“Little Shop of Horrors” is one of my all-time favorite musicals, and so I was incredibly excited around this time last year when Williamsburg Players announced they’d be putting it on.  What I didn’t realize at the time was that its run would overlap with the solar eclipse happening on Monday – a celestial event that jumpstarts the action of the play, as a mysterious plant shows up during an unexpected “total eclipse of the Sun”.  Seymour, a lowly employee of the failing Mushnik’s Flower Shop on Skid Row, happens to be the one who finds this mysterious plant.  Apparently, people in the 1960s were far more interested in horticulture than you might think, and the plant essentially does a time period appropriate version of going viral.  Suddenly, Seymour is caring for a national treasure, and becoming rich and famous… and getting the girl… by doing so.  But when that care ends up being a little more, well, complicated than expected, Seymour has to decide just how far he is willing to go to sustain his newfound upward trajectory in life.

No matter the version of this musical that I’ve seen, it is necessarily driven by the charisma of the actor playing Seymour.  In this version, that role is taken on by Jonathan Aspin – and he does not disappoint.  He is a great singer, he molds himself into the low man on the totem pole in every scene, he is clearly head-over-heels-in-puppy-love with his coworker Audrey, and when he is given the opportunity, Aspin can dance!  All this (other than the dancing, which is a delightful surprise later in the play, choreographed brilliantly by Garret Roberts) is set up beautifully in the song “Downtown (Skid Row)”, perhaps Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s first “I wish” song.  Although Seymour is the star and gets his moment in that scene-setting song, it is really an “I wish” for the entire neighborhood in Skid Row – everyone wants out, something better, and feels like, given the right opportunity, they can make it.  This cast executed that song extremely well, and it was probably our favorite ensemble number of the night.

You know that love-interest and coworker Audrey that we mentioned a moment ago?  She is played by the talented Eileen Byrne, who is able to get across the lack of control that comes from being in an abusive relationship through her strong acting.  Her “I wish” song, “Somewhere That’s Green”, gives Byrne the opportunity to show off her singing prowess, and Byrne delivers.  Of course, her dreaming is soon quashed when that abusive boyfriend, Orin, shows up.  The hilariously sadistic dentist Orin is played by Joshua Smith, who does a wonderful job acting evil, while also on nitrous oxide and as such breaks into uncontrollable laughter throughout. 

As Seymour’s star rises with his plant, the owner of the flower shop, Mr. Mushnik, gets nervous that Seymour might take his talents elsewhere.  Mushnik, played by local theater regular John Cauthen (most recently seen by us in The Weir at the Generic Theater), is one of our favorite Cauthen roles to date.  I think every musical could use a good tango, and Cauthen and Aspin pull off “Mushnik and Son” just about perfectly, with Cauthen using his full range of parent-ish pressure tactics, and Aspin bowing to the coercion.  It is one of the most fun moments of the play.

Another element that more musicals could use is a solid Greek chorus, and Janette Clanton, Domiana Johnson, and Melina Llames make up the one for this play.  The roles played by these three are more difficult than they seem, as they toe the line between fourth-wall breaking narrators and characters in the play.  Throw in some very tight harmonies and Garret Roberts’ aforementioned choreography, and Clanton, Johnson, and Llames have a tough test that they soar through with ease.  I have to throw in – just because it was perhaps the most unexpectedly wonderful moment of this version of the play – when Seymour first puts the plant in the window of the store, a customer, played by Alan Darsen, walks past the window and is the first to notice the plant.  His face in that moment alone is worth the price of admission – so funny.  And we cannot forget good ole’ Audrey II, voiced by Marco Gil Harris, whose booming bass provides the mix of charm and threat necessary for the role. 

Will Seymour get out of Skid Row as his heart desires?  Will Audrey get out of her abusive relationship and take control of anything in her life to end up somewhere that’s green?  Will the world survive a plant gone viral?  And will you be able to get “Suddenly Seymour” unstuck from your head before next weekend?  You’ll have to get over to Williamsburg Players in the next few weeks to find out.