“Little Shop of Horrors”

Barking Music and Drama

theBROADWAY Theatre,Barking

1^st November 2008

 

From the moment the doors opened, and we walked into the Dudley Moore Auditorium on Saturday evening, we knew we were in for a great night of entertainment.

The open set looked great, showing the inside of Mr Mushnik’s rather unsuccessful florist shop, surrounded by the derelict landscape of Skid Row. The majority of the Barking MAD cast, dressed as Hobos, Hookers, Derelicts and Winos, were already in the auditorium and were interacting with the audience as they made their way to their seats. Two very attractive young ladies, who played their parts as “Hookers” very convincingly, propositioned me before I managed to get to my seat. However, before I was cajoled into parting with any cash they were chased away by the most authentic drunken Tramp, I have yet to meet. This pre-show entertainment continued as the house lights came down and the music from the superb band started. A booming voice announced, “On the 21^st day of the month of September, in a decade not long before our own. The human race encountered an deadly threat to it’s very existence” as the tempo of the music and my own excitement increased, to my surprise and utter delight the entire chorus burst in song with the title number ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. The chorus sung with confidence and aggression, creating just the right tone and atmosphere for the setting of the show. The opening number was then reprised as a trio, to show off the voices of the three extremely talented girls who played the three street urchins. The balance and harmonies of the girls were perfect and sounded very well rehearsed. How Barking MAD has managed to find three teenagers with such great voices is beyond me.

The story continues with the entrance of Audrey, played by Adriana Casali, or was it Ellen Green? I could not tell the difference. Adriana got the essence of Audrey, the dizzy blonde with a heart of gold, absolutely perfect. Seymour, played by the amazingly funny Simon Fowler, was the key performance of the night. Simon’s comic timing is a delight to watch and just like Adriana, his ‘in character’ singing voice was a delight to listen to. The chemistry between them was electric.. I do hope they had permission from their respective partners to play these parts, as their embrace after ‘Suddenly Seymour’ was extremely seductive!

Mr Mushnik, played by a local community centre manager Tony Lucas, was very convincing as the “bereft and befuddled" florist shop owner. Tony’s best number in the show without doubt was Mushnik and Son. He made this duet with Seymour, one of the funniest songs I have seen since Adriana sang ‘Adelaide’s Lament’ in Guys and Doll way back in 1999. Another very funny member of this cast was Phillip Cable who played the wild and sadistic Dentist Orin Scrivello. I have seen Phillip play more ‘straight’ characters in the past and was very impressed with his comic abilities. Both his songs, ‘I’ll be a Dentist’ and ‘Don’t be fooled’, were very entertaining. His interaction with his fellow cast members during both songs was very well staged without looking over rehearsed. At this point I would like to mention the sound quality, which was very good throughout the whole show, but was exceptionally good when the Dentist was wearing his infamous gas mask, and just shows the professionalism of the technical crew that Barking MAD had put together.

Taking all the performances into account, the star of the show was Audrey II. From the small potted plant carried on by Seymour at the beginning of the show to the enormous man-eater it becomes at the end, it looked, sounded and performed amazingly. The puppeteer gets full marks just for their performance as the small pot plant as it gets it’s first taste of blood during ‘Grow for me’. Simon also gave us an excellent ‘Rod Hull and Emu’ impression during ‘You’ll never know’. I did feel sorry for poor Stephen Gilson, who had to endure sitting in, what must have been, a very hot costume during ‘Get It/ Feed Me!’ I was also amazed, at the end of the show when Daryl Kane showed himself to be the Voice of Audrey II. I know he will not mind me saying this but from the sound of his voice, I was expecting a six-foot ‘Black Guy’ from Detroit to come out, rather them the short and portly white man from Dagenham that we got.

Well done to all the members of Barking Music and Drama both on stage and off. This was one of, if not the best Barking MAD shows I have ever seen. It was a shame it did not have a longer run, as I am sure your audiences would have gotten bigger as the word spread about how good the show was. All the best for your next production.