By David Gordon
“Here I come for you,” growls killer plant Audrey II at the end of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s enormously successful musical adaptation of Roger Corman’s B-list ’60’s film “The Little Shop of Horrors.” On Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26, Audrey II will be set to devour the entire Hofstra community in Masquerade Musical Theater Company’s production of “Little Shop,” directed by sophomore Michael Guess.
Audrey II is an alien plant that feeds on human blood and can bring success to nerdy plant shop attendant Seymour Krelborn, living on Skid Row. He desperately loves Audrey (I), his pretty blonde coworker who seems to have more bruises and broken bones in every new scene. Could there be a correlation between them and her violent, sadistic dentist boyfriend?
Guess is a “Little Shop of Horrors,” expert, having worked on the musical five times in various capacities and having seen it “over 50 times, some very good, some very bad…but they’ve never seen a production quite like this.”
His concept begins with casting the role of Audrey II (a puppet usually voiced by a man) with a woman. I’ve never seen nor heard about that being done before; it’s shocking that it never has.
Guess assures me that it has, though he’s never seen it, either. “It turns the story into ‘how far will he [Seymour] go’? Audrey II is the anti-Audrey.” It’s a love triangle piece now, “Seymour and his two women.”
It’s also more dance-heavy than your typical production. Sophomore drama major Chelsea Frati serves as choreographer. “Chelsea creates character-specific choreography,” says Guess.”
Like working on anything, there are always difficulties encountered. Through a variety of circumstances, this production was given one week less to rehearse than previous Masquerade productions. Being a group without a permanent theater, this semester, they’re working in Hofstra USA. Without large wings and backstage space, this is not the ideal theater to put on a full-scale musical. “It’s been very difficult,” says Guess. But the group is dealing with it valiantly.
Days before the show was set to open, they received the puppets which will serve as Audrey II, from germination to…well, wait and see. The largest has been out-of-service for ten years. The design team has essentially rebuilt it and it is now capable of effectively eating the cast.
But will it be able to devour the audience?
We’ll just have to wait and see.