I love amateur dramatics. I always have and I always will, for the simple reason that those involved do what they do for love and not money and nowhere is this unbridled passion for their craft more evident than in Eastbourne Stagers terrific production of Little Shop of Horrors.
With a cast of two dozen talented teenagers from Dotty and Paul Briant’s company, four versions of the plant, and a five piece band, the show is perfectly formed and, on the huge Mushnik’s Flower Shop set, the stage never looks crowded.
Mr Mushnik (played by Malachi Jones) is on the brink of closing his Skid Row store when his assistant reveals a “strange and interesting” plant that he picked up in the local flower market after a “sudden and unexplained total eclipse of the sun”. Audrey II, named after the shop’s other assistant, turns out to have a taste for blood – human blood – and the more it gets, the bigger it grows.
The shop assistants, Seymour and Audrey, are played by Mcauley Parker and Maia Buckthorpe. Both work hard to develop their characters and their blossoming relationship comes across as totally believable. Taking on the lion’s share of the big musical numbers they both deliver vocally and the audience repay them with very enthusiastic applause.
Kai Burt obviously loves his role as Audrey’s “semi-sadist” dentist boyfriend, Orin Scrivello DDS. Climbing all over the dentist chair, while inhaling the Laughing Gas that most dentists reserve for their patients, and singing how inflicting pain excites him, Kai is obviously having the time of his life.
Providing continuity between scenes, and some very harmonious backing vocals, are Lucy Worrall, Lauren Holmes, Beatrice Frias Del Rio, Emily Davison and Amy Searle – The Urchins. In a succession of fabulous frocks, they really work hard to enhance the production, not only with their vocals but also with very slick choreography.
As Audrey II brings Seymour fame and fortune we meet, in some very impressive “bit-parts”, those who would exploit him. Jess Stoneham as Mrs Luce, Oliver Mead and Jack Berriman as Mr Skip and Mr Snip, Toni Land as Patricia Martin together with the utterly fabulous Lucas Impey as the supremely camp TV Executive, Mr Bernstein, all take turns in trying to cash in on Seymour’s fifteen minutes of fame.
Despite their superb work at making this production as good as it is, sadly the humans have to leave the limelight to the real star of the show – Audrey II. From her humble beginnings as the small plant that Seymour buys for “a dollar 95”, through her various incarnations that finish with a plant that fills almost half of the stage floor, she never fails to impress. With vocals from Roxy Cosham and the puppetry skills of co-director and choreographer Chloe Hurst and her assistants, Audrey II is frighteningly realistic – and very hungry!
The show finishes with heartfelt thanks from the cast to the crew and creatives behind their tremendous production and, as tears flow from those members who are leaving the company this summer, it is obvious that the cast have as much love and respect for their mentors as they have passion for ensuring that their audience gets a fantastic evening out.
**** Four Stars