Act I | Little Shop of Horrors | Pasadena Playhouse

Here is act one of Pasadena Playhouse's production of Little Shop of Horrors, recorded (illegally) from the audience on October 14, 2019.

Running from September 17 to October 20, 2019, as opposed to the off-Broadway revival directed by Michael Mayer, which strived to honor and emulate the tone of Howard Ashman's original production, and which happened to begin previews on the exact same night, Little Shop of Horrors was completely redirected and reconceived from the ground up by director Mike Donahue, with a slightly grittier, contemporary edge. Donahue told Vanity Fair near the beginning of the production: "It’s not like Audrey is on Snapchat. But it’s not like you’re walking into a period version of the 1960s. [Our production] is a little looser than that. The thing I became really excited about was: What if we don’t make any assumptions about how all this is supposed to go? What if we just started working on it as if we’re working on a new play? Yes, it’s sort of a B horror movie, and there’s a lot of deliciousness and fun in that, but what if we don’t think of having to make it schtickier? What if we approach it from a place of it is real and it is pedestrian?”

Coming out of Pasadena Playhouse’s producing artistic director Danny Feldman's desire to stage a production of Little Shop with Mj Rodriguez as Audrey, who would be the first trans woman of color to play the role in a major production, Donahue offered her the part during a lunch meeting. Rodriguez immediately said yes. “But in my head,” she told the LA Times, “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, those are some big shoes to fill. And also I’m a different Audrey. I’m not the Ellen Greene; I’m not the Kerry Butler; I’m not the other Audreys that have been played. I’m a very different Audrey. I’m a woman of color. And that scared me a bit.”

She went on to explain to EW: “Audrey is usually played by a Caucasian cis woman, and that’s not to take anything away from the many amazing women who have played this role and done a wonderful job, but now she’s being played by a black woman, a woman of color, and also a trans woman of color, so already there are so many elements to the character that can be brought out now that she’s a part of a different sector of life. I love diving into dark areas — naturally, I love drama — and I saw Audrey as the perfect character to do that with. So many people see or portray her in a certain way, but I saw so much realism in her. I saw somebody who was being abused, who was being taken advantage of, and yet still had a lot of heart in believing she could get out simply by dreaming.”

The rest of the show was soon reconcieved as well, even down to Audrey II, which strayed far from the path created by original designer Martin P. Robinson, with a completely new design by Sean Cawelti, who told the LA Times: “I wanted to make something that seems alien and extraterrestrial but also that gives an emotional reaction — you can’t help but smile. And when the plant opens its petals for the first time and reveals what’s inside, it’s not inherently scary but surprisingly whimsical and magical.”

According to Donohue, in the same LA Times piece: “The classic look can be nostalgic but also predictable. All of the language that’s in the piece is about how the plant stands out, how it catches people’s eyes immediately when people are walking by. There’s gotta be something about it that, in this drab and depressed and bleak world, just pops.”

The production also follows a recent trend of casting a woman (in this case, Amber Riley) as the voice of the plant. According to Donohue in EW: “One of Amber’s immediate insights was that [Seymour's] never actually had a mother, so [for the plant to be] channeling that energy and preying upon that and finding ways to manipulate and maneuver him by unlocking what kind of presence he needs in his life… I had never thought of that because of how the plant has always been cast, but Amber had that really incredible insight almost immediately,”

Little Shop at the Pasadena Playhouse also stared George Salazar as Seymour, Cheyenne Isabel Wells as Crystal, Brittany Campbell as Ronnette, Tickwanya Jones as Chiffon, Kevin Chamberlin as Mushnik, and Matthew Wilkas as Orin (and others).

Book and lyrics by Howard Ashman. Music by Alan Menken. Direction by Mike Donahue. Choreography by Will B. Bell. Music direction by Darryl Archibald. Puppet direction and design by Sean Cawelti. Scenic Design by Dane Laffrey. Costume design by Danae Iris McQueen. Lighting Design by Josh Epstein. Sound Design by Veronika Vorel.

Based on the film by Roger Corman. Screenplay by Charles Griffith.

Originally produced by the WPA Theatre (Kyle Renick, Producing Director). Originally produced at the Orpheum Theatre, New York City by the WPA Theatre, David Geffen, Cameron Mackintosh, and the Shubert Organization.

TAGS: #MjRodriguez #GeorgeSalazar #LittleShopOfHorrors #LittleShopPasadena #HowardAshman #AlanMenken

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