`Horrors'! Hungry for a musical spoof?

Byline: Paul Denison The Register-Guard

The cast list includes three ``plant manipulators,'' but the plant actually does all of the manipulating in "Little Shop of Horrors," a musical about a potted plant on a high-protein diet.

Opening Friday at the Cottage Theatre, this spoof of 1950s sci-fi movies ends with a song called "Don't Feed the Plants" - very good advice that unfortunately comes too late.

Inspired by a 1960 Roger Corman movie with a screenplay by Charles Griffith, "Little Shop of Horrors" opened off-Broadway in 1982 and ran for more than 2,200 performances. The 1986 movie version had a yummy cast: Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, James Belushi, John Candy, Bill Murray and Christopher Guest.

OPENING THIS WEEK

If you've seen the movie but not the stage show, be prepared for more songs and a sadder ending.

The book and lyrics are by Howard Ashman, and the music is by Alan Menken, the team who scored "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin."

Director Peg Major says the stage version includes several songs that were not in the film, including an extended version of "The Meek Shall Inherit," "You Never Know," "Mushkin & Son," "Closed for Renovation," "Call Back on Monday," "Now (It's Just the Gas)" and the finale, "Don't Feed the Plants."

Major says she likes the stage ending better than Hollywood's.

"It makes the show a little darker, with more of a B movie feeling to it," she says, adding that the unhappy ending both surprised and pleased cast members who were familiar only with the movie.

Major's Cottage Grove cast features Johnny Ormsbee as Seymour Krelbourn, a lowly flower shop assistant who develops a risky Faustian bargain with an exotic plant; Erika Johnston as Audrey, the girl of his dreams; and Ken Major as Audrey II, charitably described as "an ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore who offers him fame and fortune in return for feeding its growing appetite."

The cast also includes Teri Page, Michelle Cordon, Miriam Major, Michael Scott, John Eaton, David Work, Mindy Linder, Eric Hope and Rebekah Hope - with plant manipulation by Chris Bursley, Davis Smith and Phil Dempsey.

Major says the plant, which Cottage Theatre has rented from Olympia Playhouse, is really a monster, and making it come ravenously to life is "very hot and very, very physically exhausting" work requiring lots of upper-body strength.

The music will be played live on stage by Vicki Brabham and another keyboardist, a bassist and a drummer, with synthesized acoustic guitar.

Performances are scheduled for Friday through Oct. 10, and Oct. 14-17, 21-24 and 28-30. Curtain time is 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. on Sundays.

Tickets are $15 at the door or $14 in advance from the Bookmine, 702 E. Main St., Cottage Grove. The bookstore's phone number is [phone], and the theater box office is [phone].

CAPTION(S):

The dentist (played by John Eaton) works with pleasure on Seymour Krelbourn (Johnny Ormsbee) in Cottage Theatre's "Little Shop of Horrors."