Little Shop of Horrors (6th week)
Pembroke College
Wednesday 24th – Saturday 27th February; 2.30pm, 7.30pm
“with a heavy heart, I must step up to the reviewer’s plate and write some nasty, nasty things. The collapsible set is probably a good place to start.” Rory Fazan
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Little Shop of Horrors
Review by Rory Fazan
Pembroke College last night opened a little shop of theatrical horrors with their take on Ashman and Menken’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. At the outset, I should say that this was not uniformly awful: the chorus composed of three street-wise, mouthy girl-things was far from terrible (in fact, there were two very good singers there); Charlie Daniels, as Audrey, showed some promise (although her vocals are in desperate need of attention); and I for one was glad to be reminded of the joyously bad rhymes, corniest of jokes and all-round charm of this musical. Furthermore, the cast and crew had introduced some ‘funnies’ of their own, which I, along with the rest of last night’s audience, enjoyed. However, my favourite part was still the bit when the set collapsed on two cast members (no injuries and no jokes).
But now, with a heavy heart, I must step up to the reviewer’s plate and write some nasty, nasty things. The collapsible set is probably a good place to start. Mushnik’s eponymous flower shop seems to have been built from the painting of a child – a child, that is, with a disturbing affinity for brown at the expense of every other colour in the spectrum. Either that or some of the cast, angered by their director, had decided to stage their very own dirty protest. In which case, judging by the copiousness of the brown, the band might well have joined in; or perhaps a particularly potent vindaloo was served in Pembroke Hall on Tuesday (with ‘Yawn’ playing at the OFS, apparently poo jokes are de rigeur this sixth week).
While I enjoyed the plant in its earlier forms – when it was presented as a glove puppet which Matt Thomas (Seymour) worked well – the fully grown thing was not in the least bit interesting. Plainly speaking, it was nothing more spectacular than a heap of some plastic sheets stitched together (which, incidentally, it was). ‘Feed Me’ was the most shockingly inept and mundane three minutes of theatre I think I have ever had to sit through as this dull creation was pretty much left on stage alone to open and then shut its mouth in time to the music. Seymour’s goofy dancing (not particularly funny anyway) at the end could not save what is normally a very enjoyable number.
It is possibly a little unfair to single out any principal member of the cast for criticism. However, Josh Randall (director) should probably shove a large amount of diazepam up Jarred Wiehe (a very hyperactive Mushnik who seemed to froth at the mouth) ahead of tonight’s performance. My advice to Oxford theatregoers: don’t feed the plants and don’t feed the coffers of Pembroke College Music Society by turning up to see this set of horrors.
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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What passes above for a review is quite plainly Mr Fazan taking his ego for a self-pleasuring wallow in the muddy waters of cruel and unnecessary theatre criticism.
Even putting aside factual errors, the general tone of this review is completely uncalled for. Suggesting that his favourite moment of the night was when actors were put in danger by some dodgy tech work is completely unfair on them and the production.
To give Little Shop one star and encourage people not to go is ridiculous – there is not enough musical theatre in Oxford and tonight’s (Thursday’s) performance was full of charm, hilarity, pitch-perfect harmonies and hard-hitting musical numbers, not to mention the enthused and responsive audience packing out Pembroke Hall and proving that there is an appetite for musicals in Oxford.
The technical faults from the first night were clearly ironed out as nothing was noticeable aside from the admittedly ill-chosen colour of Mushnik’s shop (although apparently fitting for the Skid Row address). In fact, Pembroke hall had been transformed into a fully-functioning theatre with a colossal stage. Particularly impressive was a fully-functioning electric dentist’s chair which (with a bit of help) emerged from underneath the set to provide the impetus for a darkly comedic musical number which had the audience in stitches.
If Mr Fazan would like to masturbate his ego any further, I suggest he pick a different and more suitable target. Little Shop is here to stay until Saturday, go and see it for yourself! 4 stars from me.
I think this is a very unprofessional review on this production. At the very least should you appreciate that there are certain constraints on holding a production in a space primarily used as a dining hall, and thus not naturally set up for any productions. By approaching this production in the same way as you would an Oxford Playhouse show with a £20,000 budget, Mr Fazan was never going to be impressed.
The author’s attempts at humour here are also unbefitting of the supposed professionalism with which he should be approaching his reviews. His scathing report on Jarred’s performance, together with his seeming attempt to condone sodomy is both disrespectful and irrelevant. Criticising the production in constructive fashion is of course perfectly acceptable, and as Mr Fazan clearly did not enjoy the show, he is perfectly entitled to his opinion. However, to make personal slights at individual cast members which are largely unfounded and plain rude does not constitute a decent review.
That said, having seen Mr Fazan’s own recent performance in ‘Macbeth,’ I think he should work on his own theatrical ability before so rudely criticisng those of others.
As the cast member who had the set fall on them in this play, I think perhaps Mr Fazan would care to see my injuries before picking it out as his favourite part of the play? The quote “no injuries, no jokes” being entirely unfounded…
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