By Jerome Langston
Arriving at the Wells Theatre on a recent Friday afternoon, I spotted theater artist Melissa Mowry, who directed Virginia Stage Company’s clever and highly entertaining, feminist production of Dracula, just a few months ago — for current season 46. We catch up… while VSC’s producing Artistic Director, Tom Quaintance, is performing marketing stuff with a cast member of Little Shop of Horrors, the final full run show of the season, which he is also directing. Soon after, Tom and I, joined by actor Cree Carrico, who plays Audrey in this cult classic musical, sit around a high table inside the historic Norfolk theatre, and chat about the show. They’re currently a week or so into rehearsals, and Tom quickly remarks that the process is going well. “It’s really exciting to see everything come together, and also terrifying because they’re like ‘oh we’re almost ready to get the thing into tech,’ but it’s going great,” says Tom.
REHEARSAL SCENE: Audrey Seymour (Cree Carrico) and Urchins (Nikki Wilson, Jhayda Washington, ShaaNi Dent) Photo by Samuel Flint
This is the director’s first time mounting a professional production of Little Shop, following a high school production of it that he directed back in the day. “And it is delightful, getting into a room with these talented professionals and discovering it anew,” Tom says. The classic and quirky, two-act musical, has long been a staple of high school theatre. Tom opines that it’s likely due to the show’s flexibility in staging, as well as the music. He worked with Cree in the special one-off performance of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Chrysler Hall last April, as part of the Virginia Arts Festival. Tom was of course the stage director, while Cree played the Beggar Woman. After witnessing her work there, he knew that she’d make a great Audrey — though she nevertheless had to audition for the role, which happened in NYC. “This character, who believes so strongly, has a desire that is so strong, that it is something that drives the play… The idea of working on this show with Cree was very compelling,” Tom adds.
This was the first time since the pandemic began that VSC’s Artistic Director was able to go up to New York to cast a show — this time for both Little Shop of Horrors and Fat Ham. “Doing musical auditions over Zoom, is a drag,” says Tom. Concerning the casting, Tom knew that he needed actors who could really bring it as singers for these roles, but he stayed away from any preconceived idea of how they should each look, or be. “For any of these characters, I didn’t come into it saying ‘this is the kind of actor I’m looking for,’ I came in looking for actors who are gonna tell a great story,” he says.
The show features a cast of ten, and represents the latest collaboration with the NSU Theatre Company. “We’ve developed a long history of working with NSU, as fantastic talent,” says Tom. All three of the street urchins, who serve as narrators for the story, are NSU Theatre associated actors. For the lead role of Seymour, Tom was looking for an actor who could believably convey someone making such questionable choices. “For Seymour, there’s this yearning and hope for something better, and a kind of innocence that is misplaced in skid row, but is what allows him to be taken advantage of, by the plant,” explains Tom.
Little Shop of Horrors premiered off-off-Broadway in May of 1982, before moving to the off-Broadway Orpheum Theatre later that July. It was a huge success, running for 5 years and winning a Drama Deak award, as well as a New York Drama Critics’ Circle award — though its original production was ineligible for the Tony Awards. Based upon the cult-classic, low-budget 1960 horror comedy film, The Little Shop of Horrors, the musical featured a book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, with music by the great Alan Menken. Songs from the show have become musical theatre staples, including “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Suddenly, Seymour.” A subsequent Broadway production, an off-Broadway revival, and even a 1986 film musical of the same name, has led to the show’s enduring popularity, and cultural iconography. The story famously centers on the urban plights of Seymour and Audrey, who both work at a lowly flower shop, alongside a man-eating, overgrown plant. Most know the basic story after all these years — but no real spoilers here. It’s quite the odd story, but it works well as a musical.
“I think Little Shop of Horrors is one of the great musicals, that is both fantastic score, great characters, and it is a story that does not at all feel dated,” says Tom, relatively early in our conversation. Besides the aforementioned Cree Carrico as Audrey, the cast includes Darius Harper portraying Orin & others, while Diego Echeverria De Cordova plays Seymour. And the creative team includes Jeni Schaefer as the show’s costume designer, with Briana Reed as choreographer, and Christopher Tulysewski as puppet designer.
“Most of my career has been in Opera, but my heart has always been in theater,” says Cree to me, a bit later in our chat. She grew up in Detroit, to parents who were both artists. “When my mom retired, she started a youth theatre program, so I grew up in that.” Cree even played Audrey in a high school production of Little Shop, but this is her first professional production of the classic musical. “This job seems particularly fated for me,” she adds, after explaining how her beloved grandmother inspired her pursuit of the role.
One of the main distinctions of this VSC production, is that the Audrey II puppet plant is not being rented, but rather built from scratch, just for this show. And the character is also being voiced by a woman, which is not usual… and both Tom and Cree are enjoying how that changes the gender dynamic of the story. It’s all pointing towards a nice artistic wrap up of the current season. (There will be a couple of short run shows that follow.) Towards the end of our time, Tom reflects on the importance of presenting live theater, regardless of America’s current political and social climate. “I think theater is one of the last places in this increasingly divided world, where people who don’t all feel the same, come into a room, and experience something together.”
WANT TO GO?
Little Shop of Horrors
March 12 – April 6
Presented by Virginia Stage Company
Wells Theatre