This weekend, the Saint Louis University Theatre takes a bite out of the University theater season.
SLU Theatre is presenting a production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” the rock musical based on the 1960 Roger Corman film of the same name and featuring songs by composer Alan Menken, to the main stage in Xavier Hall.
“Little Shop of Horrors,” directed in this production by Ben Nordstrom, throws the audience into the life of Seymour, played by freshman Greg Cuellar, a down on his luck floral assistant, who works in a rundown flower shop on skid row. The shop owner, Mr. Mushnik, senior Christian Vieira, is at his wit’s end with the lack of business. That is, until Seymour and, in turn, the flower shop, become an overnight sensation through his discovery of an exotic plant that appeared after a total eclipse of the sun.
Seymour names the plant Audrey II, after his long-time crush and fellow shop assistant, Audrey, junior Marcy Weigert. Though quickly obtaining fortune, riches and fame from this exotic plant, he soon discovers its strange appetite for human flesh and blood.
While “Little Shop of Horrors” is, first and foremost, a horror comedy, Cuellar believes that the love story between his character, Seymour-who he insists is just misunderstood, not a nerd-and Audrey is the most compelling part of the musical.
“This is such a powerful story, with so many lessons about love,” he said. “Besides all that, I’m a sap for an old fashioned love story. . My character is just an innocent guy in love.”
Though Seymour doesn’t initially tell anyone what sustains the plant, a ’50s style girl group-senior Katie Schiermeyer, junior Samantha Affram and freshman Kate Winderman-narrate for the audience and serve as a sort of Greek chorus throughout the play. Seymour gives into the plant’s cravings, providing a few drops of blood each day, until Audrey II becomes too big for mere drops, too big for the shop itself and begins eating people whole.
Audrey II, realized on the stage as a puppet operated from inside by junior Justin Leibrecht, grows into a larger than life, R&B singing carnivore, insisting Seymour quench his hunger every hour of the day in a musical number, “Feed Him.”
Weigert agrees that the connection between the characters of Audrey and Seymour outshines the outrageous parts of the show and is excited to be playing a different kind of role.
“Audrey is so different than any character I’ve ever played,” she said. “I get to explore a more broken, fragile girl, almost a ‘damsel in distress’ at times,?who is just looking for a better life.”
Performances will be held this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. They will resume next Friday, February 27, and Saturday, February 28, at 8 p.m., with a final show on Sunday, March 1, at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance or on the night of the shows at the University Theatre box office in Xavier Hall. General admission is $10, and student tickets are $7. Visit www.slu.edu/theatre for more information, including prices, shows and the SLU Theatre season.
