Stage : ‘Little Shop’ Fares Well on a Big Stage

It’s called “Little Shop of Horrors” (my italics). It started small, and became a success off-Broadway, not on. Its first appearance in Los Angeles was at the 499-seat Westwood Playhouse.

How would it fly at the 3,054-seat Terrace Theater, where the Long Beach Civic Light Opera operates?

At least from my well-placed seat, this bright and bouncy musical spoof about a cunning man-eating plant, who threatens American complacency in the Kennedy era, fares very well.

On opening night, there were the apparently inevitable problems with the sound quality; words were obscured here and there in this harsh sonic environment. But the flower shop fits nicely within a frame that depicts the larger environs of Skid Row, and director Glenn Casale has assembled a first-class production that jets us past the more muffled lyrics with ease.

Dom DeLuise headlines as hapless florist Mr. Mushnik, dishing out the wisecracks with Yiddish-flavored flair. But his role is hardly the biggest.

That title might go to Mushnik’s clerk Seymour, enacted here by Willy Falk, who looks properly naive and unkempt but has a voice big enough to fill the hall. Or it might go to Audrey II, the jive-talking, bloodthirsty “vegetable” who grows throughout the course of the evening. Audrey II’s voice comes from Ken Page, her movements from puppeteer Todd Larsen, and she’s a gas, as always.

Eydie Alyson plays dim-witted Audrey I, who dreams of cooking like Betty Crocker and looking like Donna Reed, in the manner created by Ellen Greene in play and movie. She does it very well.

Joe Kane is a hissable “leader of the plaque”, and the girl-group Greek chorus (Marion Ramsey, Karole Foreman, Phylliss Bailey) bops breezily through Jeffrey Polk’s choreography.

Since the last major Los Angeles County production, the movie has appeared on big screens and small, and theatergoers may wonder if the play is worth the extra effort. Without giving anything away, let’s just say that the play has a more outrageous ending. The literal-minded may view it as more downbeat, but it packs a bigger blast of satirical energy than the movie ending. It’s a theatrical coup that would be hard to reproduce on a screen of any size.

Parents of small children also should be advised that this show isn’t for little kids, unless you’re willing to run the risk of traumatizing them about dentists and those strange-looking plants in the garden.

Karole Foreman: Chiffon

Marion Ramsey: Crystal

Phylliss Bailey: Ronnette

Dom DeLuise: Mushnik

Eydie Alyson: Audrey

Willy Falk: Seymour

Scott T. Stevens: Wally

Arlene Allan: Betty

Eric Clausell: Larry

Joe Kane: Orrin, Bernstein, Snip, Luce, Martin

Todd Larsen: Audrey II (Puppeteer)

Ken Page: Audrey II (Voice)

A Long Beach Civic Light Opera production. Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman. Music by Alan Menken. Directed by Glenn Casale. Choreographed by musical director Dennis Castellano. Choreographer Jeffrey Polk. Sets Paul Wonsek. Costumes Garland Riddle. Lights/scenic consultant Douglas D. Smith. Sound Jonathan Deans. Hair/makeup Elena M. Breckenridge. Production manager Donald Hill. Stage manager Susan Slagle.