Before they became legendary composers and lyricists for some of Disney’s biggest feature film songs, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken worked on a small musical theatre show called Little Shop of Horrors in 1982. In the years since it premiered off-off-Broadway, Little Shop of Horrors has emerged to become a cult favourite productions among musical theatre fans, receiving a film adaptation, and multiple restagings, including a current run Off-Broadway that stars High School Musical alumni Corbin Bleu, and RuPaul’s Drag Race superstar Jinkx Monsoon. So it’s perhaps surprising that it’s been an eternity since the beloved musical was last staged in Singapore, the previous production being when Dream Academy staged it back in 2006.
Local musical theatre company Sing’theatre is here to remedy that, with their brand new production coming your way this April. The story follows meek floral assistant Seymour, who stumbles across a peculiar plant he names “Audrey II” – after his co-worker and crush Audrey. Audrey II promises to help Seymour out…in exchange for feeding it with human blood, in the campy, horror comedy rock musical. Playing at the SOTA Drama Theatre, the production will be directed by TJ Taylor, with musical direction by Elaine Chan, and features Andrew Marko and Vanessa Kee as leads Seymour and Audrey. We spoke to TJ and Vanessa to uncover a little more about what to expect from Sing’theatre’s take on the musical, and their perspective on the ever-growing Singapore theatre scene.
“I actually performed in Little Shop of Horrors in 2006, for my second ever show when I was still doing youth theatre back in Barnsley, and it’s an experience that’s always stayed with me,” says TJ. “To me, this is a really timeless musical, partially because of the genius of Alan Menken, and you can really see how it inspired his later work with Disney. Even today it still holds up, and promises a great night out at the theatre. Perhaps a little indulgently, 18 years later, this is a chance for me to relive and honour that work, where I finally feel ready to revisit it again and do justice to it, almost like a full circle moment.”
“At first I thought I knew the musical well enough, but when you step into the director’s shoes, you start realising how many moving parts there are – this has how many costumes? How did this go from here to there?! I knew what I was getting into but it’s a whole different experience directing it!” adds TJ. “But really, I’ve been supported by the best team possible, whether it’s on the music direction or choreography or my wonderful cast, and we’ve been collaborating and working together on really bringing out the storytelling elements of this show. Everyone understands and wants to make the best show possible, and as director, I recognise how important the entire team is, and make sure to give everyone a voice, gets a chance to try what they want, and guide it towards this end goal.”
“I think that for TJ, coming from a small town, he’s the kind of director who really puts a lot of care into all he does, and never takes anything for granted,” says Vanessa. “Singaporeans tend to forget that we are a country made from immigrants, and regardless of where you come from, when you create a work and are sincere in being truthful to its intent and respectful of the culture, it will work. Our country and community is already too small – it’s all we can do to support each other. It’s certainly not the easiest show to do, with its 3-part harmonies and tough choreography, but the songs are so beautiful, and that really pushes the storytelling, and I love being a part of and getting to the heart of the story.”
On putting together the show, TJ cites how much of the time, it isn’t necessarily about directorial vision that comes first, but seeing how much resources the company even has, and adjusting one’s goals from there. “Everything from casting to resources are important – if our budget doesn’t allow for it, or the audience isn’t ready for some ideas, then the show is going to fail,” says TJ. “The good thing is that I know almost everyone in the cast and have worked with most of them in some kind of professional capacity, so I know what they bring to the table as actors, and can develop the chemistry, letting the magic happen during rehearsals. My goal isn’t to replicate the Broadway or film version, but to be true to Menken’s idea and play with the boundaries given while putting a fresh spin on it. It’s been really enjoyable to go through the process of breaking down the songs line by line, and discover all these details and layers to each one.”
“Meanwhile, if we’re talking about making the most of resources, theatre tends to be very wasteful and we often get rid of entire sets and costumes because there’s simply nowhere to store them. But we needed to create Audrey II with a puppet, and we knew we didn’t have the budget to do puppets from scratch, so we approached Frankie Malachi, who’s probably one of the go-to puppet makers in Singapore, and he’d previously done the puppet for Audrey II back in 2006 for Dream Academy,” adds TJ. “He’d gotten rid of most of them, but still had something we could adopt and adapt for our production, and I think this kind of recycling and upcycling of resources can be so important in theatre. With this, we could now pivot the budget towards other things. Melissa May Garcia will be puppeteering her, while Tony Tong will be providing her voice, and well, Audrey II is an absolute beast, and we can’t wait to show her off in the theatre.”
