Here Mr Mushnik's (Forbes Masson) flower shop is struggling to stay open until his employee Seymour (Marc Antolin) discovers a bizarre new plant that appeared out of nowhere during a solar eclipse.
Seymour's in love with co-worker Audrey (Jemima Rooper) and so names the plant Audrey II in her honour; when he cuts himself and accidentally drips blood into Audrey II she thrives, and the huge, unusual plant becomes a popular attraction. With the store suddenly full of customers and Seymour himself a celebrity, in order to keep all that going he has to satisfy the plant's ever-increasing bloodlust while keeping the truth secret. Audrey II becomes a character in her own right, famously singing "Feed Me" to Seymour, and is usually portrayed by a large puppet voiced by an unseen actor.
This is where Aberg deviates most from the traditional staging; puppets are still used as the plant gradually grows, but once Audrey II reveals its true nature it's played by American drag queen Vicky Vox. Vox is both hilarious and menacing in the role, but what makes the big difference is not having Audrey II stuck in one place; she can interact with Seymour as well as popping up in the audience (and sashay down to the stage with FEED ME written on her boots and HERE IT IS on her arse.) It's part of the production's grungy aesthetic (why try for naturalism in a show about a talking plant that eats people?) that sees everything look very obviously plastic and fake, and when colour does start to invade the stage it's overwhelmingly a Day-Glo green. It's like a nod to the original film's extreme low-budget origins (it was always rumoured to have only been made on a bet, although Corman denied it.)
11 years ago the Menier's production in the West End was the first show I went to with my friend Vanessa and her daughter, and we repeated that trip this afternoon. Vanessa was pretty tired but Vox's first appearance immediately perked her right up, although the two disagreed on Matt Willis' performance as Orin, Audrey's sadistic dentist boyfriend: Vanessa didn't like the way he played the part, but Vivienne loved how creepy he was. I have to lean towards the latter, I found him pretty disgusting, but in a way which is appropriate for the villain of the piece: Particularly in 2018 when the show's darkness isn't felt so much in the comedy bloodbath as in the fact that it casually includes a domestic violence subplot, playing Orin as a comic villain doesn't really feel appropriate any more.
Elsewhere there's a very nasty little twist in how, in one of the most famous songs, Audrey wishes to end up with Seymour "Somewhere That's Green" and the way that actually plays out - my first encounter with the musical was the 1986 Frank Oz film with the ending notoriously changed after test screenings, so it's only on stage where that little gut-punch becomes apparent. The story is held together by a Motown-style trio of urchins and Renée Lamb, Christina Modestou and Seyi Omooba take control of the stage from the start, but the real joy in Aberg's production is the way she's embraced the story's schlockiness and chaos - by the curtain call to "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space," as plastic branches take over the stage, massive green beach balls are released into the audience and Rooper stumbles around the grass banks by the stage looking confused, the Apocalypse starts to look like a lot of fun.
Little Shop of Horrors by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, based on the film by Roger Corman and Charles Griffith, is booking until the 22nd of September at the Open Air Theatre, Regents Park.
Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes including interval.
Photo credit: Johan Persson.
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