"Little Shop Of Horrors" by Erewash Musical Society.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

For anyone who has been living under a stone, or inside a plant for the last several decades, the story follows a hapless florist shop worker, Seymour, who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. This saves the closure of Mr Mushnik's flower shop and makes a celebrity of Seymour. Seymour is in love with Audrey, the female shop assistant, but that love cannot be returned as Audrey is in a toxic and violent relationship with a dentist called Orin. To get fame, fortune and Audrey's love, Seymour has to keep the strange plant alive, and does what he needs to do, and at any cost!!

The musical is loosely based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors. The musical was also made into a 1986 film but is always a popular choice with local theatre groups because it is one of those shows that everyone loves.

It has an annoyingly catchy soundtrack with songs such as "Skid Row", "Suddenly Seymour", "Somewhere That's Green", "Dentist" and of course the title song.

Seymour Krelborn is played by Martin Lewis, who plays "geeky" very well; obviously a tribute to Martin's fantastic acting skills and characterisation. I loved the way that Martin whipped off his black-rimmed glasses off during "Suddenly Seymour" to reveal that Seymour was there for Audrey. I could swear blind I heard someone cheer at this point. Also good to see Martin back on stage as opposed to being back stage or acting as Musical Director.

Emma Barnes-Marriott plays Audrey, and what a character to play as Emma's first principal role for Erewash Musical Society. By not using the typical high pitched voice that we so often see, and hear, when an actor plays Audrey, the character becomes less dizzy, character wise. Emma's voice matches the fragile, and slightly naive Audrey so well, especially in the gorgeous "Somewhere That's Green" and the duet "Suddenly Seymour".

Martin Briggs plays Mr Mushnik, the owner of the flower shop on Skid Row. Another slight amendment here with a more diluted Jewish accent than what is normally delivered for this character.

James Bowden gets to play the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello D.D.S. This is a brilliant comic character to play and James really brings out the manic in Orin, and a great stage slap delivered to Audrey which looked very realistic. I normally look for a connection between characters but that was one connection I hoped wasn't there. Wonderfully timed from where I was sitting.

Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette are played by Hayley Wood, Kathi Ludlow and Louisa Ward. And here is yet another change, one that i can't ever remember seeing in any other production I've seen. To balance out the three above, we also have another trio of Shirelle, Chantelle and Vandella, played by Louise O'Boyle, Abigail Lagou and Jane Freeman, and keeping in vogue with the 1960's girl group names. These six created a wall of sound and balanced out the stage rather wonderfully.

Audrey 2 is voiced by John Fletcher and the plant is operated by Gabryl Oleshko, who also plays a drunkard at the start of the musical. Operating a plant of this size would not be easy, so I can appreciate why, at times the mouth operation did not quite sync in with John's vocals. That doesn't matter because just seeing a full grown Audrey looking so plantastic in all it's splendour was all we needed to see. I must also say that John's voice sounded great as the unbe-leaf- able and evil monster plant. I am sure that the money paid out for the wonderful puppet plant, in its' several stages of growth, will reap benefits.

And here's another change up in this production, I've always seen a mix of male and female "importants" wanting to sign Seymour up to something or other to maximise his fame due to Audrey 2. Here they were all female! Grace Deakin (Skip Snip), Anna Fitzpatrick (Mrs Luce), Karen Robbins (Bernstein) and Vicky Byrne (Pat Martin). Adding to these roles we also have Megan Asher and Elin Haycock as the customers.

This production has a larger cast than any I've recalled previously with the ensemble consisting of Chrissie Oakden, Laurie Trott, Natalie Austen, Andrea Kemish and Barbara Bostock, who provide so much energy to this show.

Talking of energy leads me on to the choreography. There are some lovely choreographed ensemble pieces in this musical, thanks to Hayden Fletcher.

Directed by Chris Renshaw, he kept all the fun of the original musical and with the noted changes, made this production seem refreshed.

I mentioned the soundtrack and this was directed musically by Dave Dallard. The uptempo numbers were punchy and the ballads were delicately lush.

Over the past few shows at the Duchess I've pointed out that there have been issues with mics not being one when they should have been and the audience had missed parts of the songs and script. I can say that there was none of that tonight and I heard every word spoken and sung with clarity. Phil Holland and Dave Dallard must take all praise for this area.

Likewise with the lighting. In some of the past few productions, there have been spots that failed to spot and lights which just didn't illuminate what they should have done. Tonight, the lighting was practically perfect, hitting every cue. By using certain lights, we highlighted the front of the stage, when the back section was not needed, creating focus on characters and stage areas. Dave Martin is back on top form as the man in charge of this technical area.

The set was wonderful and, something I noticed, filled the whole of the stage from top to bottom, from left to right. There were sections that slid in and out of view with a multitude of props(Tyna Burnett and Team), making you believe that you were in fact on Skid Row and in Mushnik's flower shop. The design was by Mark Robbins and Bill Robbins, and you could see the hard work that was put in with the construction of this particular set. just take a look at the photos taken by Alistair Langton to see how great the set, actors, costumes etc look.

I have seen several productions of "Little Shop Of Horrors" and have enjoyed every one of them, but this production, with its' tweaks and additions has to be one of the best, and makes you feel like you are seeing it with fresh eyes and ears.

"Little Shop Of Horrors" is germinating all week, until Saturday 12 March. Get a ticket fast but whatever you do, don't feed the plants!!