Chinatown meets Skid Row in ‘Shop’

A “Little Shop of Horrors” set in Chinatown?

Sounds like fun, and the East West Players’ revival of the boppin’ little musical satire, staged by Glen Chin, lives up to that expectation.

But the fun stems mostly from the show itself and some able actors and musicians -- not from the Chinatown concept, which doesn’t pan out.

The Chinatown setting, announced in the program, is explicitly contradicted in the first big musical number, “Skid Row,” which repeatedly refers to the location of the story as -- Skid Row.

Chinatown and Skid Row could overlap in some cities.

But this production uses a few L.A.-specific references. For example, when abused flower-shop clerk Audrey pines for the dreamy suburb where she someday hopes to settle, she says it won’t be “fancy, like Monterey Park.” Most of the East West audience members will be well aware that L.A.’s Skid Row and Chinatown are not one and the same. East West’s theater in Little Tokyo is located, more or less, between Skid Row and Chinatown, but a freeway serves as a distinct boundary separating Little Tokyo and Skid Row on the south from Chinatown on the north.

Furthermore, Howard Ashman’s book and lyrics for “Little Shop” are openly derisive of everything about Skid Row.

It’s unlikely that the East West management intends to imply that Chinatown is just as bad, but it would be easy to come away from the show with that impression.

Other than the designation in the program, the Chinatown references are mostly confined to decorative touches in Evan A. Bartoletti’s set, which uses bamboo, paper lanterns, screens, a few examples of Chinese lettering and a lot of red in its depiction of the titular shop. Dori Quan’s costumes -- mostly for the female trio of singers who comment on the action -- occasionally reflect the concept too.

The cast is entirely Asian American, but the script hasn’t been changed beyond a sprinkling of place names. And so the flower shop is still run by a man named Mushnik (Dom Magwili), whose vocal inflections sound as if they were descended from somewhere closer to Czechoslovakia than China.

Neighborhood layabouts Chiffon (Ai Goeku), Ronnette (Blythe Matsui) and Crystal (Jenni Selma) and the blood-sucking plant Audrey II (voiced by Alexander Selma) still sing with African American, rhythm ‘n’ blues-flavored sounds.

It probably would have been difficult to obtain the rights to do a more extensive Asian American adaptation of the material and expensive to commission an actual script, but the current version has a halfhearted feeling.

The performances aren’t halfhearted, however.

Samuel Chen, with a boyish look but a bigger-than-boyish voice, is ideal as Seymour, the bespectacled clerk whose pact with the ravenous plant leads to ruin. Kym Hoy’s breathy Audrey is very good too, and Magwili has Mushnik’s gruff mannerisms well in hand.

Ian Shen plays a handful of roles but is most notable as the sadistic dentist, for whom Quan designed ridiculously peekaboo black leather pants that create a few laughs on their own.

A few moments in the lighting and sound designs weren’t executed very precisely on opening night, but this show’s scruffy, comic-book surface doesn’t require the smoothest gloss. And one surprise effect in the grand finale came off beautifully. Scott Nagatani’s overhead band handled Alan Menken’s propulsive rhythms with the requisite drive.

*

‘Little Shop of Horrors’

Where: David Henry Hwang Theater, Union Center for the Arts, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Little Tokyo, L.A.

When: Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m., except no matinee this Saturday

Ends: March 2

Price: $30-$35

Contact: (213) 625-7000

Running Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Samuel Chen...Seymour

Kym Hoy...Audrey

Dom Magwili...Mr. Mushnik

Kurt Kuniyoshi...Audrey II manipulator

Alexander Selma...voice of Audrey II

Ian Shen...Dentist, other roles

Ai Goeku...Chiffon

Blythe Matsui...Ronnette

Jenni Selma...Crystal

Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman. Music by Alan Menken. Directed by Glen Chin. Musical director Scott Nagatani. Set by Evan A. Bartoletti. Costumes by Dori Quan. Lighting by Guido Girardi. Choreography by Betsy Chang.