REVIEW - Little Shop of Horrors is a feast not to be missed!

We were invited to see Little Shop of Horrors at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester. Read what our reviewer Karen Ryder had to say about this fantastic, must-see show...

It might not be the 23rd day of the month of September, but something wickedly wonderful is definitely brewing at Hope Mill Theatre!  Little Shop of Horrors has brought Skid Row to Manchester and its inhabitants are just dying to meet you.  Little Shop of Horrors devotees don’t really need coaxing, they’ll flock to any production going, eager to reunite with the glorious Audrey, the misguided Seymour, our dodgy dentist, and of course the phenomenon that is Audrey II.  What I can tell them, is that this production delivers everything they crave for!  And if you’ve never seen the show before, or have no idea who these people are, come along, be welcomed into a thirsty new world where plants talk, dentists get high, and fame and fortune are just within reach, so long as you’re prepared to do the unthinkable!  This major new revival produced by Thomas Hopkins Productions and SAMS Entertainment, is in partnership with Hope Mill Theatre, and this trio have harmonised as beautifully as our singing narrators Crystal, Ronnette and Chiffon, to spoil us with an experience that people will be talking about for a long time to come.

Skid Row is a bleak, battered corner of New York where dreams tend to shrivel faster than the flowers in Mr. Mushnik’s window.  Hard work means very little here.  It isn’t appreciated, simply expected as the norm and it doesn’t magically fix anything.  Life is impossibly bleak and dreams have no expectations of coming true.  Unless of course, you happen to stumble across a mysterious extraterrestrial plant after a total eclipse of the sun, that has a taste for human blood.  In that situation, then maybe, just maybe, fame and fortune might be within reach.  You might have to trade your morals and sell your soul, but you’d do anything to make your dreams come true, and protect the one you love, right?  Seymour, a shy and unlucky shop assistant, works alongside Audrey in Mushnik’s failing florist.  He’s broke, overlooked, and quietly besotted with Audrey who is trapped in a relationship with the overbearing Orin, a dentist who delights in causing pain.  Audrey’s self‑worth is so low she believes Orin is the best she can hope for.  Everything changes when Seymour brings home an unusual looking plant.  As its other world appearance draws in curious customers and a wave of media attention, Seymour starts to experience the kind of life he always dreamed of.  He must keep this curious little plant alive by any means possible, even if that means blood!  But this plant is hungry, and perhaps Seymour has bitten off more than he can chew.

With a show as beloved as Little Shop of Horrors, it takes real mastery to honour what audiences already adore while still injecting something fresh, bold, and unmistakably new. Carrie‑Anne Ingrouille, of global SIX fame, has directed and choreographed this revival with invigorating passion, fabulous flair, and a triumphant sense of purpose.  With set, costume, and puppet design by Morgan Large, the show couldn’t be in safer hands.  A huge neon ‘Skid Row’ dominates the stage, cleverly using the letters uneven dimensions to represent the typical run down life its people inhabit.  They form the walls to Mr. Mushnik’s flower shop, drawn together by a door that leads us to a whole other world.  As if that’s not visually impressive enough, the letters are doubled as screens showing a greyscale life on skid row, all outlined and illuminated in a blood thirsty red neon!  It is visually striking and theatrically brilliant!  Then, they open up to reveal the world of Mushnik’s flower shop, jam packed with wonderful details that could keep you engaged for hours!  It gives the slums all the glitz and showbiz glamour that Little Shop Of Horror exudes, making us fall in love with this production before it has even begun!  Lighting by Rory Beaton is sensational and adds to the ambience wonderfully.  From the flashing lights that twine and vine their way through the theatre, representing Audrey II’s roots, to a perfectly timed total eclipse of the sun plunging the theatre into blackout, or the way that the lights on the letters ‘skid row’ keep switching from working to broken, completing the vibe that this actually is skid row, and here, neon signs would never have all their letters working and lit!   

