Mean Green Mother invades NOTL
JOHN LAW
A bloodthirsty plant has put down roots in Niagara-on-the-Lake. For three weekends, at least. In lieu of its annual production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the gang at Something-Something Productions is instead offering the musical Little Shop of Horrors. It’s trading garters for gardens. “This year we said ‘I think it’s time to do it’,” because we’ve done Rocky over and over,” says producer and company cofounder Ron Burke. “We’re not sick of it yet, but let’s throw a curveball to the people who’ve been following us.”
For the past four years Burke and partner/wife Dina Mavridis found instant summer success in Niagara-on-the-Lake with its Rocky Horror Show productions above Corks restaurant, the former home of the King Henry VIII feast.
A classic among university and high school theatres, Little Shop of Horrors originated as a 1960 Roger Corman horror comedy before making its stage debut Off-Broadway with a score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. It spawned another movie version in 1986, a cult favorite starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin, with the man-eating plant voiced by Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops.
TIME Magazine ranked it as the most frequently produced musical by U.S. high schools in 2007.
Want to go?
What: Little Shop of Horrors Where: Corks’ Playhouse Theatre; 19 Queen Street; Niagara-on-the-Lake When: Sept. 9 to 24 Tickets: $22 - $30 www.eventbrite.ca