Little Shop of Horrors Review - Adelaide Youth Theatre

 

“Little Shop of Horrors” Review – Seymour Cast
Produced by Adelaide Youth Theatre
Andrew Broadbent
4.5 stars 

Playing until Sunday 29^th April.
Tickets still available via www.trybooking.com/CGQVT

If the Audrey cast is as good as the Seymour cast was tonight, this is going to be a masterpiece of a season. Co-Directors Zali Zedgman and Benji Riggs, Musical Director Mark Stefanoff and Choreographer Lucy Newman collectively moulded an already talented group of youth members of Adelaide and created a very satisfying product.

The three Urchins: Crystal (Amber Fibrosi), Ronette (Anika Van Der Walt) and Chiffon (Shalee Vicencio) out sung, out snapped and out urchin’d every other performance of Little Shop of Horrors I’ve seen. The voices these 3 performers display from the very beginning of “Little Shop of Horrors” dispel any thought of this being a ‘youth show’ and the expectation level that this kind of thinking comes with. Throughout the story, these 3 characters use the set very well as tools to ‘pop up’.

Tonight’s cast had Daisy Jury portraying Audrey. When you read the program, you’ll find that Daisy Jury is a recipient of a Scholarship, and her performance throughout this production proves how worthy she is of such an award. The amount of character work Jury has put into her portrayal as Audrey – the way she walks, talks, interacts with other characters, shows a level of dedication some adult performers struggle to comprehend and build into their own characters. Jury’s vocals took me back to the Original 1982 Cast Album, (where Ellen Greene portrayed Audrey in the original Off-Broadway production) and is on track to be able to follow a similar career path of Greene if that’s the plan.

Along with Jury, tonight’s performance had Sam Cannizzaro portraying Seymour, was goofy, cheesy, sweet, kind, and loveable. No matter how many bodies he fed to Audrey II, you couldn’t be mad at Seymour, thanks to the equally hard work Cannizzaro has put into his character. The chemistry he had with Harry Ince and Daisy Jury suspended the belief that this is only a story, and as the lead role, audiences wouldn’t accept anything less.

Speaking of Harry Ince, his performance of Mushnik stole the show in many places. The ad-lib he added to his role didn’t take away from the storyline, but instead added his own non-Jewish flavour to a very Jewish role. The musical number, “Mushnik & Son”, was very clearly a crowd favourite. A quick mention that the respective accent choices for Seymour, Audrey and Mushnik remained consistent throughout the entirety of the story. Well done!

The only character to steal the show back from Mushnik, was Audrey II herself, portrayed by Charlee Hoff. The creative decision to cast Audrey II as a female, rather than the male voice that we’ve come to know so well via the original productions was a SMART idea, along with the idea of having the voice physically onstage and interacting with Seymour, visually creating that enigma that only he can hear (until it’s Audrey’s turn). The vocals that created the demonic, sultry portrayal of Audrey II was a crowd pleaser and a favourite among many, along with the outfit created for the role.

I would also like to credit the puppeteer of the 3 out of 4 plants, but his name isn’t credited in the program as the puppeteer – to this guy, it’s a hard job syncing up with the voice of the plant, particularly when it’s 2 separate individuals. There have been productions where the Audrey II voice has also operated the puppet to overcome this obstacle, but not this time. There were some comments within the audience about seeing the puppeteer’s arms as he was controlling the larger 2 plants, but such a small detail shall not reflect poorly upon the production.

Orin Scrivello D.D.S. was portrayed amazingly by Mason Pugh – the way his character was outwardly ‘normal’ to strangers yet had that little twitch when it came to his relationship with Audrey made you uncomfortable in your seat, but anything less in the performance would have made it underwhelming, and anything more would have turned him psychopathic. The perfect blend was found, leading the audience to care little that he asphyxiated and was fed to the plant, but equally cheered and loved Pugh’s appearance as Mrs Luce.

A tight ensemble made for effective choreographed dance numbers, and amazing harmonies as needed throughout the production.

The static set was well created, and utilised the fly tower available within the Arts Theatre as the shop became more elaborate in the second act. The technical side of the production was a little bit on the downside, noticing lights dim in spots where they may not have supposed to and flicking between colours for their next cue, along with a couple of late microphone activations, which resulted in some first lines missed as characters entered the stage. Characters were suitably costumed by Sedgman and Co-Producer Kerreanne Sarti, ensuring the small elements mentioned within the script are implemented – got to love some leopard print.

Don’t let the title of the musical fool you – it’s not horrific, but instead, it’s a great 2 hours away from the TV shared with other theatre-lovers. Book a ticket and head along to the Arts Theatre, knowing that you didn’t miss out!