THEATER REVIEWS : RSC’s ‘Little Shop’ Can’t Deliver the Goods

That funky, doo-wop musical “The Little Shop of Horrors” is back again with its man-eating plant from outer space and its Skid Row florists, Audrey and Seymour, a pair of terminally love-starved misfits destined for comic disaster.

This time the show comes to us courtesy of the theater arts department of Rancho Santiago College, which used to run something called the Professional Actors’ Conservatory but which no longer does due to budget cuts.

I bring that up because this production obviously is being used as a training ground for a large company of players who look like they’ve been put on stage to get the hang of it. What “Little Shop” does for them is wonderful. They can use the training. What it does for the rest of us is a little less wonderful.

The show itself offers plenty of offbeat charm, both through its story and its score. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken, the team best known these days for Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” adapted “The Little Shop of Horrors” in 1982 from a Roger Corman cult movie of the same name. They heightened the black comedy and added considerable wit with their bluesy, mock rock tunes.

Seymour, your basic schnook, and Audrey, your basic bimbo, work as clerks in Mushnik’s failing flower shop. He pines for her. She’s stuck on a kinky, motorcycle-riding dentist. The dentist, meanwhile, is stuck on pain and laughing gas and treats her like a human punching bag.

Oh, did I mention the plant?

Growing in the shop is this peculiar-looking plant that Seymour affectionately names Audrey II. He keeps it as a pet. But Audrey II turns out to be dangerously hungry, a secret man-eater that keeps Seymour busy feeding it human blood (mostly his own) and body parts (mostly the dentist’s).

As an exotic nutritionist, Seymour seems to me unmatched in all of musical-theater history, with the exception of that human-meatpie maker Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd.” For low self-esteem equal to Audrey’s, think back to Laura in the Tennessee Williams non-musical “The Glass Menagerie.”

Brian J. McMillen portrays Seymour with straightforward simplicity. Though he lacks a distinctive singing voice, he seems naturally musical and on opening night did not have problems with pitch. Ashlee Lewis brings comic flavor to Audrey, though not enough. And she did have pitch problems.

Jeffrey M. King conveys Mushnik’s ethnic Jewish flavor. Mark Hewitt has a few energetic moments as Orin, the dentist. As Audrey II’s voice and body respectively, Adrian G. D. Lopez and Robert Krueger Jr. combine skills.

Director Sheryl Donchey has staged the production with an eye to ‘50s-period detail. Her choreography for non-dancers also seems savvy. What she can’t overcome, however, are those pesky dead spots of amateur performance: missed cues and lags in timing, to say nothing of technical problems like faulty mikes and uneven lighting.

Oh, did I forget to mention that “Little Shop” is a family musical?

It is. Really.

* “The Little Shop of Horrors,” Phillips Hall Theatre, 1530 W. 17th St., Santa Ana. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. $6-$10. (714) 564-5661. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Melissa Plank: Crystal

Natalie Morales: Chiffon

Terri Jordan: Ronnette

Jeffrey M. King: Mushnik

Brian J. McMillen: Seymour

Ashlee Lewis: Audrey

Jeffrey Hellebrand: Wino

Oanh Nguyen: Wino/Old Man

Tom Brand: Customer

Mark Hewitt: Orin

Erin Davis: Customer

Adrian G. D. Lopez: Audrey II (voice)

Robert Krueger Jr.: Audrey II (plant)

Marc Sanford: Bernstein

Arme Z. Caballero: Skip Snip

Melisa Halfmann: Mrs. Luce

Jeromey Shafer: Patrick Martin

A Rancho Santiago College Theatre Arts Department production. Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman. Music by Alan Menken. Directed and choreographed by Sheryl Donchey. Set design by Chuck Ketter. Lighting design by D. Silvio Volonte. Costume design by Wilma Mickler-Sears. Sound design by Justus Matthews. Makeup design by Barbara Matthews.