Little Shop of Horrors
Opening Night: October 17, 2019
Closing: January 19, 2020
Theater: Westside Theatre
Little Shop of Horrors, the iconic musical, returns to its roots! Seymour is a down-on-his-luck florist with a crush on his co-worker Audrey. When he discovers a mysterious – and voracious – plant, suddenly Seymour and Audrey are thrust into an epic battle that will determine the fate of the entire human race. Get close — but not too close — to Little Shop of Horrors when it returns to its off-Broadway roots this fall! Experience the iconic musical as it was meant to be seen, in an intimate 270-seat setting.
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October 17, 2019
Suddenly Seymour is standing beside you. Like, right beside you. “Little Shop of Horrors,” which opened Thursday night off-Broadway, is getting a much more intimate staging than when it last played New York, both on Broadway and at the large City Center. Tight feels right, because the roots of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s terrific show are in small houses. Now the insanely catchy doo-wop musical occupies the 270-seat Westside Theatre, with a bare-bones set and not a projection in sight. Freed from dealing with the usual trappings of modern musicals, you can feel the actors let their vines down.
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October 17, 2019
The musical is a delightful cross-breed that grafted toe-tapping ’60s pop, doo-wop and Motown onto an affectionate parody of B-movie schlock, all of which continues to flourish in director Michael Mayer’s lovingly staged revival. What’s most immediately captivating about the limited-engagement production is that, deluxe casting aside, it eschews Broadway scale in favor of a return to the show’s roots in an off-Broadway theater that seats just 270. That accounts for the production’s sell-out business, two-month extension and cluster of hopeful ticket-buyers waiting on cancellation lines at every performance. While it’s become something of a classic, this remains at heart a scrappy little pastiche musical whose charms thrive most vibrantly in an intimate house.
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October 17, 2019
Groff and his Audrey, Tammy Blanchard (who won an Emmy for “Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows”), are both subtle comic presences and supple, dramatic vocalists, ensuring that in this new production there’s something lovely at work, something devoid of the usual camp, schmaltz and quirk of “Little Shop.” Without the big, stagey “New Yawk” accents and broad interactions of yore, the humor comes more naturally, and neither Groff nor Blanchard have to chase the laughs. The same qualities define their vocal spins on the “Little Shop” songbook. When Blanchard touches on the epic crescendos of “Suddenly Seymour” and her softer soliloquy “Somewhere That’s Green,” there’s a shushing jazziness to her tender vocals that conveys the deeper hurt of physical harassment. In that respect, Blanchard (who can also belt out the big notes) is just a few steps away from Billie Holiday’s pained and nuanced expressiveness.
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October 17, 2019
Little Shop of Horrors, the once and current Off Broadway marvel, announced in 1982 the arrival of two songwriters – Howard Ashman & Alan Menken – who’d soon expand musical theater boundaries to swallow Hollywood like so much plant food. The musical comes home again (you can’t isn’t in its vocabulary) with Michael Mayer’s delightful production featuring a dream trio of Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard and Christian Borle. In a staging that feels garden-fresh while honoring everything that made the musical such an invigorating blast nearly 40 years ago, this Little Shop sold out its limited run at the Westside Theatre (Upstairs) before performances began in September, prompting an eight-week extension through Jan. 19 that offers audiences a rare opportunity to see the show on the turf and in the manner that Ashman & Menken must surely have envisioned.
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October 17, 2019
A certain carnivorous plant has been repotted in Hell’s Kitchen, and I am delighted to report that it’s thriving there. This hot showbiz shrub of yesteryear, which goes by the name of Audrey II, has found a new dance partner, a performer who can coax the tendril-stretching star quality out of a freakish botanical specimen. That would be Jonathan Groff, who is generating major nerd charisma in Michael Mayer’s delicious revival of “Little Shop of Horrors,” which opened Thursday at the Westside Theater/Upstairs.
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