Theater Review - Little Shop of Horrors: Rhythm and soul

With big-screen versions of Broadway musicals such as Hairspray flexing muscles at the box office and during awards season, it’s bizarre to contemplate that the form was so out of favor in the 1980s that Little Shop of Horrors arguably was the decade’s best movie musical. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman adapted the cheapie horror/comedy for the musical stage in 1982 and also wrote the show-stopping film version. Menken and Ashman went on to provide the songs for such Disney films as Aladdin, and their appreciation of old-school musical virtues kept show tunes alive on the big screen.

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Atlanta Lyric Theatre’s staging of Little Shop of Horrors provides a prime example of finding a diamond in the rough, or maybe a “strange and interesting” plant in a Skid Row flower shop. Just as Menken and Ashman rose far above the cheerfully schlocky material, so does the current production, helmed by the company’s new artistic director, Brandt Blocker, often transcend the modest, chintzy surroundings of the Byers Studio Theatre.

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The opening show of Atlanta Lyric Theatre’s 28th season, Little Shop presents a delightful hybrid of 1950s satire, doo-wop/Motown pastiche and Faustian dark comedy. The small performing space and cheap-looking set look like the stuff of community theater, but the voices are quite impressive, particularly Ardale Shepherd, Felicia Boswell and Taprena Augustine as the chorus of backup singers, tightly choreographed. Googie Uterhardt provides deliciously manic energy as the sadistic dentist and many smaller roles, while Brad Bowden delivers an appropriately powerful, lascivious voice as the growing, carnivorous plant. The plant puppet won’t make anyone forget the work of the Center for Puppetry Arts, but includes the clever touch of leglike roots that give the plant a toady quality.

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As Seymour, the junior florist who performs atrocities to support his plant, Jeff Juday proves to be a satisfying singer, but kind of a stiff comically. He warms up as Seymour becomes increasingly distraught, but seems to miss a lot of opportunities for laughs. He makes a likable pair with Claci Miller’s Audrey, and the pair brings out the pathos in the potentially ridiculous love song, “Suddenly, Seymour.”

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Such tender and joyful moments account for Little Shop’s longevity as a theatrical chestnut. Atlanta Lyric Theatre affirms that this plant is a perennial, although it wouldn’t hurt to transplant the production somewhere else.

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Little Shop of Horrors. Through Sept. 30. $28. Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Byers Studio Theatre, 1705 Commerce Drive. 404-894-9600. www.atlantalyrictheatre.com.