Rock musical fitting for Halloween hits the GHS stage

A flower shop worker tricks his boss into climbing inside the mouth of a large Venus fly trap only to be quickly gobbled up as a delicious dinner.

This may seem like a scene descriptor right out of a 1960s Hollywood B movie, which is true, but it’s also what will be seen on stage during Grantsville High School’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors” which opens Wednesday.

GHS drama teacher and director Matt Price decided to move the theater department’s fall show from December to October, which boded well for GHS as they were able to choose “Little Shop of Horrors” — a rock musical that definitely has a Halloween theme to it — for their show this year.

“We don’t usually do a musical in the fall,” Price said. “We stagger our schedule so people can go to all of [the valley’s school productions]. Since we bumped it way back from December to October we decided to do a show very appropriate for October and ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ fit.”

In addition to a different time of year, which puts a slight strain on the production because of limited time, Price said the theater department is also back to its small-town roots with the departure of many students to attend Stansbury High School.

“We wanted to celebrate the fact that we’re back to GHS with a small school and small casts and we’re really excited about that,” Price said. “We’re really able to highlight some of the talented kids we’ve got in a small cast setting.”

With the opening of SHS, Price said the school’s student enrollment plummeted from 1,200 to 650, which also cut the number of his theater students by about half. For the past five or six years, GHS has performed several large shows with a double cast. Due to fewer students, only a handful of the roles in the nine-character cast are doubled.

“Most of the principal or lead roles are single cast like Audrey, Seymour and Mr. Mushnik,” he said. “The three girls and the dentist are double cast.”

While some may find the diminished selection of students for each role a problem, Price sees it as a benefit. It allows the cast to be closer and work together more than if 50 were participating in a show.

“Most of the people are involved because they want to be there and not because they need an art credit to graduate,” Price said. “When I started here in the late-1990s this is how it worked back then too. Every year we had grown by leaps and bounds, but I think it’s going to be a positive thing for sure.”

The show itself is the stage version of “Little Shop of Horrors” which was written after the 1963 film version. (In 1986, Frank Oz released another version of the film which starred Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Steve Martin and Bill Murray.) The songs and characters are virtually the same, but the ending is very different. However, it’s not something Price wants to divulge.

The story — which is narrated by a trio of women including Crystal (played by Jessica “Goo” Black and Amy Ashworth), Ronnette (played by Melissa Baird and Sidney Young) and Chiffon (played by Sarah Layton and Sidney Conrad) — revolves around flower shop worker Seymour (played by Dakota Bates) in the sketchy part of a city’s downtown. He’s in love with a pretty young blond woman named Audrey (played by Kayla Robinson) and one day, while perusing a wholesale flower district, discovers a weird plant he names Audrey II.

Price said the theater department is building four different versions of Audrey II to show its growth throughout the show. The 7-foot-tall Audrey II is being built by Grantsville-based contractor Bart Hamatake.

“We did ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ at the Ivy Garden 10 years ago and Bart helped us out and he was our puppeteer and of course he was the first person I called because he was the only person I knew who had any experience,” Price said.

The puppeteer for this production is Steven Moulton who also has a few small roles as well. And while the show is acted all by high school students, Price is excited that GHS’s new choral teacher LaRenzo Degraffenreidt is lending his talent as the voice for Audrey II.

“He’s wonderful and the kids love him,” Price said. “He’s perfect for this part. He’s at least as good as the people in the movie and professionally on stage. That’s one of the reasons we decided to use him.”

Degraffenreidt will be singing and talking live offstage while Moulton controls the plant’s mouth.

In the show, Seymour can’t keep Audrey II alive until he pricks his finger on the plant one day and, while soaking up his blood, looks more healthy. This leads Seymour to start giving Audrey II his blood to keep it stronger until it makes him unhealthy. All the while, more customers are coming into the “Skid Row” flower shop to gawk at Audrey II.

Eventually, Audrey II makes Seymour murder people — like Audrey’s boyfriend the Dentist (played by Matt Rigby and Corey Gunderson) and his own boss Mr. Mushnik (played by rookie actor David Gilley) — so the plant can stay living.

“It is definitely a black comedy,” Price said of the show’s theme. “It’s not like it’s going to be a horrible death-and-destruction plot, it really is very funny and a really fun way to go about it.”

The production is appropriate for kids of all ages so Price is encouraging everyone to bring their families. Support of the local arts is greatly needed right now, he added.

“We’re a little concerned about money and budget these days,” he said. “This is how we make money so we really need the community support. This is how we get funding.”

Over the years Price has had the help of his wife, Kelly, who has served as his assistant director, and his son, Corbin, who will be graduating this year. “Little Shop of Horrors” is bittersweet for the director as he’s losing an “integral part of the theater program” in his son.

Nevertheless, Price is excited to bring another Broadway and film favorite to the GHS stage a few months early and one that’s tied to the Halloween holiday.

“Little Shop of Horrors” runs Oct. 21, 22, 24 and 26 beginning at 7 p.m. with a runtime of about two hours. Tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for students and $5 for children under 12.

Missy Thompson: missy@tooeletranscript.com