Want to know a few fun facts about ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ before we talk about the musical? Well, the movie was originally made the 1960’s as a comedy/horror then later remade in 1986 into a musical/comedy. And it was also nominated for numerous awards.
Seymour Krelborn (Dawson Boyd) is the assistant and eventually the adopted son of Mr. Mushnik (Maliq Mamdani) who owns a flower shop on Skid Row. Seymour has always had the hots for a certain employee, Audrey (Annika Wilson) who comes to a cross road: stay in a toxic relationship with Orin Scrivello (Jos Portillo), or go for a cutie “like Seymour!” Seymour initially stumbles upon a bloodthirsty plant with an eye for mischief. Which results in Seymour taking drastic measures to save those he loves.
I got the chance to talk with a few of the lead actors and ask them a few questions! I talked to Dawson Boyd(Seymour), Annika Wilson (Audrey), Jos Portillo(Orin/the Dentist), and Ella De Bulnes (one of the urchins). I asked them each seven questions but the main ones being ‘What did you do to prepare for it’ and ‘Were you excited you got the part’ The first question I asked was ‘What did do you prepare for it?’ Then Dawson answered with “I practiced a lot of a singing. That was the thing I did the most” while Annika went a more technical way saying how she watched a lot of Broadway shows and looked up information about Audrey, Jos changed his mindset a bit saying he needed to ‘think crazy’ and Ella made sure she was resting her voice a lot. The second main question I asked was ‘were you excited you got the part?’ Dawson’s response was “Oh, 100 percent” along with Ella and Jos. Annika answered with “It was very exciting, I wasn’t really expecting to get the main part”.
“We believe the lighting has become a character of it’s own” ~ Mr. Hendricks.
I talked to a few of the teachers who were on the creative team this year, as I had a few questions about the play. One of the questions I asked was: ‘was this a difficult musical to produce?’ And Mr. Hendricks got to answer this one with “It’s quite a process, the biggest challenge was the plant and working out if we had to make it or get it”. Ms. Meshen was asked how she felt about having such a large class and making sure everyone was being utilized. She indicated that her biggest challenge this year is that the original play, like most, was only really made for 9 people. Broadway shows are written for small casts, not large groups.
In this year’s musical theatre class there are 85 kids from grades nine to twelve all with different personalities, who helped to put on ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. Not to mention all the kids who helped with the pit and all the wonderful teachers who organised it!! There where also lots and lots of people who worked over spring break to make this production possible for everyone!
I personally think that this musical turned out amazing! The live pit orchestra was spectacular in each and every show, and all the leads were incredible. The singing, choreography and memorisation of their lines was phenomenal it was so amazing to be apart of it, even if i had a small role!
From the 9 heart wrenching performances, getting up at 6am some days to put on a show for the school or getting there around 5 o’clock at night to put on the late shows for the parents to see how far everyone had come! Whether it be from singing or their dancing, or maybe even there acting! This was definitely a musical to see! And if you didn’t, there is the movie you can always watch but you’d be pretty darn sad that you missed the amazing performances! This, I can guarantee, it will definitely be a hard musical to top in later years!
