Little Shop of Horrors

Hey guys, I'm back with another review!  Okay, so from Wednesday night to Saturday night, West Covina High School's Theatre program put on a production of the musical "Little Shop of Horrors."  My dad and I agree that it was a great performance - it was totally worth the twenty two dollars I paid for his ticket and my ticket.  For those of you who haven't heard of this musical, here's the synopsis: a geeky guy named Seymour works at a rundown flower shop and finds an alien plant that feeds on human blood.  Seymour and the plant make a deal that if the plant continues to bring him fame, he'll keep feeding the plant human bodies (I know, it's gross).  By the musical's end the plant eats Seymour and his friends and it lives happily ever after.

The plot was certainly interesting as well as kinda disgusting, but in this review I'll stick to West Covina High's performance.  Although everyone had beautiful (or at least decent) singing voices, the ensemble singing could have used some more work.  Only one person sang so clearly that I could understand everything she was singing, and that was Andrea Franco; she was an Alumni playing the lead female role.  Not only did she have a great singing voice, her enunciation and acting was superb.  From what a cast member said, Andrea was not a part of the original cast, but rather filled in two weeks before the show's premier.  If so, Andrea pulled herself together masterfully.  I also appreciated the street urchins' singing, save for the times they tried to sing together.  Every time they tried, the words got somewhat muddled.  I don't know about you, but I personally like to understand what the actors are saying.

Musical performances aside, I think Everett Cabon was the perfect guy to play Seymour; he looked and acted the part very well in my opinion.  Stephanie Torres was an awesome Mrs. Mushnik, which I will tell her personally when I see her in Creative Writing.  It was kinda funny seeing my friends acting as homeless people, sitting lazily for most of the musical; I imagine that was loads of fun during rehearsals.  Oh, I also LOVED the live music being played throughout the whole performance; that was a job extremely well done.  Overall I think the Theatre department should be very proud of all their hard work and I can't wait to see their rendition of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite.