Little Shop of Horrors @ Village Theatres

Play begins at Issaquah Village Theatre on September 14

“Feed me!” Village Theatre kicks off its new season with Little Shop of Horrors, the Howard Ashman/Alan Menken musical based on Roger Corman’s 1960 cult classic film of the same name (which featured a skinny Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient). It’s a Faustian story of corruption, as hapless floral assistant Seymour Krelborn struggles with the moral dilemma of owning a strange plant that’s bringing him fame and fortune, but at the cost of regularly supplying it with human flesh and blood. Yes, it’s a comedy.

This delightful reimagining of the story is a loving send-up/homage of Grade B horror flicks, with a sizeable dollop of wit. Rhyming “shang-a-lang” with “sturm und drang” for example, and giving the show’s backing singers/Greek chorus the names of 60s-era girl groups (Crystal and Ronnette). Among the cast, you’ll find Village Theatre vets Kyle Nicholas Anderson as Seymour and Shanelle Nicole Leonard as his girlfriend Audrey, while the role of the carnivorous plant, Audrey II, is substantial enough that it has to be handled by two, with Kennedy Salters (from the national tour of Waitress: The Musical) providing the vocals, and John David Scott as the puppeteer, manipulating the floral monstrosity as it gets bigger and bigger and bigger…

Ashman and Menken went on to hit the mainstream as the songwriting team of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin; Little Shop of Horrors provides a look at their edgier roots. And remember, whatever they offer you, though they’re stuffing the trough for you, don’t feed the plants!