Little Shop of Horrors recensies
change_status
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

**** van Michael Coveney voor whatsonstage.com. De show is net ook genomineerd voor de Whatonstage Awards in de categorie Best Off West End Production.

It’s “Suddenly Seymour” all over again as this campy, witty, off-Broadway, off-the-wall 1983 musical (based on a Roger Corman horror movie) steams into the Menier for a jolly holiday season: how charmingly appropriate that the heroine endures an abusive relationship with a sado-masochistic dentist and all the principals are dead by the end, swallowed by a man-eating Venus flytrap in a flower shop on Skid Row.

There was always a problem with the musical: it peters out feebly at the end and all that camp knowingness can become wearing after… oh, about ten minutes? The latter problem is neatly sidestepped by director Matthew White, whose leading actors really do come up with sensationally thorough and affecting performances.

Audrey was originally played – in New York and London, and on film – by Ellen Greene as a sort of manically indomitable Fenella Fielding. The more subtly brilliant Sheridan Smith – of Two Pints of Lager, The Royle Family and Grown Ups television fame – plays a funny but deeply injured, possibly anorexic, waif whose delivery of “Somewhere That’s Green” is the show’s emotional heartbeat. Shame that the “green” turns out to be the deep throat of a botanical carnivore, not the trim lawn by a white picket fence.

Her bad boy nemesis, the dentist, is played by the equally brilliant Jasper Britton (who also chips in with a handful of hilariously observed small parts), avoiding the obvious “Elvis” act – as seen in the West Yorkshire Playhouse’s revival four years ago – but still coolly gyrating as the motorbike-riding “leader of the plaque.” The sight of him being asphyxiated inside his own gas mask (still singing, of course) while wielding a spanner-like tooth extractor lends the Christmas message of good will a whole new toothsome meaning; and justifies a lovely rhyme of molars with Holy Rollers.

The lyrics are matched by Disney composer Alan Mencken’s punchy 1950s score of blues, rock and roll and even a witty tango for the shop owner (delightfully played by Barry James, if not Jewish enough) and his newly adopted son, the nerdy but nice shop assistant Seymour (perfectly cast Paul Keating).

There is a huge, unnecessarily cumbersome set by David Farley, but it does have to accommodate the sprouting Audrey II as a day at the flower shop becomes a night of the triffids. The greedy, gobbling voice is that of Mike McShane, whom we also see in his new slim-line manifestation every now and then.

Audrey has her “suddenly last Seymour” moment in the show’s best song before the munching gets serious. Then it’s on to the finale with the fabulous trio of denim-jacketed street girls – Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette (Katie Kerr, Melitsa Nicola and Jenny Fitzpatrick) – ending up where they started, out on the stoop, but with a new choric function as counterpart to the big green seasonal Brussels sprout in the window. No sign of a turkey, though: this one’s a cracker.

  [ # 1 ] 04 December 2006 03:50 PM
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

Best goeie recensies voor de nieuwe musical van het fantastische Menier Chocolate Factory. Hier volgt die van Mark Shenton voor Theatre.com.

After the subtle, intricate pleasures of its rediscovery of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George that transferred to the West End and may be Broadway-bound, Southwark’s Menier Chocolate Factory now goes for broke with a far more in-your-face, aggressively entertaining revival of the cult 1982 musical Little Shop of Horrors. I only hope they don’t literally go broke in the process: I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a fringe production that looks like it has cost quite so much.

Adapted from a 1960 futuristic classic B-movie directed by Roger Corman, the stage musical went from off-Broadway hit to become a 1986 screen musical and has now been brought back to the stage. It has passed through several filters over the years. An attempt to inflate it into a Broadway-sized show in 2003, however, floundered for the fatal lack of charm in the over-scaled surroundings it found itself in.


The Menier now restores the original, intimate impulse that galvanised its creators, the late Howard Ashman (who wrote the book and lyrics, and also directed the original New York production) and Alan Menken (who wrote the music), but with a budget-busting, free-for-all ambition that’s astonishing to find in such a small theatre. There are obviously hopes for the production to have a further and extended life elsewhere; but if so, it will be important to sustain the sense of wonder and excitement that it achieves here.

