“Little Shop of Horrors” at the Westside Theatre/Upstairs

Tammy Blanchard and Jonathan Graff

 Photo: Emilio Madrid-Kuser

Everyone’s favorite mutating carnivorous plant is in bloom again. This time back Off Broadway where it belongs and where it began in 1982 and remained potted for 2,209 performances. If the 2003 Broadway production failed to capture a large enough following,  it didn’t dissuade the current team (and there are plenty of them) producers and collaborators from bringing it to the Westside Theater for what they hope will be a long and successful run. Happy to report that this new production is terrific fun while the elaborate staging reflects money well spent.

The musical version of schlock film-maker Roger Corman's comically tacky 1960 black comedy remains an inanely amusing but also vaguely politicized entertainment with a moral: that society is doomed in the face of commercialized imperialism. (But who is willing to think about it that way?)

Currently in charge of the hilariously horrific mayhem is Michael Mayer, who, along with his production collaborators, resourcefully exploits the musical's horticultural doings. And thanks to original puppet designer Martin P. Robertson, the excellent lighting design by Bradley King and Julian Crouch’s fantastically  squalid-looking skid row shop and street setting, the atmosphere is just right for encouraging the plant's fearsome growth in laugh-inducing stages.

Howard Ashman's book and lyrics and Alan Menken's music has always been one of the best doo-wop/ rock theater scores. Certainly the bouncy title song and the humorously plaintive "Suddenly Seymour," are classics of the genre. The cast is relatively small: just four principal roles, a trio of street urchins, various denizens played by actors doubling up, and the basso voice of the insatiable plant Audrey II (Kingsley Leggs). But their collectively impressive talents easily fill up the stage.

Jonathan Groff, who was a Tony nominee for both “Hamilton,” and “Spring Awakening,” more than fulfills the nebbish(y) demands of Seymour, the timid, withdrawn employee in a Skid Row flower shop. He underplays to perfection as he takes great pains to care for a hybrid plant of his own creation, and also, of course, nurtures his affection for Audrey (Tammy Blanchard). Blanchard, a multi-Tony Award nominee for “Gypsy” and “How To Succeed....” is terrific as the pretty but cheaply flashy Audrey whose masochistic bent keeps her in emotional bondage to Orin, the sadistic laughing gas-addicted dentist. Orin is played with an hilariously over-the-top swagger by Tony Award-winner (“Something Rotten,” “Peter and the Starcatcher”) Christian Borle,  who also appears in a parade of caricatured roles of both sexes.

Broadway veteran Tom Allen Robbins perfectly fills the bill as the suddenly entrepreneurial Skid Row shop keeper Mushnik. His perverse delight is a pleasure to watch when business picks up as the plant grows and draws attention from the public. But what price fame and fortune when Seymour discovers that the plant needs blood to survive? As the plant's victims are gobbled up, we find ourselves suddenly caring and concerned for the characters, silly and one-dimensional as they are. Ari Groover, Salome Smith and Joy Woods are appropriately sassy and perky as the girl-group/urchins that sing and swing in designer Tom Broecker’s Matthew Hemesath's kicky costumes. I'm happy to report that the unseen but heard band members Will Van Dyke, Nate Brown, Dena Tauriello, and Sue Williams survive Audrey II's ravenous appetite. Bon appetit.