THEATER
Horrors Delicious and Depressing
“Little Shop” back with a vengeance, “Linda Vista” falls fl at
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
“Little Shop of Horrors”
has gone back
to its roots, if you
will, in a smashing,
star-studded Off-Broadway revival,
now planted at the Westside
Theatre, that is easily the most
gleefully entertaining show in New
York right now.
With a cast that features Jonathan
Groff, Christian Borle, and
Tammy Blanchard under the direction
of Michael Mayer, the production
brings high Broadway style to
the intimate 300-seat house. Mayer
has moved away from the downat
heels camp of the 1982 original
and created a hilarious, Trump era
fable of the wages of greed. If only
people in real life had the level of
questioning exhibited by Seymour
Krelborn, the hapless Skid Row
fl orist’s assistant, as he goes on a
killing spree to feed the humaneating
plant Audrey II that has
made him rich and a star. Audrey
II, by the way, also intends to take
over the world. Put very simply, the
metaphorical moral, as expressed
in the last song, is “don’t feed the
plants.” They may look innocent
and entertaining, but it won’t end
well.
Since it fi rst arrived, “Little
Shop…” with music by Alan Menken
and book and lyrics by Howard
Ashman has been a hit. Its
winking perspective and satirical
commentary on the aspirational
nature of mid-1960s conformity —
“there’s plastic on the furniture to
keep it neat and clean” — is part of
its charm, as is the doo-wop- and
Motown-inspired score. Songs like
“Suddenly Seymour” have been
become cabaret and piano bar
standards, and lyrics like “changa
lang, feel the ‘sturm und drang’
in the air” offer a sophistication
that makes the show much more
than simple parody. It is waggish
Off-Broadway sensibility at its best
— and it’s deliciously captured in
this production.
Groff plays Seymour with absolute
sincerity, subsuming his star
quality in the character and making
Jonathan Groff with Audrey II in Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s “Little Shop of Horrors,” directed
by Michael Mayer, at the West Side Theatre Upstairs through January 19.
Jonathan Groff and Christian Borle.
this well-meaning nebbish the
heart of the piece. (Gideon Glick
steps in for him November 5-17.)
Seymour for all his tribulations
has a strong moral compass. He
loves his co-worker, Audrey, played
to perfection by Blanchard, so
much that he’ll kill for her. Well,
not kill actually, but stand by as
the evil dentist Orin Scrivello, who
has physically abused Audrey, asphyxiates
himself with nitrous oxide.
“I can fi nish him with simple
‘laissez-faire,’” Seymour sings.
Borle who plays Scrivello and a variety
of other parts, is at his comic
best here.
EMILIO MADRID
EMILIO MADRID-KUSER
Tom Alan Robbins is terrifi c as
Mushnik, the fl orist who has rescued
Seymour from the streets and
adopts him to protect the revenue
Audrey 2 is generating. Audrey II,
played by a series of puppets that
grow from small to eventually
dominating the stage, is voiced by
Kingsley Leggs and brought to life
by two unseen puppeteers. One of
the more inspired elements of the
show, however, has always been
the three-girl group that provides
commentary on the action — not
to mention close harmony. Played
by Ari Groover, Salome Smith, and
Joy Woods, this trio hits the comedy
and the music with unerring
precision.
With a splendid set by Julian
Crouch, costumes by Tom Broecker,
and puppets by Nicholas Mahon,
everything looks fabulous.
Sound designer Jessica Paz deserves
a special shout out for the
intimate feeling she’s created. No
one sounds amplifi ed, which adds
considerably to the production’s
downtown vibe.
The tickets that remain for this
show will run you more than $200,
but for an evening so joyful, despite
its heavy dose of dark satire, you
might want to dig a little deep.
If you’re going to spend nearly
three hours with a bunch of
characters, by the end you want
to feel you got to know them a little
bit and the journey has been worth
it. Particularly when the lead character
is a mostly misanthropic
anti-hero, the forces that create
and drive him need to be explored
rather than simply sketched.
Tracy Letts’ play “Linda Vista”
takes on toxic masculinity, but it’s
merely a series of set pieces that
show the lead character Wheeler,
a 50-year-old man, going through
a contentious divorce feeling angry
and misunderstood. He alternates
between emotionally lashing out
and sexual self-indulgence. But
Wheeler is not suffi ciently developed
for us to empathize with him.
As he wreaks havoc, his sodden
solipsism casts a pall over virtually
every encounter: he decimates his
relationship with his wife and son,
torches a potential relationship
with Jules, a life coach, emotionally
suffocates Minnie, an Asian
rockabilly waif he tries to save, and
manipulates Anita, a co-worker he
tries to protect from their abusive
boss. None of these characters is
developed either, and the play simply
rambles.
Wheeler doesn’t necessarily require
redemption; in fact, his tragedy
is that he may be beyond that.
A series of expository scenes paint
a picture of an angry man try-
➤ LINDA VISTA, continued on p.31
October 24 - November 6 28 , 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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