Thrills, drills and a triffid to get your teeth into...
WELSH baritone Rhydian James Roberts, better known as just plain Rhydian, is celebrated for his platinum blond hair, his X Factor appearance in 2007 — and selling more than a million albums worldwide.
Now, though, he can be caught in an amusing national tour of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s 1982 rock-musical spoof.
Rhydian plays evil dentist Orin in Skid Row, New York. He is a biker and ‘leader of the plaque’, reviled for being mean to his sweet innocent girlfriend and taking delight in pulling teeth.
His exploits are foiled when he comes up against the meek and mild Seymour, who has achieved national fame thanks to growing a monstrous flesh-eating triffid in the formerly failing flower shop where Orin’s girlfriend, Audrey, also works.
The show is based on the 1960 film of the same title and is no great test of acting skills.
Even so, Rhydian throws his full vocal range at the project, while his trademark white quiff and leather jacket make him look like a bleached Fonz from Happy Days. While the story chugs along in the first half, he boosts the pace with his manic, strutting, cackling hymn to sadism, Be A Dentist!.
Rhydian is far from being the main man, however; and Sam Lupton is impressively versatile as the hapless, bed-headed Seymour, who dreams only of winning the heart of his beloved Audrey.
First, though, he must sate the appetite of the bloodthirsty plant that made him famous.
Stephanie Clift makes a perfect Audrey — a sweet, squeaky-voiced airhead who speaks of a shady past but in whose mouth, butter would surely never melt. There’s a nicely gallumphing turn, too, from Paul Kissaun as flower shop owner (and Karl Marx lookalike) Mushnik.
Tara Louis Wilkinson’s production is genial and David Shields provides a cartoonish set of crooked windows and moving scenery.
The triffid looks like a supersized avocado covered in warts to start with, but matures into a comparatively agile maw, able to swallow whole bodies in a gulp. And when it breaks into song (voiced by Neil Nicholas) it sounds uncannily like David Ruffin of the Temptations.