UMD: "Little Shop of Horrors"

A hop, skip and jump over the hill from my home is the University of Maryland (literally less than 5 minutes!) and I always have to remember to add it to my Theatre prospects.  Being a university theatre in a city as rich and deep with both professional and amateur theatre companies as Washington, DC is not an easy row to hoe.  But it must also provide a wealth of resources to the aspiring thespian and technical students enrolled there.  Depending on the production you run the risk of having to cast near children in the roles of mature adults.  But like attending any high school theatrical performance, you have to wear different glasses.

Tonight the appropriate eye attire would have been my "fun" spectacles, because from the start this production of "Little Shop of Horrors was fun!  The open stage meant that the set was the first thing to greet you upon entering the theatre and WOW.  Floor to ceiling, the design was every inch Broadway worthy.  I don't think I ever mention a set designer in my reviews, but this set deserves an exception.  Grace Limbach Guarniere's scenic design was not only stunning, but every inch the perfect backdrop wherein to perform the musical.

You also know that the University of Maryland is the home of the Jim Henson School of Puppetry (or something like that--you can go there to study puppetry under the awesome shadow of his archives and imprimatur.  I can't imagine a better Audrey II on Broadway in each of its four incarnations throughout the course of the show.

Of course, you can't have a show without a cast and this one was extremely satisfying for a university level--so much talent ready to be polished.  Having said that, let me add that the four principal actors were certainly ready for the next step in this vocation.  Andrew Saundry'a Seymour was sweet and bumbling even as he grew further into the grips of the alien plant becoming more and more tormented with each compromise.  Gabrys Wronka played the role of the demented dentist with real flare and his dying scene was one of the highlights of the show.  He inhabited the moment with tremendous presence and physicality to the delight of everyone.  But the star was Erin Valade as the vacuous and low self-esteemed Audrey.  She nail the nuances of the character in the dialogue, and then excelled vocally.  Twice her delivery of songs ended with spontaneous applause punctuated with cheers--clearly a college audience, too.  Her vocal performance was deserving of the accolades, too.

If I were to find one fault, it would be with the sound.  The use of body mics is common and seamless in theatre today.  The Clarice Smith Center for the Performing arts is a relatively new venue with good acoustics.  Yet the balance between the spoken and sung words and the live music was distracting at times.  On my report card they sound engineers got a D.

Otherwise this was an A performance--congratulations for all of the cast and design crew.

Andrew Saundry as Seymour

Gabrys Wronka as Orin with the Motown chorus (Samara Brown, Taylor Stokes and Paige Weiss)

Erin Valade as Audrey with Seymore

(above and below)