“Where do you put your hands when you dance?” Communication senior Brittany Bookbinder asks Communication junior Scott Shaefitz as they determine how Seymour and Audrey would embrace during the ballad “Suddenly Seymour.” Shaefitz jokingly moves his hands from Bookbinder’s shoulders down her back, causing everyone in the room to burst with laughter.
“It’s always a challenge to adapt to a new group of people working on an ensemble together,” Bookbinder, who plays female lead Audrey, says. “By the end, you have this bond with these people.”
Little Shop of Horrors, the Arts Alliance’s spring mainstage production, is a cautionary tale about the dangers of seeking fame and fortune. In it, the clumsy but well-meaning Seymour Krelborn feels invisible, especially to his crush Audrey, a coworker at the almost-broke Mushnik’s Flower Shop on Skid Row. But everything changes when Seymour buys an exotic Venus flytrap, which he fondly names Audrey II. He soon discovers that the plant talks, sings and has an appetite for human blood. Seymour eventually gains Audrey’s attention, despite the presence of her boyfriend Orin, a leather-jacket-wearing “semi-sadist” dentist (played by Communication junior Jesse Thurston). Even when Seymour does get her attention, however, he must quickly decide what he is prepared to sacrifice for fame and love.
Three Supremes-like street urchins named Ronette, Crystal and Chiffon, played by Communication freshman and sophomores Emily Olcott, Mia Weinberger and Rachel Shapiro, narrate the musical. Communication senior Max Freedman plays Seymour’s boss, the ever-dissatisfied Mushnik, frequently yelling at Seymour while assigning him menial tasks.
Inspired by the 1960 B-movie The Little Shop of Horrors, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who created the music for many Disney animated features, wrote Little Shop of Horrors, which premiered off-Broadway in 1982. The musical was made into a movie in 1986 starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin, and it has since achieved cult-classic status. From the beginning, Director Michael Holtzman, a Communication junior, wanted the actors to retain the campiness Little Shop is known for, but also to explore the “dark, interesting story” about the consequences of seeking the spotlight.
“I want to show people the Little Shop they love, not the one they know,” Holtzman says. “I want to show there’s a place for that form, for the flash and the glitter, as long as it pushes the story along.”
Holtzman has made some big changes that would make any diehard Little Shop fan do a double take. Most notably, the role of Audrey II, traditionally played by a man with a distinct deep voice, will be played by Communication sophomore Kara Goldsmith.
“By having a woman, it adds an interesting element of sex,” Holtzman says. “It helps you understand why [Seymour] would be tempted by it.”
The strenuous rehearsal schedule that goes into producing a show like this may seem like an impossible feat, but the cast appears unfazed by the show’s demands. Overall, the performers show little sign of panic or stress offstage.
“I’m used to it since I’ve been doing this since I’ve been little,” says Shapiro. “It’s not that bad.”
More than a week before opening night, at the end of the show’s run-through, Holtzman gathers the cast to sit in a circle and go over some of his notes. Holtzman tells the actors they did a solid job, but he doesn’t want the show to get stale, even with all of the new changes he has made. Some of the most iconic aspects of Little Shop may not be there, but Holtzman says the music and the story are what attract audiences to any musical.
“We get tired of bits,” Holtzman says. “We don’t get tired of really interesting characters and stories.”
Little Shop of Horrors opens this weekend in the Louis Room at Norris with performances Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and faculty, and $10 for adults. They can be purchased at the Norris Box Office or online through the Arts Alliance website.