It does help that the source material itself is already very strong, and as Audrey, Vanessa found it incredibly easy to create strong onstage chemistry with Andrew Marko. “You know, the script itself contains full descriptions of every character, but Audrey’s description is THAT much longer than everyone else’s, so it gave me a lot to work with,” she says. “There were a lot of references to Golden Age Hollywood stars, while still maintaining the persona of this absolute sweetest person, and we focused a lot on the purity she had, over previous versions’ more boisterous takes.”
“Ellen Greene, who played Audrey in the film, is iconic, but for our version, we looked at a lot of video footage of Marilyn Monroe for my version of Audrey, and we saw a lot of parallels – they both wanted to be this perfect woman and ideal housewife, and we crafted the entire character around someone looking to achieve that fragile dream, and considered how many rough struggles she’s been through in her life, and balance that kookiness with this heart of gold, and worked the voice and physicality of the character into that. She may be comical, but she’s someone who also brings all her experiences and realness to the table as well.”
Little Shop of Horrors opens at a time when it faces stiff competition, with Checkpoint Theatre’s Secondary The Musical and Base Entertainment Asia bringing in a touring production of Hamilton to Marina Bay Sands, and that in itself seems to be a worry for local theatre, with so many production competing for the same audiences. “More people have heard of this musical than I thought, so I’m glad we’ve seen good ticket sales, and our marketing has been focusing more on the comedy aspects of it, but it’s true that people only have so much budget to spend on the theatre, and once they’ve gone to say Hamilton, that’s it for the month,” says TJ. “It’s unusual, but we’re doing an almost 3 week run this time, in the hopes that word of mouth gets out and it gives leeway for word of mouth to go out and people will get to book tickets and plan for it after the second weekend.”
“I think that a lot of it boils down to the value Singaporeans ascribe to theatre, and so many people end up rushing for international shows or concerts, but some have never even watched local theatre in their life,” adds TJ. “There’s always the initial barrier where it’s perceived as a less accessible, higher art form, but I really wish there was a stronger message to push to people that we have all these incredible, amazing Singaporean works, and that even shows done in a smaller space can go toe-to-toe with a ‘big theatre’. Productions like Cabaret have surprised people by how relevant it felt, and our local theatre scene has some of the best artists I’ve ever worked with. We need to stop putting Western companies on a pedestal, and encourage people to see the value of local theatre.”
Coming back to Vanessa, the young actor is thankful to Sing’theatre for providing her with some of the biggest opportunities in her career thus far, and is ready to spread her wings and fly even further. “I’ll always be so proud that I’ve come so far, this Singaporean HDB girl who does theatre and musicals, and prove that people like me can do shows and hope that it opens up more hope and opportunities for others to pursue theatre too,” says Vanessa. Going to school to study arts is a privilege, and it’s interesting how I was so involved in my CCA and ended up neglecting my studies in JC, so much that I had ‘no choice’ but to go to arts school. My parents would have wanted me to go to any other course if I could, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, and my parents finally see that this is a viable way of earning a living for myself while getting to do what I love.”
“These last few years, I’ve been growing my skillset so much, even beyond musical theatre, like performing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year, and after this, I’ll be in Tick, Tick…Boom! and in a show at Singapore International Festival of Arts,” she adds. “Singaporean actors get the chance to do so much more than our Western counterparts, since our theatre runs are so short, but I’m now looking to further my studies somewhere overseas, and gain more experience in that field. But my heart will always be with Singapore, and I’ll come back and continue contributing to the scene, as a better actor, and building the community with other artist friends. We’re a young country whose arts scene works completely differently from the West, and we have to give ourselves time and the chance to grow rather than make a direct comparison.”
Finally, on why TJ continues to do what he does, he remains humble, and hopes that audiences will simply enjoy the show and come away with a good night. “Everything I do, it’s not to become the next ‘big director’ – I mean sure if it comes along as a byproduct, I’d be happy to accept that, but I really want my whole ensemble to shine while putting out work I think should be out there, and it’s never about my own ego,” says TJ. “I’ve been here 11 years now, and happy and proud to be here, but also acknowledge that the climate here does not want to celebrate an expat doing work like this, and I’m fine with that – my goal really is to inspire others and make them feel good – look at Musical Theatre Fringe Festival and really, all that Sing’theatre has done, and that makes me so happy knowing that my work has impact others on such a scale.”
“There are plenty of shows out there that are serious and important at shining a light on current affairs and parallel what’s happening in the world, but sometimes, escapism and having fun is just as important as that, and that is what Little Shop of Horrors is,” he concludes. “I hope audiences come in ready for that, and at the end of the day, draw their own conclusions about it, in its authentic original form, that we decide to present here for you.”
Photo Credit: Poh Yu Khing
Little Shop of Horrors plays from 12th to 28th April 2024 at SOTA Drama Theatre. Tickets available from SISTIC
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