Don't Feed the Plants

A few weeks ago, I casually asked my Brother if he and his wife would like to join us for a little theater outing. To my surprise, he said yes. (I expect his wife pointedly nudged him into that answer.) So last night, the two of them joined us for a quick dinner at CPK which, for some reason, had its ups and downs: the "ups" being dinner with my Brother and his wife as we don't manage it often enough; the "downs" being how Caesar spilled half a glass of red Zinfandel on his light blue shirt.

A glass of soda water and some bbq chicken pizza slices later, and all was good with the world.

From there, we headed to the Carpenter Center and the opening night of Little Shop of Horrors, a jaunty little gem about a man-eating plant that manipulates a meek little guy into helping him take over Skid Row and the world. I've seen both versions of the movie (love Roger Corman's classic) but never the live stage musical, and I thought it would be a fun time for us all. Which is was. The music was fantastic, catchy '50s flavors with very witty lyrics. The sets were from the National Tour as were the puppets for Audrey II, the man-eating plant. (Amazing how they made the plant seem so realistic, and what a great voice from Michael A . Shepperd.) The actors did a fine job: Stuart Pankin as Mr. Mushnik; Peter Paige as Orin Scrivello DDS (along with almost every other character); Lowe Taylor awed everyone as Audrey; and Danny Gurwin played a wonderfully meek Seymour Krelborn. And not to forget Meloney Collins, Kamlah Marshall and Fredericka Meek as Ronette, Crystal and Chiffon -- kind of like the Greek chorus as a '50s girl group. We enjoyed the show -- my Brother even said so! -- and I'm thinking this opened the door to possible more shows with the four of us in the future.