With sweet understanding, Paramount opens up a big-box ‘Little Shop of Horrors’
Jack Ball. Photo by Liz Lauren.
In her mega-house directorial debut having helmed successes in the city and suburbs, Chicagoland stage favorite Landree Fleming’s Little Shop of Horrors at Paramount Theatre delivers a vocal and visual delight.
This production is set proudly in near-future New York, where creepy hyperbole and slapstick reign. It’s a well-known, preposterous story of a skid-row florist, Mr. Mushnik, and his employees, doofus Seymour and damaged Audrey. Their burgeoning love, her masochistic dentist/boyfriend who gets what’s coming, a total eclipse of the sun, an adoption, and the mother of all flytraps—all wrapped in a gorgeous Alan Menken/Howard Ashman songbook, and cause for a damn enjoyable trip to Aurora.
There’s a reviewer’s check-off for every staging of the oft-produced Little Shop, and two songs on list the Broadway cabaret canon must be sung extraordinarily well. No suspense here; they are. Teressa LaGamba absolutely slays Audrey’s ballad, "Somewhere That's Green." And beyond her powerhouse vocals, she puts forth a gritty-yet-vulnerable Audrey that’s more noticeably “skid row” than others’ depictions. Kudos to both Fleming and LaGamba for that. The ballad-to-belty Audrey/Seymour duet, "Suddenly Seymour" totally stuns. Fresh from Broadway, following a stint on Broadway in Book of Mormon, give a warm Chicagoland welcome to Jack Ball. He pulls off a slightly more greedily sinister Seymour than others’ takes while leaving his strong vocal mark on the whole show.
Also emblazoning his indelibly unique stamp on a character audiences thought they knew is Chicagoland’s (and this reviewer’s) favorite, Gene Weygandt as Mr. Mushnik. His ease on stage in all he does, including some hilarious, spot-on vocals in “Mushnik & Son” (among others), is a hallmark of this production.
Teressa LaGamba. Photo by Liz Lauren.
Add to these highlights the fabulous chorus of street Urchins, Crystal (Marta Bady) Ronnette, (Tickwanya Jones); and Chiffon, (the incomparable Lydia Burke). These ladies dazzle in tight harmony.
Less glam, but no less wham-bam: Russell Mernagh is a terrifically oily Orin Scrivello, DDS, with a hilarious “Dentist” and “Now (It’s Just the Gas).”
Finally, front and center, the carnivorous Audrey II is brilliantly, toothily designed by Jesse Gaffney with consultation from Simone Tegge and Mike Oleon, created by Skylight Music Theatre and operated onstage by Adam Fane. The plant’s eerie voice is the work of Je’Shaun Jackson. Not to be overlooked is the taken-for-granted prowess of scenic designer Jeffrey K. Kmiec and music director/conductor Kory Danielson, whose visuals and music, respectively, are Paramount-standard excellence.
Among this reviewer’s particularly delightful takeaways from this production was the opportunity to sit directly in front of the director and her friends on opening night. It was as though she was watching her show for the first time, enjoying the moment, buoyed by the work and people she loves. Here’s believing this is her taking the next step, following in the footsteps of local, female directing luminaries Rachel Rockwell and Amber Mak. Landree Fleming, all the world’s your stage.
Little Shop of Horrors runs through Oct. 15th at Paramount Theatre, 23 East Galena Blvd., Aurora, IL. For tickets or more information, please call (630) 896-6666 or visit paramountaurora.com.
For more reviews on this or other shows, please visit theatreinchicago.com.