leave just before the finale, you will absolutely love it.

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