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Photos by Barrie White-Miller
“How does it grow, Grandad?”
The stuff of nightmares for some of the tinies in the
matinée audience for Young Gen's terrific production
of that grisly, twisted musical Little Shop of Horrors.
A great soundscape, a somewhat flat set, with the
band at an upper window, took us down Skid Row, to
watch a florist's fortunes revived by a strange and
interesting plant, thirsty for human blood and world
domination.
There's a boy meets girl plot in there too, struggling to
get past the weirdness, as geeky, increasingly
anaemic Seymour [ a superb characterization from
Sam Pridige ] wins the heart of leggy seedling Audrey,
engagingly played in a girlish whisper by Annabel
Bond. Her wistful yearning for Somewhere That's
Green was a high point of a consistently stylish show.
Sam Toland put everything into the sadistic dentist,
and Kevin Jarvis was a gravel-voiced Mushnik. Very
watchable star cameos from a quick-changing Callum
Crisell in Act Two, and an invisible Bart Lambert
provided Audrey II [the man-eating flytrap] with a vivid
vocal presence.
There were some lovely moments in Jeremy Tustin's
production, - the newspapers, the faces at the window
– and I especially admired the use of the urchins, and
the talented backing group [Crystal, Ronette and
company] whose fancy harmonies and cool dance
moves were a constant delight.
Michael Gray
NODA Review