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Show Thursday, September 29, 1994 6 urn twitch w m by Stephen Spencer 1 he only really scary thing about Pioneer Theatre Company's season opener, Little Shop ofHorrors, is making sure your feet don't tap too loudly, but just lightly count the rhythm in the musical's clever doo-wo- p tunes. Easily the best part of the musical, you'd hate to get too caught up in the beat of the music. Although the songs are exciting, don't get too caught up in listening to the songs to miss the liberal sprinkling of sight gags that each 0 Pi 9 one possesses. John Caywood, the director, has not forgotten that this musical as much a comedy. Not only are there visual jokes, but each person in the, play is an exaggeration. Were you to take any of the main characters seriously, you'd come out of the theatre disgusted with the overacting and melodrama. But Caywood has skillfully is done what few directors ever flesh. The set, constructed in a visually artful way, rebels against the parallel line in a way that reflects the haphazard lives of the people of the play. The costumes are equally appropriate, especially the creative and sometimes outra geous ones worn by the three doo-wo-p singers. Little Shop of Horrors continues through Saturday, Oct. 1. Student discount tickets are available. For more information, call he has completely accomplish shifted perceptions, so that the play's excesses of stereotype and broad comedy seem to be real, at least in the world of Audrey and 581-696- 1. 3 ? Seymour. These two, the romantic leads, are composed of nothing but stereotype Seymour, played by Russell Goldberg, is a bumbling nerd and Audrey (Angel Caban) is a blonde airhead, and one can easily dismiss them as mere vehi- :YifTi.i?nP:ttHaP. jn cles for songs. The same is true for Mr. Mushnik, played reasonably well by Steve Liebman, and the dentist (Christopher Mixon) but to a pleasandy lesser degree. Mushnik has an unexpected, hilarious rumba solo, while "Be A Dentist," the musical's most famous song, can't be beat But by far the play is made by the minor characters and the "feel" they inject into Little Shop of Horrors. The three back-u- p singers, Shawna Kemp, Marque Munday and Shirell Ferguson, pave the road back to the Fifties, as the vehicle of Howard Ashman's words and Alan Menken's music takes us there. However, Caywood, in a small but annoying personal touch, leaves omnipresent clues setting the play in 1563, which don't seem to mesh. with the music. '"''"''A' !J Wk Menken and Ashman, the same team to later do Disney's The and Beauty and the Beast are certainly not writing for Disney, but the songs are still not Little Mermaid offensive. What makes this production of Little Shop of Horrors unique is the unorthodox approach to the voice of Audrey n, the carnivorous alien plant who dupes Seymour into fry UilMiUlSri iMtfiiato f'A-- blVx i helping it terrorize the world. Make sure you listen to the plant's voice, which is usually a gruff deep, commanding one, in counterpoint to the timid Seymour it controls, but it's something best left as a surprise. By leading him to fame and fortune, the plant dupes him into murder in order to satisfy its urges for fresh human S on 248 sale atyqraywhaleVcd 1763 w. 4700 s. W s. 1300 e. X '. ask for your free V - 4 & cassette sampler while supplies last |