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New York City Center
The 1982 musical about a man-eating plant rides again in an uproarious concert performance – and to the audience, Gyllenhaal isn’t even the biggest star onstage

Part of the Encore! Off-Center season of seminal musicals given semi-staged concert performances, this version of Little Shop of Horrors had an indecently short run – just three performances, the last of which was on Thursday. This scarcity – combined with a bona fide Hollywood star playing the dweeby shop assistant Seymour Krelborn – gives the show the feeling of a real event, despite being hashed out in just eight days of rehearsal. The audience is clearly full of musical theatre experts, some of whom know the words better than the cast, who occasionally have to consult their scripts.

It’s the response of these hardcore musical nerds which makes clear that the biggest star in this show isn’t even Jake Gyllenhaal, fantastic though he is (his singing is totally convincing, his casting as a drip perhaps less so). It’s Ellen Greene, who played abused shopkeeper Audrey in all the early productions of the show (the first was in 1982), as well as the 1986 film. Now 64, Greene is received like a homecoming queen by the audience, and she repays them with a performance that mixes vulnerability with a delightful weirdness. At once emotional and mannered, both a character study and a commentary on the fact that she’s played the part for so long, it’s absolutely on the money for a musical – particularly one about a plant with an insatiable appetite for human blood.

Ah yes, that plant. Played in the first act by the adorable child actor Anwar Kareem (the routine in which Gyllenhaal bounces him on his knee would break the internet were it turned into a gif), in the second half the plant, Audrey II, is performed by Eddie Cooper. Cooper, a large man, brings a malevolent glee to the part which will cause shudders of recognition in anyone who’s ever battled out-of-control vegetation. It’s a show well-served for villains, with the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello embodied with extreme gusto by Saturday Night Live’s Taran Killam. His and Gyllenhaal’s dentist chair duet Now (It’s Just the Gas) is scenery-chewing hysterical but also clever, showing us the moment when the seeds of Seymour’s corruption are planted.

After over 30 years and countless productions, Little Shop of Horrors still thrives like Japanese knotweed; the songs are sharp, the characters inspire affection and the scenario, for all its surrealism, is still convincing. Written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (the former of whom died in 1991) ultimately Little Shop of Horrors is not just about what people will do for love, but also for attention; Seymour’s head is turned not just by Audrey but the media beating a path to his door to examine the monstrous plant he’s cultivated. With a Greek chorus of three singers who perform a skillful melange of black pop styles, from Motown to doo-wop, it’s a touching and hilarious show which vigorously earns its standing ovation.

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