ajhlovestheatre

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

book and lyrics by Howard Ashman

music by Alan Menken

directed by Carrie-Anne Ingrouille

running time: 2 hours including interval 

Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester- until 28 November 2026

https://hopemilltheatre.co.uk/event/little-shop-of-horrors/

Playhouse, Liverpool – 3 December 2026 to 9 January 2027

https://everymanplayhouse.com/event/little-shop-of-horrors/

What is it with Little Shop of Horrors at the moment? Just as the current off-Broadway revival celebrates being the show’s longest ever running version and a critically lauded new staging at Exeter’s Northcott sets out on a mini tour, the Hope Mill Theatre premieres yet another iteration, playing in Manchester before moving on to Liverpool. 

In all honesty, it’s not hard to see the appeal of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman‘s quirky 1982 tuner, inspired by a schlocky Roger Corman B-movie from the 1960s. Little Shop just WORKS. It’s hilariously funny but has so much heart, it feels naughty and subversive but without alienating a family audience, it’s daft but the plot is propulsive and involving, and the score -a joyful amalgam of do-wop, rock’n’roll qnd sentimental showtunes- contains not a single dud. 

Although it could afford to ramp up the tension and sense of much being at stake, particularly in the short second act, director-choreographer Carrie-Anne Ingrouille gets a heck of a lot right, and it is likely to get even better as the run progresses. It’s not quite perfect (yet) but it’s a rollickingly enjoyable time in the theatre, one that will easily convince newcomers to Skid Row that they are watching a modern classic. 

Maisie Smith plays flower shop assistant Audrey, loved by Jed Berry’s timid coworker Seymour but in thrall to her abusive dentist boyfriend (Benjamin Yates), and offers an unusual, but mostly effective, slant on a well-loved role. A million miles from the bubble-headed ditzy blonde originated by Ellen Greene (and subsequently immortalised in the film version), Smith’s Audrey is a sensitive, neurotic young woman, clearly living with ongoing trauma. She’s palpably fragile, and deeply affecting. Playing it so straight robs the role of much of its comedy but the pay-off is that you really care about her as a fully rounded human being from the get-go. Smith sings like an angel. When the show leans into its old school B-movie tropes, Smith, pert and exquisite even when slightly dishevelled, really looks like the heroine from such a film.

In the past, Little Shop of Horrors has come under fire for trivialising domestic abuse but in this version, with this Audrey and this Orin the dentist, that’s hardly a valid accusation. Benjamin Yates as the nitrous-oxide addicted mouth medic is handsome, charismatic….and absolutely deadly. It’s a performance as audacious as it’s athletic and impressive. Once he has revealed himself as an abuser, there’s no attempt to ingratiate himself with the audience or indeed the other characters, and it’s authentically chilling. Jed Berry and Michael Starke are more conventional readings of Seymour and money-grabbing shop owner Mushnik, but they’re both excellent.

 Marcus Ayton is gloriously over-the-top as the voice of giant man-eating plant Audrey Two, although some of the comic and shock value is lost since the manipulators of the giant puppets (designed by Morgan Large, made by Robert Allsopp, and thoroughly marvellous) don’t seem as yet to be able to keep the plant’s ‘mouth’ moving in sync with what’s being sung and said. Rio Maye, Psalms-Nissi Myers-Reid and Gabrielle Davina Smith are huge fun as the trio of attitude-y street urchins who form a sort of full-throated Greek chorus. 

Large’s attractively cluttered set and appropriately vivid costumes, all lit with mood-shifting, colourful flair by Rory Beaton, looks terrific in the small space. The neon sun overhead and general ‘postcard’ look to the show, as well as the accents, seem to indicate, unusually, that this Skid Row (the seedy neighbourhood where Mushnik’s flower shop is situated) is on some point much further West than the show’s conventional New York setting. 

This is a beloved musical done with considerable imagination, freshness and indeed budget. Unless there’s a particularly bold concept in place, such as wth Maria Aberg’s astonishing pre-pandemic Regents Park production set in a forbidding, semi-apocalyptic cityscape with a drag queen as Audrey Two, the smaller scale employed here definitely works best. It’s not truly revelatory and I’ve seen funnier Little Shops (the usually galvanising ‘Meek Shall Inherit’ section falls particularly flat, the actor playing the various agents and managers out to exploit Seymour and his plant coming across as bizarrely aggressive instead of inventive and zany) but it has just enough new insights to delight those who think they know the show very well. Menken’s earwormy music still rocks, Ashman’s lyrics are sassy and witty, the whole thing is preposterous but such great entertainment. The magic persists.