Little Shop is all about the plant, of course: the programme lists no fewer than 34 people who helped in its construction, from animatronic technicians and mould makers to sculptors and manufacturers of its tendrils and leaves. And without spoiling the surprise of what they’ve achieved, it’s as if Kermit the Frog has been morphed into a dragon-winged mushroom head with teeth, that turns out to have man-eating, global ambitions to devour the world.

But if Audrey II, as the plant is dubbed by the floral assistant Seymour in honour of the girl that he’s smitten with that also works there, is spectacular, so is Audrey I. For a role indelibly associated with Ellen Greene, who created it onstage and subsequently on film, Sheridan Smith now makes a major claim on it all of her own, bringing a ditzy, chesty charm and vulnerability to the role that is heartbreakingly funny and true.

She understands the value of playing her for real and doesn’t impose an interpretive layer of ironic commentary on her part. Instead she trusts Ashman and Menken’s brilliant script and songs to take the audience along with her. It’s a feat that Matthew White’s sometimes over-emphatic direction doesn’t always achieve. Together with Lynn Page’s unyieldingly frantic choreography, it is occasionally too eager to score points of its own. Barry James, who played Seymour in the original London production of the show at the Comedy Theatre in 1983 and now returns as the shop owner Mushnik, is most prey to this, given a frenetic busyness that smacks of desperation.

The Greek-style chorus of girls who provide the running commentary to the action—Katie Kerr’s Chiffon, Melitsa Nicola’s Crystal and Jenny Fitzpatrick’s Ronette—should also learn that less can be more. But Paul Keating (as Seymour) and especially the chameleon-like Jasper Britton (as dentist Orin Scrivello and a fast-changing array of others) bring a better sense of character and purpose to the proceedings.

Ashman and Menken’s effervescent pastiche ‘60s score has a freshness and vivacity undimmed by familiarity, and the show ultimately works its hilarious magic once again.

  [ # 2 ] 04 December 2006 03:56 PM
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

Charles Spencer voor The Daily Telegraph:

This ludicrously entertaining musical, which began life off-Broadway in 1982, is of course complete schlock, but sometimes schlock is just what’s required. Who among us doesn’t occasionally (in my case invariably) prefer the idea of a Krispy Kreme doughnut to a healthy organic salad?

And in the Menier’s smashing revival – greatly superior to the Broadway production I caught three years ago – the euphoria and wit of this musical adaptation of Roger Corman’s 1962 exploitation movie are unmistakable.

It’s the work of Howard Ashman (book and lyrics) and Alan Menken (music), best known for their songs in animated Disney films such as Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast. You can sense the relief with which they both let down their hair here in a piece that allowed them to explore sex and drugs and rock and roll in a manner that would never have been countenanced by Uncle Walt. Ashman, who died of Aids in 1991 at the age of 40, is still much missed. No lyricist has emerged since with quite his gift for neat rhymes and irreverent, tongue-in-cheek humour.

The action is set on Skid Row, New York, at a down-at-heel florist’s where the roses are withering in their vases and customers are almost non-existent. But then the timid assistant Seymour brings back a “strange and interesting” plant he has found, and as it grows and grows and grows, the shop becomes successful and Seymour becomes a star. It looks as though he may even win the love of his deliciously bosomy blonde assistant Audrey, just so long as he manages to wrest her from the cruel arms of her boyfriend, a terrifying sadist of a dentist.

Seymour has a guilty secret, however. Audrey II, as he calls the plant, thrives only when fed with blood, and though his fingers are perpetually covered with Band-Aids, Seymour can no longer supply enough of the stuff. Whole bodies are required, and Orin, the nitrous-oxide-inhaling dentist who just loves to inflict pain, proves only the first victim to disappear down the plant’s gigantic maw.

advertisementThe designer David Farley and a 34-strong technical team have had a ball working on the animatronic Audrey II. We see no fewer than four increasingly large versions of this spectacular, tentacular specimen, evidently closely related to the Venus flytrap but with a revoltingly phallic central tuber and a lid-like mouth covered with sharp teeth. This is a botanical deep throat that can devour a human whole before decorously burping up their hat.

