You may have heard about the one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater of 1960s fame. Well, he’s back in the Lopez Early College High School production Little Shop of Horrors, the dark sci-fi comedy musical that’s been cracking up theater audiences for decades.
Little Shop of Horrors opens at 7 p.m. Thursday for three shows in the Lopez theater, accompanied by an-house orchestra and featuring student choreography, set design and much more. There’s a return performance on Friday and a Sunday matinee. Tickets are $10.
The story unfolds at Mushnik’s Florist Shop on Skid Row, where the former orphan Seymour is employed as a floral assistant and accidentally discovers the people-eating plant and names her/him Audrey II after a co-worker for whom he has a crush.
“So Mushnik’s kind of a creepy old guy, he’s not a very nice person,” director Holly Putegnat explained Tuesday morning amid production tasks.
“Seymour, turns out he’s a really sweet person, and he loves plants and he goes shopping for plants and he finds this very interesting plant and he buys it for $1.97, I think, and he nurses it back to life and he can’t get it to grow, he can’t get it to grow, and he discovers that the plant needs blood to survive.”
“So he feeds it his own blood, he pricks his fingers and he puts out little drops of blood. So he goes from feeding him little pricks of his own finger to feeding him actual people. So the plant eats people. It’s a people-eating plant. Remember that one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater?”
“Well, I was born in 1965 and my mom used to sing it to me and that song is this musical. It’s hilarious, the music is great, it has a rockabilly feel. It’s a funny play, there’s some funny moments, and there’s some sad moments the people do get eaten, but it’s a comedy, too,” she said.
Putegnat said the show has “five really big voices. Both of our leads, the young man that plays Seymour and Audrey II have amazing voices, and then we have the Ronnettes we call ‘em. We have Ronnette, Chiffon and Crystal … they’re kind of like storytellers, they sing the story. They are amazing, these three girls have some serious pipes,” she said.
“Audrey, the co-worker, is Janice Maldonado, Seymour is Erasmo Martinez. Crystal is Nadia Rangel, Chiffon is her sister, Anahi Rangel, and then Ronnette is Gilma Galvan and they are amazing,” she said.
The three girls were in last year’s Seussical the Musical. They weren’t in the choir then but after musical director Meagan Contreras heard them, she said, ‘All three of you are enrolling in choir, and so they did.”
“She stole them, that’s allowed, and I think they’re sophomore, junior and senior,” Putegnat said.
Meanwhile there’s the matter of surroundings, otherwise known as the set.
“I’m really proud of my technical students. I have two technical classes that built every single flat that you see We didn’t have any. Now, I don’t even know how many. We have 12-foot flats, we have 10-foot flats, we have a couple of specialty flats that were made just for this set, but I think those kids never want to see another flat in their life than the ones they built for me,” she said.
A flat is a fake wall. When audiences walk in, they’ll see brick walls on either side.
“Then we have the set within the set, the interior shop, All of those walls are flats. They fit together side by side, the door flats fit together side by side, they built window flats, they built platforms. We had three platforms from last year and we built five new platforms this time and then every single thing that you see on stage they built. They’ve been working really hard they have it down to a science,” Putegnat said.
“Everything that’s not done by the actors is done with tech students. You never see a tech student, they don’t come out and bow. They’re very proud of what they did. This is a phenomenal set. The bricks and the fake wallpaper they measured and taped and did all the sponge work, I mean they knocked it out of the park,” she said.
In all, the cast totals about 15, about the same for the orchestra, directed by Ivan Hernandez.
“We have our faculty that participates, too. Mr Hernandez is the orchestra director, Coach Winkler is in there. Mr. Sierra plays the bass, Mr. Whitney (of barbershop quartet fame) is actually playing the voice of Audrey II.
“Her nickname is tooey. I think it’s a he. By the voice it’s a he, but the name is Audrey II. He’s in love with him, Seymour is,” Putegnat said.
The student choreographers are Adalia Sorola and Jasmine Rocha.
The website mtishows.com, where Lopez purchased the show rights, says this about its potential:
“A deviously delicious Broadway and Hollywood sci-fi smash musical, Little Shop Of Horrors has devoured the hearts of theatre goers for over 30 years. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken are the creative geniuses behind what has become one of the most popular shows in the world.”
To see more, view Brownsville Herald photojournalist Miguel Roberts’ full photo gallery here:
Photo Gallery: Lopez Early College High School Theatre presents Little Shop of Horrors
