SMuTS: Little Shop of Horrors

Firstly, sorry for the lack of blogging lately, I have had a mad week with deadlines slash absolutely nothing interesting has happened in my poor mundane life.

Secondly, a heads up. This review could end up being completely biased due to my amazingly talented best friend Amy Moore being in the chorus and 100% stealing the show for me. (And others but I'll come onto that...)

SMuTS is the Sussex University Musical Theatre Society, and for 23 years now they have been producing/directing/wowing with their adaptation of a well known musical on a shoestring budget as governed by the Sussex Student Union. And this is where I'd like to begin. The production quality of Little Shop of Horrors was perfect, I'm sure a multitude of favours had to be called in (where else would a production team have acquired so many plant pots and plastic flowers?!), yet it was pulled of phenomenally. 

I confess, that as an avid Musical Thespian-goer, Little Shop of Horrors has somehow escaped me my entire life, but it was surprisingly enjoyable to watch a show of which I had no idea how the story was going to go. Sass and camp. Those are my words of choice to describe the Howard Ashman penned musical. Sass and camp. Yes!

Now for the nitty gritty...

The cast. The cast were overall wonderful. That girl who opened 'Skid Row' was just incredible right? Can you tell who my friend was yet? Is my bias coming across yet? But in all fairness, Amy Moore really did open with a sensational front. And that isn't just from me. In the interval I could hear multiple complete strangers retelling how her voice was beautiful, and a stand-out from the first half. How Amy wasn't cast in the Crystal/Ronette/Chiffon trio really did escape me, and that was echoed by the paying public heavily during the interval.

The three girls playing Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon set the tone of sass, with their constant appearances as a three-piece chorus throughout the show. Although their sass was unreal, I felt at times that their chemistry needed to be worked on, as they were all fighting for the limelight. I must say though, Rebekah Thomas who played Chiffon had an incredible voice, and coming out of such a small body it was a very pleasant surprise. 

I simply cannot ignore Jacob Jackson's portrayal of Seymour, our dorky, love-shy protagonist turned villain. His voice and accent was perfect, and I feel like for me, Jackson will always be Seymour regardless of any other productions of Little Shop of Horrors I may see. My final accolade within the casting, obviously has to be Georgia Lewis in the role of Audrey. Her consistency of the acting, body language and belief in the role was astounding, you could really tell she had thrown herself into the part of Audrey. Although I have only mentioned a scattering of names, that's not to say that the rest of the cast weren't sublime.

A quick mention to Lewis Klein, the director. There were some really genius moments within the show, the use of lighting was used perfectly to hide some of the stage-uglies and the use of the theatre foreground added an extra dimension. Finally, the music, and their triumphant conductor, Cody Bamford Bridges. A sign of an amazing Musical is all down to the Musical Director, and the way Bamford Bridges was jiving and shaking his thang, whilst conducting the orchestra, showed the audience how much he obviously loved the music. And his love for the music sung laps around the Old Market Theatre.

Little Shop of Horrors, continues to run until Saturday (1st March). So if you are in need of something to do, get yourself down to The Old Market Theatre in Hove. Tickets are £10/£12 and available from here.