by Julia Doerr
Little Shop of Horrors, TADA Theatre, Thursday October 16, 2025
As Halloween looms near, a production of Howard Ashman’s Little Shop of Horrors seems an apt choice, and TADA Theatre’s well-done offering does not disappoint. The show highlights a veritable cavalcade of character roles, even including the leads, as all the players embody quirks that usually are reserved for supporting characters in musical theater. Like all good science fiction, the plot reveals universal aspects of human nature, but in this case it does so with generous amounts of dark comedy. Aside from the man-eating plant (from another planet?) that is the obvious horror invading the titular shop, it is a bit hard to tell which characters are the heroes and which the villains.
That being said, there clearly are characters we sympathize with more than others. Jack Welstead and Kylie Groves shine as the romantic leads, Seymour and Audrey, capturing our hearts from the beginning. Both are skilled singers and convey their characters’ hard-knocks existences and sad lack of self-esteem convincingly. We empathize with them and dislike the characters who treat them poorly. Their bitter failure of a boss, Mr. Mushnik, may have “rescued” Seymour from an orphan’s home, but he has made him into a sort of indentured servant who can do no right. Audrey’s boyfriend Orin is an abusive and sadistic drug addict, who may be hilarious (and an audience favorite, here played by a convincingly nasty Jax Barkhaus) but really is quite wicked. That’s why we don’t mind when Seymour turns against him. But…
But that plant is the devil, and as it grows bigger, so do Seymour’s problems. He gets the fame he has dreamt of. He gets the girl. But increasingly he bumps up against his own conscience and the fear of discovery. Yes, this a comedic Dr. Faustus or maybe even Dr. Frankenstein. Well, let’s not get too carried away. But Seymour is not completely undeserving of his inevitable fate, and Audrey is pretty much the only real victim of the whole affair, not unlike the love interests of Drs. Faustus and Frankenstein. That surely is part of the satire.
In addition to Welstead and Groves, the rest of the cast is pretty darn good, too. David Claus, as the voice of the plant, and the puppeteers who animate the ever-growing specimen do admirable work with hilarious effect. Mariah Lieberman, Kristen Binder, and Britt Sommer are the Greek Chorus of sorts as Crystal, Ronnette, and Chiffon. They create an impressive vocal ensemble of skid row waifs. William Maltas as Mr. Mushnik really gets the New York shtick his character requires. Probably my favorite number in this production is his spirited duet with Welstead in “Mushnik & Son,” with singing and dancing one might not think possible on TADA’s tiny stage. And David Landis’s cameo as a Customer in the flower shop was another highlight for me. In fact, the series of small performances as good local actors visit Seymour leading up to the play’s denouement are all rather delightful. A good job was done by all.
Director Bob Rook announced that both weekends of the show were sold out, so a couple of additional performances have been added. You might still be able to get tickets. Do it.
If you go: Little Shop runs October 16 – November 2, 2025. Evening perfomances at 7:30PM and matinees at 3PM or 3:30PM. Ticket information, including added performances at https://www.tadatheatre.info.
Julia Doerr is a retired high school English teacher with a lifelong love of theatre.
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