Stage Review: Millennial Theatre’s ‘Little Shop’ Has Its Moments

By J.E. Ballantyne Jr.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – “Something is coming to eat the world whole, so don’t feed the plants,” is the cry from the trio in Millennial Theatre Company’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” once it got going after a late start.

The crazy, looney but very popular musical opened on the Hopewell Theatre stage on Friday night to a near capacity crowd.

The original musical had more of a cult following until the film brought it to mainstream audiences and its popularity skyrocketed. The story takes place at Mushnik’s Flower Shop on Skid Row, which is beyond its last legs until bumbling store employee Seymour Krelborn stumbles on a new and interesting plant.

The plant not only talks but thrives on human blood, which makes it grow at breakneck speed to incredible sizes. Seymour – the lisping, downtrodden, accident-prone shop worker — is excellently played by Edward Bazzell. He puts the meek, inferior quality of Seymour across with never a flinch and punctuates the character in later scenes as Seymour goes through several character changes.

Bazzell never lets the character slip. Musically he has a couple of gems in “Grow for Me” and “Mushnik and Son.”

His fellow employee, Audrey, is given a royal treatment by Hannah Sinclair. Sinclair always turns in dominant performances and this is one of her best. The ditzy blonde Audrey, who dates a sadistic dentist but dreams of a better life, is a sensitive, caring character in the show but just never had the opportunity to achieve any kind of life.

Sinclair delivers that character in a way that grabs the audience from the very start. Her rendition of “Somewhere That’s Green” is underplayed with little to no movement, which pulls the audience into Audrey’s fervent dream of a good life that she will never see. In Act II, her strong belty voice highlights “Suddenly Seymour,” making it one of the memorable moments of the show. She is one of the best Audreys I have seen.

Shop owner Mr. Mushnik, is constantly beleaguered by the incompetence of Seymour and the ditziness of Audrey, making his life nothing but turmoil. Nate Beagle gives a flawless performance as Mushnik. Beagle is one of the prime character actors in Youngstown and he really sinks his teeth into the Mushnik role. He delivers all of Mushnik’s frustrations with occasional takes to the audience, which won him laughs each time. With Bazzell in “Mushnik and Son,” Beagle hits a high note for the evening.

Andy Scott turns in an appropriately nasty and sadistic portrayal of Orin Scrivello, DDS, Audrey’s fear mongering boyfriend. Scott plays the role so broad that he gets laughs aplenty and creates a justifiable reason for his untimely and nasty end. That broad characterization comes to the forefront in “Now (It’s Just the Gas).”

The show’s plot is helped along a bit by a sort of Greek chorus that pops in and out throughout the show, sometimes interacting with characters, sometimes just observing. The trio was made up of Sammie Gurd, Kate Del and Ty Hanes. The original trio in the original show was an all-girl group that played on the girl group types of the 1950s. The makeup of the Millennial group consisted of two girls and a guy. I’ve seen it done like that before. It didn’t work for me before and it didn’t work for me this time.

I found the trio to be a disappointment. Not that they didn’t work hard but it just didn’t seem to fit. On many of their appearances they were more of a distraction than an addition. They should blend with each scene. That blend wasn’t there.

Of course, the main character of the show isn’t even a person – it’s the plant. Joshua Fleming voiced the plant (Audrey II) with appropriate grit and darkness. His line delivery was first-rate along with the build of the characterization of the plant as it grew. Kudos also to puppeteers Paula Stephenson and Sydey Ohlin. They synced Audrey II’s movements well with the dialog.

Credit also needs to be given to a couple of bit actors, Ryan Stewart and Landon Eli, who popped in and out in small walk-on roles. They would have been more fun if you could have heard them.

There are a lot of great performances in this show , but there was one facet that damaged much of it: The canned music was too loud for many of the musical numbers. Plus underscoring was way too dominant. There is a reason it is called underscoring – it plays under dialog. Almost entire pieces of dialog were blotted out, especially in the roles mentioned above. The opening of Act II, “Call Back In the Morning,” was obliterated. That is the curse of canned music in a show. It diminished the hard work and good performances on stage.

The sound imbalance notwithstanding, director Joe Asente has put together a good production, as Millennial usually does. His set design was very effective, depicting the downtrodden, decaying atmosphere of Skid Row and the shabbiness of Mushnik’s shop. Likewise, his lighting design added some effects, color and mood when it was most needed.

I don’t know if Millennial rented the plant puppets or constructed them themselves. But the puppet, in each of its stages, was most effective. The final version is very impressive and topped many productions of this show that I have seen.

“Little Shop of Horrors” continues Oct. 19, 25, 26, Nov. 1, 2 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 20, 27, Nov. 3 at 2 p.m.

Pictured at top: Edward Bazzell and Hannah Sinclair star in Millennial Theatre Company’s “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.