Man-Eating Plants? Sadistic Singing Dentists? You Can Find Them At The Rhode . . .

by Lisa Adamowicz Kless

I’ve truly enjoyed each Lakeside Players show that I’ve seen thus far, but I’m sorry to say that after attending their production of “Little Shop of Horrors”, I do have a complaint. For days now, I’ve had the lyrics “Little shop…little shop of horrors…little shop…” repeating over and over in my mind. To make matters worse, I don’t remember any of the other lyrics–only those few lines. To quote Ani DiFranco, “I keep hearing that same damn song everywhere I go”! Yet, aside from the maddening musical repetition in my head, I only have positive things to say about the performance from here on.

When I first saw that the Lakeside Players were going to tackle “Little Shop of Horrors”, I have to admit that I wondered how they’d manage. That’s not to say that my expectations of their productions are low–exactly the opposite! I’ve seen enough of their shows to know that the audience is guaranteed to be charmed, touched, thoroughly entertained or amused; sometimes all of the above. However, I also realize that they don’t quite have a modern soundstage to work with, or many of the technical advances that could help when attempting a musical like this. With local theater, sometimes the limitations are such that the audience has to employ suspended belief, and dust off the old childhood skill of using our imaginations. I figured that this would have to be the case with this production. I vaguely remember seeing the movie version when I was younger, so I had a basic idea of the plot. The question I kept going back to was: how would they manage to have a huge talking, moving “plant” on stage? It just didn’t seem feasible. Little did I know, the Lakeside Players were about to impress me.

The night of the show, the elegance and grandeur of the Rhode’s lobby charmed me again as I made my way to the main theater. As I chose a seat and got comfortable, I noticed Carl Rosine wandering amongst the audience in his role as a Skid Row wino, helping to get the crowd warmed up for the show. As I read through the program, a fun little “factoid” jumped out at me–Seymour and Audrey are real life sweethearts! The husband/wife team of Joe Cardamone and Melissa Kelly Cardamone play the duo, so it piqued my interest, to see how that dynamic would play out on stage. Settling in, I also began to wonder about the different techniques the actors would use to bring this musical, and it’s botanical main character, to life. Soon the lights went down, and I decided to just relax and let the actors work their magic. The trio of Ronette (Julie Dietrich), Chiffon (Mackenzie Renner) and Crystal (Spencer Gray) kicked off the play, singing the very song that would later haunt me. We were then introduced to Mr. Mushnik (Tom Amacher), a surly floral shop owner, Audrey (Melissa Kelly Cardamone), his somewhat flighty employee, and Seymour (Joe Cardamone), the nerdy young man that Mr. Mushnik took in as a child, who now serves as his browbeaten assistant. Seymour has a crush on Audrey, so after he finds an unusual plant in a market during a solar eclipse, he takes it back to the shop and names it Audrey II. The problem is, as much as Seymour pines for the human Audrey, she’s stuck in a controlling relationship with a local dentist, Orin Scivello, played by Richard Hagopian. When Mr. Mushnik scolds her for allowing her boyfriend to treat her so badly, Audrey sings about the woes of finding a good man on Skid Row. Now lest you think that the ladies dominate the music in this show, I have to point out that some of the loudest laughter I heard from the audience–mine included–was when the men belted out their numbers. Amacher’s Mr. Mushnik had the crowd rolling with a song and dance routine, and when Hagopian sang Orin Scivello’s signature song about becoming a dentist, laughter resounded throughout the theater. (Steve Martin’s performance of this song does stand out in my memory of the film, and Richard Hagopian did a fine job with it). When the audience was introduced to Audrey II, the carnivorous centerpiece of the musical, I found that I was completely wrong with my earlier assumption. There was no need to simply imagine that Audrey II was “alive”–the prop moved on cue. Cameron Spencer’s spectacular booming bass voice was the final and crowning touch that brought Audrey II to life on stage. As the show progressed and Audrey II grew, thanks to the diet of human “meat” that Seymour fed it, another larger, moving prop was brought in so that the plant from another planet was as menacing as possible. Once again, Spencer’s voice talent was superb as Audrey II grows bigger, bolder and even more belligerent.

Rather than continue on with details of the performance and be a “spoiler”, I’m going to once again urge everyone to go and see for yourselves. All of the actors did a wonderful job with their roles; I simply cannot imagine that you’d be disappointed. In the lobby during intermission, I heard nothing but positive buzz; people were commenting about how good the show was and how much they were enjoying it. There’s still plenty of time to head to the Rhode and catch a performance. In fact, there will even be one on Halloween. So if the thought of sitting in the dentist’s chair terrifies you and plants that move of their own accord creep you out (venus fly trap, anyone?), have they got a show for you…