The music is terrific, too, a collection of strong memorable tunes influenced by rock and roll, doo-wop and Tamla Motown, delivered with the help of a three-strong, close-harmony girl-group and a band that is absolutely smoking.

Director Matthew White stages the piece with hurtling pace and a bubbling sense of mischief, and the leading performances are superb. Paul Keating has an appealingly needy nerdiness as the hapless Seymour, Sheridan Smith is delicious enough to eat as the cute Audrey with the terrible self-esteem problem, gurgling delectably whenever she’s complimented. Barry James is memorably sleazy as Mushnik the shop owner, Jasper Britton is in tremendous form, not only as the cruel and charismatic dentist but in almost every other supporting role, Mike McShane supplies Audrey II’s terrifying voice, while Andy Heath is responsible for the excellent puppetry.

This is a superb treat for the festive season, particularly recommended to parents with bolshie adolescents who have outgrown panto, and I’ll be astonished if the show doesn’t transfer, lock, stock and flower-pot, into the West End next spring.

  [ # 3 ] 04 December 2006 03:57 PM
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

*** van Lynn Gardner voor The Guardian:

With his Skid Row florist’s and plant shop on the slide, Mushnik thinks its time to throw in the trowel. But when his weedy orphaned assistant, Seymour, successfully nurtures a strange and exotic plant, business suddenly blooms again. Seymour (Paul Keating) names the plant Audrey II, because of his love for sales assistant Audrey (Sheridan Smith), but the plant turns out to be considerably less sweet-natured than its namesake - always growing faster when fed human blood.
Soon Seymour is caught between his desire for success, fame and the love of Audrey, and the monstrous appetites of Audrey II - whose taste for human flesh is unlimited. A jaunty cross between The Rocky Horror Show, Gardeners’ Question Time and Macbeth, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s musical is all good grisly fun.

There may be a message lurking here about the dangers of feeding our unconscious murderous desires, but Matthew White’s shoestring production certainly isn’t dwelling on them. Instead, it piles on the comedy, makes the most of Ashman’s witty lyrics (although we can’t always hear them too well) and, in Audrey II, produces a giant star - voiced by Mike McShane and animated by puppeteer Andy Heath - who can quite literally grow on you.

The production’s other undoubted hit is Jasper Britton, inflicting painful comedy as Audrey’s sadistic, motorcycling dentist boyfriend; a man who is very much “leader of the plaque,” and who also plays an assortment of other minor characters, each more eccentric than the last.

The intimacy of the Menier ensures that this lightweight evening never looks as wafer-thin as it might in larger premises, and there is never the slightest danger of anyone taking themselves too seriously. The cast camp it up to just the right degree - with Sheridan Smith’s tart with an apple-pie heart genuinely raising a tear as she dreams of an all-American life on a suburban housing estate, endlessly watching reruns of I Love Lucy. It’s not rocket science, it’s not even nourishing plant food, but it’s a hugely enjoyable piece of popular fluff. London may need another musical like it needs a hole in the head, but with low ticket prices and a space where the actors can really connect with the audience, this offers better value that many more high-profile shows.

  [ # 4 ] 04 December 2006 03:59 PM
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

**** van Sam Marlowe voor London Times:

Last year the enterprising Menier presented an exquisite production of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George that transferred to the West End. This Christmas brings another mouth-watering, if less substantial, musical treat. It’s 20 years since the composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman’s sci-fi horror spoof about a monstrous bloodsucking plant was last seen on the London stage. Now it returns in lip-smacking triumph in Matthew White’s exuberantly vulgar production, presided over by a repulsive botanical villain specially designed and built by Artem Ltd.

