Ben
Brantley

July 2, 2015

If you were in the vicinity of Seventh Avenue and West 55th Street at about 7:40 p.m. on Wednesday, you may have been alarmed by the sight of a really big Moorish dome sailing into the air. That would have been the roof of City Center, which was blown right off the building when Ellen Greene made her entrance in the blissed-out, two-nights-only concert production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” Portraying the sweetest masochist in musical-comedy history — Audrey, the Skid Row florist’s assistant — Ms. Greene received the kind of entrance applause you might imagine greeting the resurrection of Maria Callas at the Metropolitan Opera for a beyond-the-grave performance of “Norma.” But Ms. Greene, make no mistake, is very much alive. It may be more than three decades since she created the role of Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors,” Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s eccentric, grisly, dearly beloved little musical from 1982 about a boy and his man-eating plant. But in a heartfelt performance that brought to mind a virtuosic jazz artist riffing out the essence of a signature melody, Ms. Greene demonstrated that she still unconditionally holds the patent on Audrey. City Center’s roof, in other words, never stayed put for very long. It was one of those nights that show queens, of all persuasions and sexes, will be talking about for as long as there are theater chat rooms on the Internet. Those who were there have gloating rights for the ages. Those who weren’t will pretend that they were.