This cast are utterly brilliant!  I cannot emphasise that enough.  They make these characters, who live in a world of alien plants that eat people, real, relatable, and so full of layered personality, that each of them is a gift that keep on giving.  From their first to last moment, everything is carefully considered and brought to life in continually brilliant ways, from the smallest nuanced detail to the bigger spotlighted highlights.  Every moment is treated with the same gravitas and it is incredible to behold.  This displays trust between director and cast, who have the freedom to embody their characters in playful and delicious ways.  Jed Berry (Back To The Future, Shucked, The Book Of Mormon) is our lovestruck Seymour and made me laugh so hard, I actually spat my tea out mid show!  Embarrassing?  Yes!  But totally worth it!  His comic timing and the sheer delight with which he inhabits this geeky character with pride makes everything so funny and heartfelt.  His dancing, his movements, his facial expressions, it is sheer joy, and we see a Seymour who seems to feel pretty comfortable in his own nerdy skin!  And I love this interpretation.  Yes, he wants more for himself, but he would still be the same Seymour no matter what.  Maisie Smith (EastEnders, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strictly finalist) is our spirited Audrey and I love that she is not played as a dumb gal who can’t think for herself and needs a man to survive.  Her bad choices come from self-esteem issues, not naivety and we see a vulnerable side to Audrey beyond her relationships.  Her use of pause in comedy is so well timed that her face speaks a thousand words in those anticipated moments of silence and we lapped it up! 

Michael Starke (Two, Inside Number 9, Coronation Street) is the downtrodden Mr. Mushnik who makes us laugh with his vocal agility, finding the funny at every opportunity and delivering it with a rollercoaster of vocal skills, meaning he can take himself from calm, to stressed and back again within one word!  His scenes with Berry are full of charm and we can’t help but love Mr. Mushnik in Starkes hands, even when he is using our beloved Seymour for fortune and fame!  Psalms‑Nissi Myers‑Reid (&Juliet, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Matilda), Gabrielle Davina Smith (Matilda, Sister Act, Hairspray), and Rio Maye (Grease, Fame, Marie Curie) are our delightful divas Crystal, Ronnette and Chiffon.  They open the show with killer vocals, and their faces are stunningly expressive, telling the story and setting the mood to perfection.  They continually pitch their entrances and exits with a variety of sass, humour, and exquisite timing.  They really are flawless!   

Benjamin Yates (The Wizard Of Oz, Jersey Boys, Emmerdale) brings us the rock n’ roll villain Orin Scrivello, otherwise known as the dentist from hell!  He is full of charisma, sprinkled with danger, and topped off with bucketfuls of talent as he struts his stuff effortlessly across the stage, teasing the audience and bringing the house down!  He brings us a wickedly confident character who we all love to hate and then love again.  Not forgetting the iconic voice of Marcus Ayton (The Drifters Girl, Wizard Of Oz, Shrek) as Audrey II who belts out impressive song after song as his voice rings gloriously through the theatre, totally making us believe this plant is real!  The same believability can be said for Audrey II puppeteers Christopher Dobson, Julia Frost, and Imogen Khan.  The coordination, mesmerising lip curls, and swagger that they somehow bring to the plant is hypnotic!  They make it utterly believable that Audrey II is capable of persuading a sweet soul like Seymour to kill!

Little Shop Of Horrors has long been one of my favourite shows, and this production has made me fall in love with it all over again.  The music has always been the highlight for me, but I have to say, tonight it shook hands with the level of humour and characterisation, embracing them as equals!  The direction was, excuse the pun, out of this world!  This feels like a complete team of cast and creatives who have had, and are still having, the time of theirs lives, and they want you to join them.  It isn’t exclusive, you are not shut out of the fun.  They want you to inhabit it the way they have, and that brings a beautiful aura of pride.  And proud is exactly what everyone should be because their work is making audiences infinitely happy!  The legacy and untouchable talent of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who wrote the music and lyrics, is honoured, rejoiced, and celebrated!  I never fail to get goosebumps from that opening drum roll!  This music truly is perfection, somehow creating a melting pot of 60’s doo-wop, rock n roll, R&B, and Motown, then pouring this delicious concoction into a showbiz, theatrical, musical mould and letting it ring out in glorious technicolour!  It is sensational.  From the dramatic opening of the titular song Little Shop Of Horrors, we are plunged into Elvis inspired thrusting dentists, mesmerising duets such as Suddenly Seymour, heart wrenching daydreams in Somewhere That’s Green, cheeky rock n roll numbers with Some Fun Now, and the finale! Your whole body will explode with excitement, appreciation and happiness!  This production coincides with the 40^th anniversary of the film and there truly couldn’t have been a better way to celebrate!  Little Shop Of Horrors is a feast not to be missed! 

WE SCORE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS...

Little Shop of Horrors is on at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester until Sun 29 November 2026.

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