Little Shop of Horrors - Shine Studios

On a cool June night I was not looking forward to leaving the house, But this is one of my all time favourite musicals! The leads in the show that I attended last night were Bri Williams, Emmet Nichols, Ben Bull and Cameron Lynch. Congratulations all I found your characters were well executed, accents great and songs were sung well. Over all I found the show to be most enjoying. However the audio did bring the quality of the show down. I know the show and the lines well so I didn't realise how bad the audio was until a friend who I attended the show with(who had never seen it before) told me at intermission that he coudn't make out most of the words during the songs. Crystal/Chiffon/Ronette could not be heard clearly throughout most of the show. The band sounded good and were not loud by any means, but the level of the microphones that the performers had did not match them and at times became muffled and distorted their voices. Chris Messina (who played the voice of Audrey II) on the otherhand sounded fantastic vocally and by volume! He obviously had the advantage of being backstage and on a handheld mic. Although the chorus were enthusiastic I found their presence on stage at times distracting, from the point that the stage was full of performers during chorus numbers but only a few of them were singing. Skid Row was a good example of this. A lot was happening, but not much could be heard (I'm sure this was partially down to mics as well) I have mixed opinions on the lighting for the show. The use of the lighting on the sets and props were great but at times the performers weren't lit at all during their songs. My only other negative feedback of the show was the Choreography. I believe a show like this requires very minimal choreography, purely because many of the songs require choreographed movement rather then dancing. So the dancing looked out of place in many of songs and had a "tacked on" appearance. Congratulations must go to Iskandar Sharazuddin (and extras) for the puppeteering skills of Audrey II. Not an easy task to be animated through means of a mouth of a venus flytrap, but you did! with Gusto! The sets for this production were inventive, creative and well constructed. The series of Audrey II's were amazing as was the make-shift dentist chair! I think the direction of Kirsty Messina complimented the performers and the sets extremely well! Had I had more time I would have liked to watch the performace again with the other leads to see what they did with their characters, but sadly I can't. Shine Studios have created a lively and fun performance of this show. Congratulations team and all the best for your remaining 4 performances!