On Saturday night I had the pleasure of seeing Rutgers Camden’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors.” I’ve seen the show before so I was super excited when I heard my school would be doing it. Based on the film by Roger Corman, it is a comedy musical about a man-eating plant. It is the perfect production for the Halloween season. The show centers around Seymour, a clumsy flower shop employee who is desperate to bring business to Mushnik’s flower shop. Seymour knows that his willingness to work in the flower shop is the only reason his adoptive dad keeps him around. With encouragement from his co-worker and crush Audrey, he decides to put his “strange and unusual plant,” the Audrey II in the shop window. In no time business starts booming. He soon realizes his plant has a taste for blood and keeping the Audrey II alive becomes a deadly task.
The cast was led by David Chorzelewski as Seymour and StellaLucia Breannan-Romano as Audrey. These two had remarkable chemistry on stage and made the show thoroughly enjoyable. Even though David had come down with a case of bronchitis and couldn’t sing at the performance I went too, he was a pleasure to watch. He still spoke his lines and danced despite feeling under the weather. StellaLucia was also great as Audrey and was just as delightful as she was funny. Another notable member of the cast was Dionne Grooms-Fields who voiced the Audrey II. It takes a powerful voice to be convincing as a giant man-eating plant and Grooms-Fields definitely delivered. Her singing voice was one of my favorite aspects of the show.
I loved all of the music in the show but some of my favorites were sung by the characters Chiffon, Crystal, and Ronnette. They were on stage for almost every scene and it was hard not to be captivated by them. Their songs helped to move the show along and transition from scene to scene. All three of their voices blended together beautifully. These characters were portrayed by Corinna Thomas, Kelsey Brown, and Chelsea Fields.
If you didn’t have the chance to check out “Little Shop of Horrors” this weekend you definitely missed out. After a long day of work, this show was the comedy relief I needed. Every member of the cast was great and brought their own unique flair to the show. Even though I’ve seen the show before the Rutgers Camden production was in a league of its own.
