Little Shop of Horrors ‘devours’ hearts of audiences

Caitlin Peterson
In Motion Staff Writer

The cast, crew and band shined in Daytona State College’s rendition of the hit Off-Broadway and Broadway musical, “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Presented by the Mike Curb College of Music, Entertainment and Art, the show ran for seven days total in the Gillespy Theater and the audience at the News-Journal Center showed its admiration on the second night by giving the cast a standing ovation.

“We’ve been working on the play since January and since it’s a musical, there was a lot to cover in rehearsals. So we broke them up and some days just focused on dancing, then singing, then acting. It’s been really cool to see people who aren’t singers or dancers by nature to come as far as they have and overall the cast has been really amazing. They’re all very talented actors and learned the lyrics and choreography really quickly,” said stage manager Katy Kleinginna.

“Little Shop of Horrors” is a comedy horror show that’s been devouring the hearts of theater-goers for over 30 years. The main character, Seymour Krelborn (Kerry Roberts), works in a rundown flower shop on Skid Row owned by the cranky Mr. Mushnik (Michael Funaro).

Seymour is madly in love with co-worker Audrey (Joelle Gossman), so when he stumbles upon a large Venus fly trap after an eerie eclipse of the sun, he names it Audrey II, as voiced by Gabriel Hannas and puppeteered by Phillip Wilson.

Seymour has been taking great care of the mysterious plant and wonders why it is dying. Only after pricking his finger does Seymour discover that the plant needs blood to survive. As the caretaker of the growing plant, at first he has to provide for it. As it grows, so does the popularity of Seymour and the flower shop. In the process, Seymour discovers not only is Audrey II a “he,” but he can also talk.

To the tune of ‘Closed for Renovation,’ Seymour spruces up the shop and later sees Audrey’s boyfriend, Orin — the motorcycle driving sadistic dentist played by John Perez — abusing her. The devious plant convinces Seymour to kill and then feed Orin’s body to him and Audrey II eats the villain with ravenous glee.

In Act II, Orin’s death is under investigation and things start to unravel, especially after Mr. Mushnik is also eaten by the plant. After the plant fatally injures the real Audrey, Seymour tries to kill it without success. About to die, Audrey asks to be fed to Audrey II so she can go, as she sung earlier in the play, “Somewhere That’s Green.”

As the plant grows bigger and bolder, Seymour is bombarded with offers of fame and fortune by business people, all hilariously played by Matt Mercer. One of the characters says his company wishes to take leaf cuttings of Audrey II and sell them across America. Discovering that the plant is an alien, Seymour realizes its scheme all along has been world domination.

The musical closes with the final song, “Don’t Feed the Plants,” sung by the full cast, some of whom humorously brought a few audience members on stage and pulled them closer to the plant.

“Little Shop of Horrors” was directed by DSC Theater Professor Samantha Stern.

“I always enjoy working really closely with professor Stern. She has a great rapport with all of the students and she isn’t too hard on them, but everyone definitely knows what she expects,” said Kleinginna.

After the show, the audience waited excitedly in the lobby and cheered as the cast, now out of costume, came down the large staircase.

“It was a crazy experience, people were running out of dressing rooms and changing super quick, but we loved it! Professor Stern pushes me to do ridiculous stuff so she’s the one who makes me funny, really. Everyone was great, but the technical directors are especially amazing. We’re really just the pawns in their game,” said Joelle Gossman.