What comes to mind when you think of Christmas? Santa? Snow? Nutcrackers? A giant man-eating plant with ideas of world domination, perhaps? Well, in this year's Crucible Christmas show, the latter is exactly what you'll find in their production of the classic musical Little Shop of Horrors.
One of the most beloved musicals of the last 40 years has seen many productions, with countless stars taking on the seminal roles of Seymour, Audrey and Audrey II in the West End and on Broadway. We have to say, this Sheffield Theatres production deserves to be viewed in the same way as the very best of these.
The musical follows the fortunes of a failing florist, Mushnik's, as the business is saved when its hapless herbologist, Seymour, reveals a strange plant that he has been secretly growing. As the plant grows, so does the business, until one day the plant's carnivorous tendencies push Seymour, and the musical, into a world of chaos.
This is a musical that simply doesn't work nearly as well without strong performances from it's cast to bring the fantastic music to life, and luckily, this production has no shortage of those. Colin Ryan captures the innocence and, later, terror of Seymour fantastically and looks to be having a blast doing so, with Ryan able to produce belly laughs and tears from all. Georgina Onuorah also blesses this production's Audrey with an unbelievable voice, her performance of 'Somewhere That's Green' was as powerful and moving as any number we've seen performed on that stage.
Particular standout performances away from this core couduo ple came for us from Sam Buttery as THE Audrey II and Wilf Scolding as demon dentist Orin. Wilf somehow manages to tightrope the line of a hilarious audience favourite and a genuinely awful scumbag who the audience dreads to see, which is a truly impressive feat. The performance of the night came from Sam Buttery as Audrey II, embodying the bloodlust, terrifying nature of this plant in an imperious manner and combining this with incredible vocals and brilliant physical comedy. Your eye is drawn to the plant naturally when it is on stage, but Sam's performance holds that attention until she wants to let it go.
While the plaudits for Audrey IIs character rightly fall largely with Sam, the ensemble and design must take a large share of the credit too. Puppet designer and director Daisy Beattie described the Audrey II as "a mashup of puppetry, choreography, design, lighting and music" which plays out brilliantly. Starting out, the plant seems enough as a little hand puppet, graduating in size then to a more conventional puppet before Sam unexpectedly bursts Audrey II out of its pot and by the climactic ending, Audrey II literally encompasses the entire auditorium. As Audrey II grows, so does the complexity of the design, she starts out as a cute little handpuppet but ends up as a terrifying mass of mouths, tendrils leaves ... And humans.
The design brilliance can also be found in the set design. What appears simplistic at the beginning slowly morphs and almost acts as part of the problem as much as the greed of the characters. As Seymour encourages the plant and Mushnik's business to grow, the barebones set allows the space for both to grow and expand in turn. Cast members appear from everywhere in the auditorium: from the voms and back of the stage naturally but also through the orchestra above the scene, from the auditorium doors behind the audience, and from within bins decorating the very edge of the stage, it is by no means a conventional production, which we suppose is apt for this musical.
The set very much grounds the musical in its time as well with careful and consistent use of neon throughout, giving it the much needed '80s feel. The neon throughout is employed cleverly too with certain words of the show's title in the background being lit during specific scenes.
With a story that has been told so many times in so many ways, and songs that have been sung so many times by so many stars, it would be easy for any production of Little Shop of Horrors to feel repetitive or unoriginal. However, this production is far from that, every aspect of this musical will delight you, it's some of the most fun we've ever had in the Crucible theatre, and we think that sums it up perfectly.
Little Shop of Horrors will run at The Crucible until Saturday 18th January, you can buy your tickets to this classic romp on the Sheffield Theatres website here.
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