Before we jump into this week’s post, I just found out yesterday that The Muny theater in St. Louis is planning a production of Chess (yes, the show I covered a few weeks back with no cohesive plot but pretty good music about the two chess players during the Cold War) for this July. Sadly, the show opens after this class ends, but I can’t wait to see what they do with the story in terms of making it socially acceptable for the current era.

Moving on to this week’s show, The Muny’s 2023 season also includes a revival of Little Shop of Horrors, which I saw last November off-Broadway. It was the first show I went in to without knowing much about it, and it exceeded my expectations for three reasons: the smaller theater, (mostly) exceptional cast, and mesmerizing set. First, since it was an off-Broadway theater, it was slightly smaller, which added a lot to the experience since I got to be less than 10 feet away from THE Jeremy Jordan. Second, the cast included both Christian Borle (who I knew from Legally Blonde and Falsettos) and Jeremy Jordan (Newsies, Bonnie and Clyde, Waitress). Sadly, the actress playing Audrey didn’t quite fit the role due to her limited vocal range, but now Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Legally Blonde: Search for the Next Elle Woods) has taken over the role, and that casting choice makes a lot more sense in my opinion. Third, I’m a sucker for clever scenic design, and this production has just a few simple set pieces that transform into many different scenes.

Little Shop of Horrors is based on a 1960 film by the same name. It is a horror/comedy rock musical with Motown-inspired music by Alan Menken (who worked on the music for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Enchanted, Tangled, and more) set in a 1960s skid row. Seymour and Audrey are co-workers at Mr. Mushnik’s flower shop, and while Seymour is secretly in love with Audrey, Audrey is in an abusive relationship with a sadistic dentist. After a sudden eclipse of the sun, Seymour discovers a strange venus fly trap. He takes care of it like a normal plant to no avail. Finally, he realizes that the plant only grows when fed with human blood. Chaos ensues, Seymour kills Audrey’s abusive boyfriend at a dentist appointment and feeds him to the plant, the flower shop becomes famous for having this huge venus fly trap (which Seymour named Audrey II after Audrey), and in the end everyone gets eaten by Audrey II. There are a lot of small details I left out, but for the sake of not spoiling the fun parts, that’s the gist of the show. The horror and comedy surprisingly work together perfectly, such as the silly revelation that Audrey’s boyfriend is a dentist (in the aptly titled song “Dentist!”) followed by his terrifying asphyxiation via nitrous oxide. Somehow, it’s still funny.

Listen to “Grow for Me” (specifically the Jeremy Jordan version) for a fun, dance-worthy number about Seymour discovering the plant eats blood. Listen to “Suddenly Seymour” for a powerful love song with just a few weird lyrics (not bad for the 60s). Listen to “Mushnik & Son” for a tango about the bond of chosen family (sort of). The whole cast recording is good–with no skips and a few really good songs–so I highly suggest it as background music for doing homework.

And whatever you do… “Don’t feed the plants!”