GBSC’s ‘Little Shop’ puts its best tendril forward

By Rich Fahey

STONEHAM — If you’re an actor with great comic chops, this is the show for you. How often do you get the chance to play a sadistic dentist overdosing on laughing gas while describing in gruesome detail what he does to his patients?

Or play second fiddle to a huge man-eating plant that also happens to have a killer voice?

Well, you do in the Greater Boston Stage Company’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” the campy horror rock musical based on the 1960 cult black comedy film by B-movie master Roger Corman of the same name that marked Jack Nicholson’s third movie appearance.

The musical debuted off-Broadway in 1982 and ran for five years before getting a Broadway run, and spawned a 1986 movie version with Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene.

GBSC has employed a killer (pun intended) cast all at the top of their games, with great direction by Ilana Ransom Toeplitz, and superb production values, notably Erik D. Diaz’s Skid Row set, Bethany Aiken’s music direction, and Chris Shin’s choreography. The lively production captures the campiness and black humor of the Corman movie while adeptly adding the musical elements and choreography.

The combination of local mainstays and emerging talent combine to tell the tale of a flesh-eating plant that literally – quite literally — changes the lives of people trying to eke out a living in a Skid Row flower shop.

A singing and dancing trio of 1960s street urchins — modeled after the female singing groups of the day — named Crystal (Becky Bass), Ronnette (Pearl Scott), and Chiffon (Cortlandt Barrett) set the scene and provide narration at key points of the story. In fact, the Crystals and the Ronettes were two of the prominent female singing trios of the day.

Seymour Krelborn (Stephen Markarian) is the very definition of a nebbish, toiling for years in the flower shop after being taken in by Mr. Mushnik (Bryan Miner). Seymour despairs  of ever having a real life or meeting a girl while Miner is a hoot, kvetching, muttering in faux Yiddish, and even channeling his inner Tevye at one point in trying to motivate Seymour to work harder and be on time.

They are joined in the shop by Audrey (Kayla Shimizu), an attractive young woman with both low self-esteem and various injuries, being either extremely unlucky or suffering abuse at the hands of a smarmy motorcyclist/ dentist named Orin (Jared Troilo, superb in this and several other roles).

After an eclipse, Seymour comes upon a mysterious plant that appears to be a flytrap of some kind. Seymour names it Audrey II in tribute to the co-worker he admires. Audrey II doesn’t appear to be thriving – that is until it gets a whiff of human blood after Seymour cuts himself.

It begins to vocalize its demand for more “food,” and by then Audrey II is attracting curious customers, Mushnik is ecstatic and the media is flocking to the flower shop to get a look. And Seymour and Audrey – after the curious disappearance of Odin – have become an item.

Markarian’s Seymour skillfully takes nebbishness to the next level, and Shimizu’s’s Audrey captures the vulnerabilities of the character and her desire to go someplace away from the grime and grit of Skid Row (“Somewhere That’s Green.”).

Anthony Pires Jr. gives full voice to Audrey II, and the creature’s various incarnations are operated by puppeteer Sydney T. Grant. It is only a matter of time before Audrey II’s thirst for blood will prove deadly.

Troilo is hilarious playing to our worst fears in “Dentist!” and later as a series of oily characters trying to make a deal with Seymour to capitalize on Audrey II’s ill-gotten fame.   

Howard Ashman, who died in 1991, wrote the book and lyrics and Alan Menken’s bouncy, buoyant score melds such ‘60s genres as doo-wop, R&B, and pop in crafting numbers such as the title tune, “Skid Row (Downtown),” and “Suddenly, Seymour,” and the blackest of black comedy finales, “Don’t Feed The Plants.” The duo, of course, also crafted superb scores for Disney animated classics and Disney works that transferred to the stage.

The capable Aiken leads an orchestra that is more than up to the task of the score and while “Little Shop” is not a dance musical, the movement by Shin – especially with the street urchins – is lovely.

There’s fine work at every turn, including Chelsea Kerl’s costumes, Corey Whittemore’s lighting, John Stone’s sound, and Adelaide Majeski’s properties design.

“Little Shop of Horrors” remains a first-rate, horrifically funny musical tragi-comedy, putting its best tendril forward in its current production at the Greater Boston Stage Company. Remember not to sit too close to Audrey II.

The Greater Boston Stage Company production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken. Directed by Ilana Ransom Toeplitz. At the Greater Boston Stage Company, Stoneham, through June 29. Greaterbostonstage.org

The cast of Greater Boston Stage Company’s “Little Shop of Horrors.” Photo: Nile Scott Studios