‘Little Shop of Horrors’ rises from the dead
If you’re singing in a group and hear the person next to you belt a different note, you are probably doing something wrong.
When Joanna Johnson performs in the Old Lyric Repertory Company’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” it means she’s doing something right.
“I basically get to narrate the show in three-part harmony,” she said. “I love it.”
“Little Shop of Horrors” will close this weekend after a two-week run at the Caine Lyric Theatre. The dark comedy is presented by a company comprised of both USU students and professional actors.
The musical follows Seymour Krelborne whose problems include a dead-end job as a florist in the ghetto, extreme social awkwardness and his inability to tell Audrey, his co-worker, that he is in love with her. Everything changes when he finds a strange plant with a taste for human blood.
“The plant becomes the key to solving all his problems in life, but it comes with a price,” said Lance Rasmussen, an actor in the show.
The musical is based on a cult horror 1960s film with music composed by Alan Menken who is famous for his compositions that appear in Disney animation films.
After running this summer at the Old Lyric Repertory Company, the show has been revived with a mix of new cast members and veterans. The same costumes and sets are used, but some roles have been recast due to actor availability.
“It’s a fundraiser to earn more money for their summer shows,” said Tim Roghaar, a junior majoring in theater arts.
Roghaar, who is part of the show’s ensemble, joined the revival as a new cast member. Though he was nervous about joining a cast that had already performed together, the rehearsal process was enjoyable for him.
“I was really scared, but everyone was very helpful,” he said. “And it’s been good to work with the original cast members who are very talented people. Lots of them are professional actors who have performed beyond an educational level, and it was such a privilege to work with them.”
Johnson, a senior majoring in theater arts, plays Ronette. Johnson spent all summer rehearsing the show but never had the chance to perform, she said.
“I understudied, but I never got to go on,” she said.
Now she plays the role each night. Johnson said, though the same show is performed, the fall production is very different from the one that ran during the summer.
“It was really fun to watch the show kind of come to life over the summer, and then rehearse it again this fall and watch it evolve into a very different show,” she said. “The cast is so different, and we have a different feel about it because it’s Halloween. In a way, it’s the same show, but completely different.”
Roghaar said “Little Shop of Horrors” is a perfect play for the Halloween season.
“October is a great time for it,” Johnson said. “It’s funny, but also dark and creepy. It has a real Halloween spirit about it.”
One of the focal points of the show is the giant plant Seymour raises, named Audrey II. On stage, the plant is a giant puppet, created by OLRC artistic director and USU faculty member Dennis Hassan, who recently completed a sabbatical focused on puppetry. The puppet is large enough that Rasmussen, the actor responsible for the puppet’s movements, is able to fit inside of it, though he is six-foot-five.
“You get to see a couple different versions as the plant grows, and they’re all controlled differently,” he said. “It’s so much fun, because it’s basically a giant mouth and you can be so expressive with it. And it’s just fun to get inside a giant plant and move around. There are a couple songs with a nice jive feel and I really start dancing along with it.”
The plant puppets, which are made primarily out of plastic, foam and lightweight wood, is only a one of the many visual elements that make the production come to life. Rasmussen said all the costumes, props and sets are at the level of a professional company’s props, and many of the actors in the show are professionals.
“It’s not very often you get to see professional actors working onstage during the school year,” he said. “They come for the summer season, but most students aren’t here then. In ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ you get to see some really talented student actors, but also professional actors. It looks and feels like a full professional production.”
Though one actor plays a doo-wop girl, one play an NBC producer and another plays a giant plant, Johnson said “Little Shop of Horrors” is a show with a lot of student appeal.
“It’s funny and it’s goofy but there’s still a lot of emotion packed into it,” said Roghaar.
“It is really funny,” Johnson said. “And not just fart-joke funny. It’s got really clever jokes. And visually it’s beautiful. Besides, everyone loves a musical.”
“Little Shop of Horrors” plays Friday and Saturday at the Old Lyric Theatre, with shows beginning at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets for students are $12 for the evening and $10 for the matinee.
– m.van911@aggiemail.usu.edu