Nick Cearley played the main character, Seymour, in the off-Broadway play “Little Shop of Horrors” at the Playhouse in the Park, running through Feb. 19.

By Brett Milam
Editor

Nick Cearley played the main character, Seymour, in the off-Broadway play “Little Shop of Horrors” at the Playhouse in the Park, running through Feb. 19.

It’s too bad for the main character in “Little Shop of Horrors” that Laura Numeroff’s “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” didn’t come out 25 years earlier.

The dark comedy musical opened at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park on Jan. 21 to an-almost sellout crowd to witness what happens when you give an insatiable mega-plant blood: He’s going to want some more.

Murder, domestic violence, and betrayal are all themes turned into comedic fodder – and ultimately plant food – in this Broadway play adapted for the stage by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken in 1982, based on the 1960 cult-classic of the same name.

One of the selling points for bringing this long-running off-Broadway show to the Marx Theatre was taking a large-scale musical and putting it into a more intimate setting, Blake Robison, the Playhouse’s artistic director said, in a news release.

And Bill Fennelly, the director, who was also sitting in the audience, pulled off that juxtaposition rather masterfully, as the set pieces and musical numbers loom large, but the acting sells the emotion.

It’s a story we are all familiar with: Seymour, played by Nick Cearley, is a hapless, nerdy romantic trying to etch out a living on Skid Row, when he lucks into a plant at Mushnik’s Flower Shop that promises him fame, fortune and perhaps even the girl of his dreams.

The only diabolical catch is that the plant requires human blood and as Seymour finds out, the American dream is not worth it when paid for in blood.

Familiarity doesn’t breed complacency, however, as there are plentiful laughs, gags, emotion and action to make the play entertaining and leave one ruminating.

Interspersed throughout, of course, are the feet-tapping, catchy Motown-inspired musical numbers, which are anchored often by the three women on the peripheral of the shop: Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette played by Johari Nandi, Alexis Tidwell and Ebony Blake, respectively.

Cearley’s Seymour is lovable in a way that makes you forget that he’s a selfish murderer, when you think about it. Audiences innately are sympathetic to this classic story of being down on your luck and then getting in over your head when fortune seems to turn around.

However, the real star of the production is Jamison Stern, who seemed to play about 30 different roles throughout the course of the show. His best turn was as Orin, the wacky, sadistic dentist, who is also an abusive boyfriend to Seymour’s at-first unrequited love, Audrey, played by Gina Milo in believable fashion.

Fennelly said this story seeks to hold up a mirror to all of us and ask the big questions about human nature.

The play certainly does achieve that feat, but it also features a giant plant on the stage with masterful puppetry. Such is the weird components that make life – and this play – interesting.

Just be sure not to bring a glass of…blood along.

The play will run through Feb. 19. For ticket information, visit www.cincyplay.com.