This creation is the centrepiece of a show that cheerfully feeds off sex, perversion and violence for its irresistible comic energy. Seymour, the nerdy florist’s assistant who nurtures it, names the plant Audrey II after his dream woman, but here it’s scarcely feminine. It is unmistakably phallic, veins bulging, springing into tumescence when freshly fed with human blood, before drooping flaccidly. No wonder Seymour sings “Please grow for me” to the entity that restores his manhood by making him rich and helping him get the girl. But Audrey II is set on global domination — well, what can you expect from a giant penis but a macho will to power?

But enough analysis; essentially the show is just grisly great fun. Seymour’s seedy Skid Row neighbourhood is, in David Farley’s designs, a grimy backstreet of broken glass and trash cans, and White fills it with drunks, crazies and criminals. As its denizens bewail their miserable lot, Lynne Page’s choreography accompanies the gutsy singing with slo-mo scenes of muggings and street scuffles. It’s terrifically slick and witty.

Paul Keating’s Seymour is an affecting Everyschmuck trying to do the right thing in a corrupt and tawdry world. And Sheridan Smith excels as Audrey, his beloved co-worker, whose boyfriend, sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello (a deliciously creepy Jasper Britton), abuses her. Smith’s Audrey is much more than a dumb blonde; sweet-natured, shortsighted but sharp, kooky yet dignified. Her song Somewhere that’s Green, a fantasy of mundane suburban respectability, has an irresistible poignancy, and her comic timing is immaculate.

A trio of sassy doo-wop vocalists (Katie Kerr, Melitsa Nicola, Jenny Fitzpatrick) supply commentary, and Mike McShane voices the killer plant with nasty relish. It’s all daft, and arguably disposable; but it’s as snappy as a Venus flytrap, and when it’s executed with such panache, what can you do but succumb to the groping tendrils of its guilty pleasures.

  [ # 5 ] 04 December 2006 04:00 PM
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

**** van Kieron Quirke voor The Evening Standard:

Witty, slick and always eager to entertain, the cultish charms of Little Shop of Horrors are on full display at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

This is a production that will surprise no established fans, except with its incessant quality, and should win it a whole new raft of admirers.

Though it boasts a record off-Broadway run, this musical hasn’t been seen in London for 20 years. Of course, that hasn’t stopped its popularity growing. The patchy, Hollywoodised Rick Moranis film is one of those you drunkenly awake to in the small hours of the Christmas holidays, and amateur productions have kept its rental scripts in constant circulation these last two decades.

Yet the Menier have spared no expense to prove this show is worthy of greater recognition. Matthew White’s production has little new about it.

It is no lighter, or darker, or more thoughtful than any film fan or amateur theatre buff would expect. Yet from the moment the prologue kicks in, rendered in perfect belting harmony by a low-life all-girl chorus of three, you feel in exceptionally safe hands.

The story is of Seymour (Paul Keating), a shop-boy whose prospects soar when he discovers a plant of uncertain strain. The complication is that the plant’s favoured nutrient is human flesh. The B-movie plot is, naturally, only there to be undermined and the actors assiduously extract giggles from the hoary gags. Jasper Britton enjoys himself too much in a variety of supporting roles, but triumphs in his main cameo, giving the manic, sadist Dentist a slightly pathetic aged rebel quality. Sheridan Smith is the audience’s favourite, provoking laughs seemingly at will as Seymour’s ditsy love interest.

The silliness bleeds into Alan Menken’s pastiche-packed score. Doo-Wop and Motown are the main influences, the chorus’s “shang-a-langs” a perpetual reminder that nothing is to be taken seriously. Of course, the irony can grate, and the tunes get repetitive. The sweet hymn to suburban life, Somewhere Green, and the love duet Suddenly Seymour are welcome breaks in the parody.

Yet it is the plant, brought to life by animatronics and puppetry and voiced by Mike McShane, that inevitably dominates the show, growing over the evening from a seedling into a vegetative Gargantua that fills most of the stage. It’s impressive, a worthy centre-piece to a production which shows that, although this musical has its faults, it can still make a classy, fun show.

  [ # 6 ] 06 February 2007 09:28 PM
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

Eindelijk mijn eigen recensie kunnen schrijven. Het is momenteel op de home page te lezen.

Hebben nog meer mensen deze show gezien?

Volgende maand staat de show voor een besloten periode ook in het West End in het Duke of York’s Theatre. Dit maakt van St. Martin’s Lane even een straat van poppentheater. “Avenue Q” speelt hier namelijk ook!

Ik vond deze show stukken beter dan de versie die ik ooit van V&V Entertainment zag, met Joke de Kruijf en Bill van Dijk. Die deed me niet zo veel.

  [ # 7 ] 06 February 2007 10:48 PM
Avatar
West End Ster
RankRankRankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  2217
Geregistreerd  2003-05-23

Ik zou deze versie heel graag willen zien, ik heb een ontzettende zwak voor het werk van Ashman & Menken, maar ik ben bang dat het er niet van gaat komen. Een paar jaar geleden was Little Shop of Horrors mijn eerste broadwayshow en, met uitzondering van Kerry Butler, een van de beste voorstellingen ooit gezien.

Ik heb net je recensie gelezen en was het niet echt eens met je woordkeus hier en daar. De tandarts is niet masochistisch maar sadistisch. Audrey is degene die eerder masochistische trekjes vertoond, al komt dat eerder door angst dan door een voorliefde voor het hebben van pijn. Daarnaast zou ik de plantenzaak niet louche genoemd hebben, louche heeft toch meer een bijsmaak van ‘hier gebeuren zaken die het daglicht niet kunen verdragen / hier worden illegale spullen verkocht’, onguur volgens Van Dale.
Daarbij is Audrey II geen magische plant, maar gewoon een ordinaire alien met ambities.

Ik beschouw Little Shop of Horrors echter wel als een klein meesterwerk ook al is het misschien slechts escapistisch vermaak, het ontbreken van ‘diepgang’ in een musical sluit de titel ‘meesterwerk’ niet uit. Je recensie riep ook de vraag bij me op, waarom jij Little Shop als escapistisch vermaak beschouwd? Ook de term ‘amusement van de bovenste plank’ klinkt goed, maar wat bedoel je er mee, waarom is Little Shop niet meer dan dat? Door het ontbreken van een happy end in deze show, dat iedereen aan het eind doodgaat en de hele wereld verdoemd is, valt Little Shop voor mij toch buiten het gebruikelijke hokje ‘vermaak / amusement’, daar vallen meer Crazy for You en 42nd Street onder, de echte musical comedies.

Voor mij behoort Little Shop toch echt tot de belangrijkste musicals van de jaren ‘80. Naast Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera en Miss Saigon uit hetzelfde decennium zou ik Little Shop absoluut noemen in het rijtje van musicals die iedere rechtgeaarde musicalliefhebber moet kennen. Ik ben het overigens wel met je eens dat de dood van Ashman een groot verlies is voor het (musical)theater. 

Toen ik Barry James als Cogsworth zag in Beauty and the Beast (in 2001, geloof ik) had ie ook al iets heel erg irritants over zich, maar dat ging meer richting ergeren, was dat hier ook het geval?

  [ # 8 ] 06 February 2007 11:07 PM
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

He, leuk om te horen van iemand die zo gepassioneerd is over deze musical. Dat hoor je niet zo vaak. Jammer dat je deze versie waarschijnlijk niet kan zien. Wat ik heb begrepen van de kenners is hij stukken beter dan de Broadway revival.

Hier zijn kort enkele reacties op je opmerkingen.

k heb net je recensie gelezen en was het niet echt eens met je woordkeus hier en daar. De tandarts is niet masochistisch maar sadistisch. Audrey is degene die eerder masochistische trekjes vertoond, al komt dat eerder door angst dan door een voorliefde voor het hebben van pijn.

Audrey zou ik niet als masochistisch bestempelen. Ze beleefd geen plezier aan pijn, maar lijdt aan een minderwaardigheidscomplex. De tandarts heeft zowel sadistische als masochistische trekken in deze versie.

