You won't want to stop the terror

There is more than one way to sell your soul to the devil - after seeing the literal method in last month's Faustus, Torn Ticket II will be showing a slightly more offbeat version. In the upcoming production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors, Seymour Krelborn makes an unsavory compromise with a blood thirsty plant in order to capture the heart of the woman he loves.

Little Shop takes place in Mushnik's Skid Row florist shop during1960. Seymour Krelborn is a down on his luck orphan who works in the shop. He loves Audrey, his coworker, but she has a boyfriend, the abusive dentist Orin. When Mr. Mushnik, tired of "Skid Row" life, decides to close the shop, Seymour saves the day. He displays Audrey II, a weird Venus fly trap type plant that he found during a total eclipse of the sun. Audrey II proves to be a big draw, attracting tons of business to the florist shop.

But all greatness comes at a price. Audrey II begins to wilt, and Seymour discovers that the plant needs human blood to survive. Seymour keeps Audrey II alive at first by slitting his own fingers, but as the plant grows, it begins to demand greater and greater sacrifices. Seymour is torn, but he believes that his newly blossoming relationship with Audrey (the human) is dependant on the fame and fortune he has gained through Audrey II. Seymour's capitulation to the singing, man-eating plant ultimately leads to his downfall.

Audience members may be familiar with Little Shop from the 1986 Frank Oz film (with Rick Moranis and Steve Martin), but Torn Ticket's production is significantly different. Director Tali Paransky explained that the play is much darker than the movie, "... particularly the ending." Seymour actively controls his fate. "Seymour is the cause of his own demise, which makes the play substantially more interesting." Seymour's relationship with Audrey II explores how far people are willing to go to get what they want. As Paransky explains, the story "takes the Faustus tale and modernizes it and puts the absolute absurd into it."

While the musical is a comedy on the surface, Paransky chose to emphasize the dark elements of the story. "There are two types of horrors in it. There are unworldly ones like an alien plant who eats people. Then there are real world horrors. Audrey is physically abused by her boyfriend. Seymour is verbally abused by Mr. Mushnick." Although the premise of the show is absurd, the character's emotional struggles are very real.

The story's darkness is reflected in all facets of the production. "We are exploring themes of growth and decay in all aspects of the staging and costumes," explained costume designer Luke Brown. Visually, the show gets darker as Seymour's moral and psychological deterioration manifests. The actors' costumes change from vibrant colors to black and white. Audrey II grows as the play progresses, dominating both the set and the character's lives.

Musically, the show is heavily rock-influenced. Tim Blake, pit director, finds that "Little Shop is a musical that everyone can enjoy, even people who don't like musicals. The music is fun and fast. People can really get into it. It's music that, for the pit, was a lot of fun to put together." Alan Menken's score includes such favorites as "Skid Row" and "Suddenly Seymour."

The Balch Arena Theater is the perfect intimate venue for the show. The set includes not only the stage, but also the staircases leading down to it and one whole section of where the audience usually sits. According to Blake, the audience's proximity to the stage almost integrates it into the set. "You feel like a part of it," he said.

One of the challenges of performing a musical in Balch is that an electronic orchestra can overpower the actors' voices, making it hard for the audience to understand the lyrics. To overcome this challenge, the cast is equipped with headset microphones.

The cast of Little Shop has been rehearsing for the last two months in order to make the production pitch perfect. In spite of the dark elements of the show, they emphasize that it is actually a lot of fun.

"The best part of the show is when various characters get eaten by a plant the size of a Geo Metro," says Alex Sherman, who plays Seymour. The carnivorous Audrey II seduces the audience with the promise of fame and fortune -- it is not your average Venus fly trap. Similarly, Little Shop is not your average musical -- it serves as an entertaining reminder that the devil comes in all shapes and sizes.