LITTLE
SHOP OF HORRORS
LADS
at the Tractor Shed Theatre, Latchingdon
15.06.12
An
unlikely hit musical, Little Shop, and its creepy ending is
unrelieved by irony or imagination in the equally unlikely setting of
the Tractor Shed.
But
Kris Rawlinson gives it a high-octane outing, with a brilliant band
and the best Audrey II [that's the strange and unusual plant] I've
seen, voiced by Jon Greaves [a raw, rasping Feed Me] and constructed
by LADS' own enterprising engineers. The glove puppet is nicely
malevolent, while the voracious last incarnation takes up most of the
little shop, but does a great job of gobbling up its victims, with
just the feet dangling from its fangs.
The
humans do their best not to be upstaged by the vegetation: Dan Bavin
as the sadistic Orin, doing a very scary dentist chair routine, Alan
Elkins as the shopkeeper, coming into his own in Be My Son, and Lani
Calvert as the wistful Audrey.
Sam
Toland excels as the clumsy Seymour – his geeky boyish charm is
absolutely right, and the moment when he lets his feelings have full
rein is a highlight of the show, his gauche, warm, affectionate
Suddenly Seymour.
The
vocal trio [Aimee Hart, Jamie-Leigh Royan and Liz Pilgrim] boasts
some superb voices, and the sound picture is often very impressive,
though the acoustic is kinder to the band than to the voices.
Lighting is less professional, I felt, with actors often left in
shadow for key moments.
Kris
Rawlinson directed as well as being MD and playing lead keyboard.
Vicki Bird provided some lovely period choreography, and the show was
produced by Peter Jones.
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