I’ve attended a whopping sixteen productions of the iconic horror comedy rock musical Little Shop Of Horrors, but seeing it “dancified” at the Lineage Performing Arts Center made me feel I was experiencing the off-Broadway camp classic for the very first time.

Not that Little Shop wasn’t already a guaranteed crowd-pleaser even without Lineages trademark dancification.

Spoofing such 1950s B-movie horror flicks as Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Creature From The Black Lagoon, and It Came From Outer Space, not to forget the 1960 black-and-white, non-musical sci-fi comedy of the same name on which it is based, Little Shop Of Horrors introduces us to orphan Seymour Krelborn (Donnie Riddle), longtime clerk at Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists, the crummiest and least successful flower shop in town … but perhaps not for too much longer, given how pitiful business is of late.

Fortunately for Seymour and his curvaceous coworker Audrey (Jana Souza), the first customer they’ve had in days is so charmed and fascinated by the “strange and interesting plant” sitting in the store window (one that Seymour just happened to find soon after a total eclipse of the sun and quickly named Audrey II) that he buys $100 worth of roses, and before long, business is booming, the shop’s cranky owner Mr. Mushnik (Paul Siemens) is thinking of adopting Seymour, the latter is finding it harder and harder to think of the lovely Audrey as a mere work colleague, and Audrey is wondering if Seymour might just be the knight in armor who can rescue her from her physically abusive dentist boyfriend Orin Scrivello D.D.S. (Connor Bullock).

There’s just one problem with Audrey II. It has a craving for blood, human blood, and the drops Seymour provides from his increasingly ravaged fingers are soon nowhere near enough to satisfy its cravings. Audrey II wants a body’s worth of blood, and it wants Seymour to supply it posthaste.

 As in their later Disney collaborations The Little Mermaid and Beauty And The Beast, composer Menken and book writer/lyricist Ashman display a knack for creating one instantly hummable, cleverly worded song after another, from the catchy doo-wop show-opener “Skid Row (Downtown)” to the heartstrings-tugging “Somewhere That’s Green” to the uber-romantic “Suddenly Seymour,” and with an all-around terrific Lineage cast delivering the vocal goods every note of the way, Menken and Ashman’s songs are in more than capable hands indeed.

Still, if previous Little Shops have featured choreographed bits here and there (in the opening number, for example, and in the tango-rhythmed “Mushnik and Sons,” they don’t come close to what choreographer Hillary Thomas (co-directing with musical director Cynthia Crass) delivers here.

As in this past fall’s Rent, Thomas and fellow dancers Cindy Camins, LG Malunes, Molly Mattei, Ericalynn Priolo, and Teya Wolvington perform interpretive moves either to enhance Ashman’s lyrics (as when Seymour recalls his first meeting with Audrey II in “Da-Doo”) or to reveal characters’ inner thoughts (as when Audrey fantasizes “Somewhere That’s Green”) or simply to add some surreal fun (as when Little Shop’s dance ensemble does some “broom-eography” to accompany the flower shop’s clean-up in “Closed For Renovation”).

Lead and featured performances could not be more sparkling beginning with Riddle’s sweet and heartfelt star turn as Seymour, Souza’s deliciously ditzy but unexpectedly deep Audrey, and Siemens’ engagingly avuncular Mushnik.

Bullock, already a scene-stealing Orin Scrivello DDS at the Nocturne last year, now gets to dazzle not only as the maniacal dentist but a host of cameo characters as well (including some lickety-split costume changes).

Dara Adedara (Ronette), Demyra Ravyne Payne (Chiffon), and Alyssa Holmes (Crystal) give 1960s Motown girl groups some tough vocal competition as Little Shop’s ubiquitous trio of sassy urchins.

Most excitingly of all, Trae Adair doesn’t just voice Audrey II as in countless past Little Shops, he actually gets to be her, emerging from her petals with a face like Aladdin’s Jafar, fingernails a foot long, and pipes to reach the rafters.

Lineage’s Little Shop benefits enormously from a live five-piece band (no prerecorded tracks here!) conducted by Alan Geier and composed of Geier, Jake Bell, Megan Foley, Kevin Geier, and Ken Rosser, with sound engineer John Guth providing an expert mix of instrumentals and vocals.

As was the case with Rent, Lineage keeps scenic design pieces to a minimum and lets Teya Wolvington’s impressive array of costumes (multiple changes for the Uchins and the dancers to match each new song/scene) and Mike Testin’s saturated-color-bursting lighting design work their magic.

Huge kudos too Jesse Gee and Bonnie Ephraim for creating and designing Audrey II, and to makeup and hair consultant Michelle Vanderhule as well.

Courtney Outland is stage manager and Rik Sampson is assistant stage manager. Randy Brumbaugh is lighting technician.

When you’ve seen a musical in as many times and in as many different productions as I have with Little Shop Of Horrors, it’s rarer than rare that the show’s latest incarnation does things so differently, you feel like you’re seeing it with brand new eyes.

Such was the case last September with Lineage’s Rent and lightning strikes again with Little Shop Of Horrors. At sixteen productions and counting, I’ve never seen one as dazzlingly original as this.

Lineage Performing Arts Center, 920 E Mountain St, Pasadena.
www.lineagepac.org

–Steven Stanley
May 15, 2026

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Tags: Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Lineage Performing Arts Center, Los Angeles Theater Review