After 40 years, Seymour is still the sweet, spineless florist pining for his coworker, Audrey. He’s still misguided as he finds fame and fortune from a plant that can talk, sing and needs human blood to grow.
The Virginia Stage Company’s “Little Shop of Horrors” starts Wednesday and keeps recognizable elements of the popular musical with new twists.
“It is a tremendous amount of foam and fabric and a detailed structure underneath,” director Tom Quaintance said about the Audrey II puppets. Four puppets of intricate metalwork and glow-in-the-dark paint are used, each getting bigger as the story progresses. The largest plant head is 5 by 8 feet and needs two puppeteers to move the massive jaw.
It is traditional to have a man voice Audrey II, but Quaintance cast a woman, which he said adds an interesting dimension to the love triangle.
The show is known for its absurd elements, such as the bloodthirsty plant and the Greek-inspired muses narrating it through song. Quaintance said this production isn’t overly campy and emphasizes the musical’s love story and cautionary tale.
Quaintance, who's been with the company for nearly a decade, calls Little Shop the greatest horror rock opera of all time and is excited to bring it to Norfolk in 2025. Although the play was written 40 years ago, Quaintance feels it could have been written yesterday.
The story is an exploration “about what choices you make today and how that impacts the future,” he said, and how important it is to resist that “sweet-talking monster who says whatever you want to hear.”
Diego Echeverria de Cordova, who plays Seymour, describes his character as sweet and kind but immensely flawed.
“Everyone has felt powerless and suddenly been faced with an opportunity to have some power, and I think that making the incorrect choice or giving into that is immensely human and it’s real,” Echeverria de Cordova said. “Anything you sacrifice of yourself, any dignity and integrity … can create this problematic and terrible thing.”
“In a fun and creepy way,” he said, the show explores “the way we ourselves give power to things that maybe we shouldn’t.”
The production runs March 12 through April 6 at the Wells Theatre in Norfolk. Tickets and information are available at vastage.org.
