Review: 5-Star Theatricals’ ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ Sates Theatregoers’ Appetites

The following review is based on the Friday, October 4th opening-night performance when Sammy Linkowski and Steve Greene puppeteered Audrey II in place of Geneviève Flati.

Ventura County’s premier musical theater company, 5-Star Theatricals, is back with its fall spectacular, Little Shop of Horrors, an ideal choice to celebrate a looming Halloween without scaring its observers into oblivion.

That is, unless you’re one of the idiosyncratic characters in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s musical who fall prey to a once-innocuous turned voraciously carnivorous plant, which unapologetically subsists on humans. Still, given that the general tenor more or less echoes the Rick Moranis-starring cult film in 1986, the similarly offbeat and quirky musical is more satirical than it is a horror-filled haunt. And with a premise that especially feels larger-than-life in an intimate theater, the choice to stage this rendition at the 394-seat Scherr Forum Theatre in Thousand Oaks, directed by Brian Kite, has proven to be a shrewd one, in lieu of the usual setting: the 1,800-seat Kavli Theatre.

There’s dark-ish comedy aplenty concerning a bow-tied Seymour Krelborn, an unimpeachably nice but naïve young man, who works at a fledgling flower shop on skid row. He is in the employ of the cantankerous Mr. Mushnick and works alongside Audrey, the object of Seymour’s affection, who is in an abusive relationship with the incorrigible Orin Scrivello, D.D.S.

What may seem like just another addition to the shop’s botanical collection is anything but when a cute Venus flytrap is honorifically named “Audrey II” by Seymour, the caretaker whose altruism begets a booming business and something awful when Audrey II balloons in size and develops a rapacious taste for blood.

Director Kite, choreographer Dana Solimando, and musical director Ryan O’Connell (alongside his vibrant band) pay homage to the classic sights and sounds that a Little Shop enthusiast would expect. There’s no need to modernize it, either, because A) shops in towns such as this still exist, and B) by feeling slightly out of reach in relation to its characters’ comportment, the production retains its escapist, fantastical charm.

Little Shop is a kaleidoscope into a colorful past, or parallel reality, and its recurrent laughs — maximized here with well-timed pratfalls, hyperbole, and slapstick — are increasingly more potent as a result. We love it because it is silly, irreverent, and refuses to play by many of the physical rules of our reality, notwithstanding the time-tested romance of boy-meets-girl.

Fastidiously furnishing the experience is prop designer Alex Choate whose touches complete the moveable brick-and-mortar-suggestive set — surrounded by dilapidated stoops — bringing us smack-dab into the big city’s deep-creviced nooks and crannies. Lighting guru Brandon Baruch draws out the suitably dusty browns, yellows, and reds of the wood-paneled shop, and costume coordinators Chris Steele and Gail Garon ensure all the garb is relatable but also appears as a time capsule of musical theater lore that fans love returning to time and time again.

The image of the affable but bumbling Seymour goes hand in hand with any mere mention of Little Shop of Horrors, which is why it’s essential the characterization doesn’t disappoint. Jared Goldsmith is terrifically cast in the part, towing the difficult line between innocence and outlandishness, never insulting the intelligence of the audience. Consequently, attendees chortle not because they’re judging Seymour, but because they identify with his struggle to live his late-blooming life to the fullest satisfaction. Not to be understated is that Goldsmith sings not necessarily to bowl over listeners but as a means to convey pure emotion, which makes his Seymour as raw and real as it could be played.

Emily Goglia’s Audrey is portrayed as a respectable high-pitched ingénue who, despite her good heart and sweet intentions, is drawn to and trapped by the insensitive, narcissistic, physically hurtful and, in this case, sadistic nightmare dentist, Dr. Scrivello. Goglia, who previously starred in Fox’s Grease, Live!, goes beyond the script and grounds the leopard-print-wearing Audrey with a humanity that offsets her character’s stereotypical traits. For instance, Audrey’s desire for more in life longingly comes forth in “Somewhere That’s Green” and in the spirited awakening, “Suddenly, Seymour” — vocalized stunningly by Goglia.

As the dastardly dentist getting in the way of Seymour and Audrey’s burgeoning love is Tyler Matthew Burk who unrestrainedly gives himself to the role by going all out in his depraved depiction of the pompadour-styled (hair and makeup is by Luis Martinez), black leather-sporting, Elvis-obsessed, and nitrous oxide-addicted antagonist. And just as Steve Martin used comedy to inform his character’s lust for torture, Burk does the same, entertaining ceaselessly even when we know his comeuppance, brushed with irony, is inevitable. Not to mention, the Ventura County-raised performer makes several other captivating appearances as representatives of NBC, Life Magazine, William Morris Agency, and more.

Mr. Mushnik is consummately realized by Jay Brian Winnick who wields his experience as an actor to engagingly emote as the jaded, but now enthusiastically opportunistic shop owner who can’t deny a too-good-to-be-true business strategy. Surely, Mushnik’s heart is a few sizes smaller compared to Seymour’s, though for a moment or two, the audience can’t help but find Mushnik irresistibly amiable — a consequence of how effectively Winnick sells his paternal expressions in “Mushnik and Son.”

If Scrivello doesn’t elicit fear, Audrey II will. For one, the green machine-like puppet really does look and operate like a self-aware serial killer with tendrils for extremities. The puppetry of Sammy Linkowski and Steve Greene impresses with controlled movements and a laudable coordination (Audrey II’s extendable jaw and rippling tongue included) that is almost mesmerizing. In tandem, Mitchell Gerrard Johnson’s incredible voice powers Audrey II with a sentience signifying a vibrato-laden soul and blues, diverting with musical gusto and emphatically demanding more sapient victuals.

The most underrated cast members, as is the case with most Little Shop productions, are the doo-wop narrators — the stylish and sonically superior street urchins. Rezia Landers (Crystal), Luz Rodríguez (Ronette), and Naya Ramsey-Clarke (Chiffon) shine in their own respective way, coming across as essential characters substantializing the happenings — as in the “Skid Row (Downtown)” opening number, “Ya Never Know,” and “The Meek Shall Inherit” — rather than acting as interloping window dressing.

While some theater companies might be compelled to steer away from what makes Little Shop of Horrors the campy, science-fiction farce that it is (with varying results), 5-Star Theatricals brings the musical’s best attributes closer into view, satiating even the most insatiable with a rendering that is tried and true, elevated by a direction and performances that complement the lovably cartoony universe the out-of-this-world narrative exists in.

Cover image caption: Jared Goldsmith and Emily Goglia in 5-Star Theatricals’ production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center in Thousand Oaks, CA. Photo credit: Veronica Slavin

5-Star Theatricals’ production of Little Shop of Horrors runs through Sunday, October 20th. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit 5StarTheatricals.com.