Act V productions hosted “Little Shop of Horrors” at Memorial Auditorium on Thursday, March 29.
“Little Shop of Horrors” is about a clumsy nerd, Seymour Krelborn, who works at Mushnik’s floral shop. He discovers a rare plant that attracts attention to the shop in a shady neighbor called Skid Row.

However, it comes at a cost. The plant, Audrey II is blood thirsty and convinces Seymour to do unspeakable acts. The musical revolves around the theme of greed and provides realistic life lessons.

This year, the musical has two directors, Ezra Thrush and Mark Laird. They decided to base it on the 1960 version by Roger Corman.

Thrush said they liked the movie’s ending compared to the 1986 happy-ending.
They both have been working diligently since December to organize the production. They held practice almost every night from 9:30 p.m. to midnight.

I found myself mesmerized by the musical and the actors’ breathtaking performances. It was definitely apparent of how much work everyone put into the musical.

The production showed there are students who are determined to succeed. By the end, I was almost in tears because I wanted the main characters, Seymour and Audrey to live happily ever after.

But, due to greed and a bloodthirsty plant, their happily-ever-after could never be. Heidi Freeland did a superb performance of playing Audrey as a Marilyn Monroe-type.

She wore a blond bob wig and switched through many different types of 1960s clothing. Freeland’s accent really made her character.

It sounded almost like Betty Boop, a whiny yet New York accent. Mark Dadetto portrayed Seymour Krelborn the way it has to be, as a shy nerd. Dadetto resembled and sounded like your average 1960s television sitcom nerd.

In the beginning he wore a red cap with big black glasses, along with a nasally nerd voice, it added depth to his character.

Justin “JT” Mohn transformed himself into the sadistic, abusive, gas mask-loving psycho dentist, Orin Scrivello.

He is the abusive boyfriend of Audrey, who often causes her broken bones and orders her around.
Many other actors had remarkable performances. Daniel Lindgren portrayed Mr. Mushnik, the owner of the floral shop and Matt Thompson provided the dark sensual voice of the plant, Audrey II.

My favorite performance was the street urchin chorus group, Vikki Glogg, Carley Heck and Samantha DePree.

They were fantastic. They interacted with the characters and supplying the narrative commentary.
The pit band provided the 1960’s rock ‘n’ roll beat for the plant.

They deserve so much admiration for the musical score that strengthened the musical.
Act V deserves two thumbs up and hopefully they will continue to present spectacular performances in the future.

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