Little Shop of Horrors (Dynamik Theatre)

Always a joy to spend some time down on Skid Row, well maybe 'a joy' is stretching a point for the location itself where life's a joke and the folks are broke but, this performance of Ashman & Menken's 'Little Shop of Horrors' by Dynamik Theatre is both emotional and gloriously entertaining.

I always hesitate to highlight one particular performance, specifically when every member of the cast are quite frankly outstanding but, there is a Mary Poppins performance, that's 'practically perfect in every way' by Annabel Pilcher as Audrey, I have seen a multitude of performers in this role and she is vying for my top performance award.

You can't have a great Audrey without a similarly impressive Seymour and Ollie Harper is impressively geeky and suitably endearing in the role (you almost want to shout 'tell her how you feel' and that is exactly how it should be, of course he gets there in the end but, not before feeding his voracious floral creation with various items that 'must be fresh and must be blood').

Many musicals need a bit of narration to progress the plot along, it isn't always noticeable and it doesn't have to be just one character, in this case it's three, in the form of 'three worthless ragamuffins', at least that is how Mr Mushnik refers to them, I would prefer to call them three choreographically perfect 'super voices' in the form of Yasmeen Shaaban (Crystal), Lauren Toney (Chiffon) and Emma Neale (Ronnette).

Let's talk about Mr Mushnik, owner of the Skid Row Florist, adopter of orphan Seymour, amateur detective, finding those 'little red dots all over the linoleum', soon to be just more plant food and a triumphant acting (and aging) performance from Jack Higgins.

Mushnik of course is not the first to be fed to the plant, that position is reserved for sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello DDS (.... sorry, I should have mentioned he's a doctor, doctor !), bit of a control freak and played energetically and with just that little bit of evil by Ed Blann.

It's probably going to put me at the top of the hit list that I have left a mention for Audrey II, the plant that is best described by a song from the movie that isn't in the stage musical, that being 'Mean Green Mother from Outer Space' and created by a sublime mix of the puppetry skills of Mitch Brown and the powerful jazz infused voice of Alex Wheatley.

Credit is due in abundance to the team of Jamie Poxon (Artistic Director), Callum Thompson (Musical Director) and the whole of the off-stage team for bringing their skills to what is an amazing piece of musical theatre.

If you want to spend an evening 'somewhere that's green' with Dynamik Theatre and why wouldn't you then book your tickets now as there are only a few performances left and they are selling fast.

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