It’s two weeks before the official opening night at the Pasadena Playhouse for their production of the Howard Ashman and Alan Menken musical Little Shop of Horrors. The cast has been in the rehearsal room (which in this case is the Carrie Hamilton Theatre) and are on the cusp of moving onto the main stage for the remaining rehearsals before performances begin.
So what do they do? A press event where two songs are previewed (Downtown and Somewhere That’s Green.) Then it was time to talk. So here are excerpts from my conversations with the cast and director of Little Shop of Horrors.
Mj Rodriguez plays Audrey. She is best known for her role as Bianca on Pose.
It was definitely a show I wanted to be a part of. Before this happened I always thought I’d be one of the Ronettes. This is the best surprise I could have gotten. Playing Audrey and being a woman of color and not being a stereotypical blonde, I think we’re stepping out of the range of that and not pinpointing women to be dumb blondes.
George Salazar plays Seymour. He was most recently seen in Broadway’s Be More Chill.
I sang Suddenly Seymour with a trans actress at a NY Civil Liberties Union benefit. From that point on I was telling people I wanted to do Little Shop with a trans actress as Audrey. I felt that made sense and how important I think it is that we do a production like the one we are doing here to normalize everything. We are all human beings just trying to tell stories.
Kevin Chamberlin (Dirty Blonde) plays Mr. Mushnik.
I think it’s very edgy and I hate to use the word “woke,” but it is aware. There are other productions. I think this is the first time it has been done using a trans actress in the role. I hope it is the beginning of a long trend.
Mike Donohue directs the show. He’s the director behind The Legend of Georgia McBride (seen in Los Angeles at the Geffen Playhouse).
I think something we’ve all been thinking about is this show started in this gritty downtown theatre. It’s not a big slick, fancy show. It was written to be dry and toothy. Thinking of that grit has been an important thing for us here.
Amber Riley (London’s Dreamgirls) sings the part of Audrey II (the plant).
After talking to Mike about his vision about what this was going to be, I just jumped at the chance to do it. After all, who doesn’t want to be an alien plant? He wanted to create this world on skid row that looked like this world and I thought that was so intriguing. And what a challenge to play a role sung by a male baritone and I’m a female soprano.
Matthew Wilkas plays Dr. Orin Scrivello. He’s known for his role in Gayby.
I think right now it is a really great time because it’s basically a show about capitalism and how money and greed destroy people and society. There’s a plant that says “you have to feed me human blood” in order to become successful and this guy does that. Today with Trump being President and all that’s going on in the world, we can see how capitalism and money is costing us so much morally.
Chamberlin: It’s a camp classic based on the Roger Corman film. It has the whole theme of this plant brings out the worst in people. The capitalistic greed, to want to kill for fame and success. And it touches everyone in the show – literally and figuratively.
Salazar: It’s equally parts silly, equal parts absurd, equal parts honest and heartbreaking. Menken & Ashman found such a beautiful way for this world to exist in a believable way.
Donohue: It does actually have this profound vulnerability to it. It’s a story about people who are profoundly lonely and isolated because of their circumstances and they are longing for a connection and to feel seen and taken care of and have someone who champions them and roots for them. I find the show surprisingly emotional.
Salazar: What I really appreciate about this production is that this feel likes any street in any town I walk on. For me, being mixed race, it feels really important for young mixed race people, they see themselves represented on stage.
Riley: I think it says, as far as the casting, to look for talent outside of what you may think is the norm. And people are a lot more capable than we give them credit for. Talent comes in all sorts of packages.
Rodriguez: There’s not the challenge of me singing it, but there’s the mental challenge of what people are going to think. Because this is someone totally different and I sing differently. I’ve always had this range, but I haven’t had the ability to do this on a broad scale like this.
Wilkas: I hope it doesn’t feel weird. It makes complete sense to me. I was most excited about the casting, not because it is diverse, but because it felt so right. I think every person in this cast is perfectly suited for their role. I’m excited to see Mj in this – Ellen Greene [who originated the role of Audrey and also played the part in the film version] made it so iconic. Mj’s take is completely different and completely valid and I think will elevate the production and the part as well.
Chamberlin: It’s a testament to the show that it works on the high and the low level. It’s scrappy and it’s also sophisticated. They are saying something timeless.
Little Shop of Horrors has its official opening tonight and will run through October 20th at the Pasadena Playhouse
Main photo: George Salazar in “Little Shop of Horrors” (Photo by Jenny Graham)/All photos courtesy of the Pasadena Playhouse