Oh, Horrors

Published 8:00 am Saturday, June 8, 2002

On the 23rd day of the month of September in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence. Creatures from outer space invaded our galaxy. Some of them took the form of plants. This terrifying enemy surfaced as such enemies often do in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places… a flower shop.

This plot of the 1962 Roger Corman black and white B horror film, “The Little Shop of Horrors,” traces the startling tale of Audrey II, a giant carnivorous plant intent on world domination.

Now considered a Corman cult classic (which includes Jack Nicholson in his first role, in the dentist’s chair), the film morphed in 1982 into what the Guide to Musical Theatre calls a “gleefully gruesome musical” by Howard Ashman and Alan Mencken that played on Broadway for 2,209 performances. It was then made into a musical movie that starred Rick Moranis.

“Little Shop” will take on its musical persona again next week at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, complete with 20 Broadway production numbers and the infamous man-eating alien plant.

“This is the second musical WICA Community Theater has done, and the first Broadway show,” said production manager Deana Duncan. “It’s definitely our most ambitious project ever.”

The cast of 11 has been in rehearsal for several months, refining the eccentric characters in the quirky dark comedy and perfecting the song and dance numbers, mostly parodies of 1960s music with the jazz steps of the fifties.

Adam Michard is Seymour, a poor florist’s assistant who purchases one of the alien plants and brings it back to the Mushnik Skid Row florist shop where he works. He tends the plant lovingly, naming it Audrey II after his fellow assistant, Audrey.

Amy Walker plays Audrey, a sweet, vulnerable woman who also works for Mr. Mushnik, portrayed by Kirk Prindle. There is also a sadistic dentist named Orin Scrivello (Rob Mellish) and three doo-wap girls, Crystal, Ronnette, and Chiffon, played by Morgan Bondelid, Kira Keeney, and Henley Slepyan.

Of course there is another lead: Audrey II, who is growing bigger and bigger as she satisfies her hunger by munching on various body parts.

Dwight Zehm is cast in the role of Audrey II and Ryan LePlante is the voice of the plant.

“The plant is actually a puppet,” explained Rob Richardson, who is acting as a consultant on the production because, he said, “I make B horror films and I know the genre.” Richardson’s film “Disembodied” is available on video at Amazon.com.

The plant puppet, Richardson said, is one of about 20 available for the musical on the West Coast.

“We got the best one,” he said. “The first thing we did was rent the plant.”

It takes its form in four stages of puppetry.

“Audrey II starts off in a 12-inch terra cotta pot, moves up to a 24-inch pot and then to something the size of a child’s swimming pool,” Richardson said. “At the end there’s no pot big enough. The plant takes up about a third of the acting space and has vines and tentacles.” That’s when it “takes over the world,” he said.

As for “the guy inside the plant,” Richardson said, “Dwight is phenomenal. We couldn’t ask for a better plant.”

The voice of the plant is, coincidentally, that of actor Ryan LePlante, who said he saw the movie for the first time when he was 6.

“I started to recognize the style of singing, a kind of blues-soul, almost gospel,” LePlante said. The Lake Stevens resident started singing himself when he was 13, and said his WICA role is “a pretty good gig — I don’t have to worry about stage fright, I just have to sit there and sing. Otherwise the plant just talks in growls and chomps.”

Director Cheryl Petosa says she is impressed with LePlant and the rest of her cast, which she said is strong and talented. The Langley High School graduate who has a BA in theater arts has acted in and directed shows throughout Washington, including “Fiddler on the Roof” and “A Christmas Carol” in Bellingham.

“‘Little Shop’ is so technical, incorporating the puppetry and the music, that it’s challenging,” Petosa said. “It’s a fine show, a very good social satire — sad to the point of being hysterically funny. The story is a dance between despair and hope, only to be devoured by evil.”

The devouring is gory, Richardson said.

“Audrey II eats three of the characters plus parts,” he said.

“Little Shop” is also a B movie satire, Petosa said.

“The innocence of Seymour and Audrey are like King Kong and Faye Wray,” she said.

“It’s a very complex show,” she added. “The ’60s were a wild time.”

It is also a very entertaining show, she said. The company has been enjoying the fun of rock and roll music and Broadway style. Costumer Tamar Felton has scoured closets and attics all over the island to outfit the cast in 1960s dress. And Michard has done double duty as Seymour and set builder.

They’ve thought of a motto, too.

“It would be great on a T-shirt,” Petosa said. “Just say no to plants!”