Daarnaast zou ik de plantenzaak niet louche genoemd hebben, louche heeft toch meer een bijsmaak van ‘hier gebeuren zaken die het daglicht niet kunen verdragen / hier worden illegale spullen verkocht’, onguur volgens Van Dale.

Er gebeuren wel degelijk zaken die het daglicht niet kunnen verdragen in de plantenzaak. Zo worden mensen o.a. in stukjes gehakt om als plantenvoer te dienen.

Daarbij is Audrey II geen magische plant, maar gewoon een ordinaire alien met ambities.

Ik heb het hier over hoe de plant tot leven is gebracht en dat is wel degelijk theatermagie.

het ontbreken van ‘diepgang’ in een musical sluit de titel ‘meesterwerk’ niet uit.

Ik gebruik het woord meesterwerk niet gauw en als ik dat wel doe, dan heeft dat bij mij wel degelijk te maken met een combinatie van diepgang en amusement. Zo beschouw ik bv. West Side Story, Gypsy, Cabaret, Sunday in the Park with George en Caroline or Change als meesterwerken.

de echte musical comedies.

Little Shop valt toch echt in het genre musical comedy, ondanks het einde.

Toen ik Barry James als Cogsworth zag in Beauty and the Beast (in 2001, geloof ik) had ie ook al iets heel erg irritants over zich, maar dat ging meer richting ergeren, was dat hier ook het geval?

Ergeren? Nee. Maar hij was wel heel geloofwaardig als zijn personage.

  [ # 9 ] 12 February 2007 10:13 PM
Avatar
Administrator
RankRankRankRankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  3825
Geregistreerd  2005-07-31

Ik ga verdomme te vroeg naar Londen….. Een week….

Maar misschien kan ik eind maart nog even….

Ben altijd een stiekeme fan van Paul Keating (Tommy, Closer to Heaven en zelfs La Cava….)

   Handtekening   

And all shall know the wonder
Of Purple Summer

http://www.facebook.nl/toneelgroeprhetorica

  [ # 10 ] 13 February 2007 05:39 PM
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  689
Geregistreerd  2005-01-31

Waarom een stiekeme fan?

Ik had Keating hiervoor alleen in kleine rolletjes gezien, t.w. de vreselijke musical “La Cava” en het hemelse toneelstuk “Don Carlos” (regie: Michael Grandage).

“Little Shop” is de eerste productie die ik hem heb zien dragen en dat doet hij heel goed.

Leuke anecdote: Tijdens een van de eerste voorstellingen had hij zijn stem kwijtgeraakt. de understudy was echter nog helemaal niet ingewerkt. Om de voorstelling niet te hoeven af te lassen heeft Keating toen de gehele voorstelling geplaybackt, terwijl de understudy vanuit de coulissen voor hem sprak en zong. Hij was even dus net zo geanimeerd als Audrey II.

Wat ga je trouwens zien? Ik ben vanaf 2 maart ook in Londen.

  [ # 11 ] 19 April 2007 02:26 PM
Ensemble
RankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  77
Geregistreerd  2006-09-04

Dit is echt en geweldige musical. Ik ga er dan ook weer voor de tweede keer heen a.s. zaterdag. Samen met We Will Rock You zeker 1 van mijn favorieten.

  [ # 12 ] 19 April 2007 10:10 PM
Avatar
Alternate
RankRankRankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  661
Geregistreerd  2005-05-05

Ik ga as dinsdag 😊

   Handtekening   

MarcelHensema*TimTeunissen*JobGreuter*Kooten,Spaaij,Bosch*Roosendaal, Boer*Michelle van de Ven*Luuk Ransijn*Marijn Brouwers*Marjolijn Touw*Renee van Wegberg*Rundfunk*Cinderella*The Visit

  [ # 13 ] 20 April 2007 12:43 PM
Ensemble
RankRankRank
Totaal aantal Reacties:  77
Geregistreerd  2006-09-04

[quote author=“jasper050”]Ik ga as dinsdag 😊

Veel plezier 😊
Echt een hele mooie uitvoering.