`Little Shop' a labor of love with appropriate cheesiness.

Byline: Paul Kolas

COLUMN: THEATER REVIEW

STURBRIDGE - The late Dennis Wrenn must be smiling. He was to be the music director for Stageloft Repertory Theater's production of "Little Shop of Horrors," and he would be proud of what director Neal Martel and his terrific cast have accomplished.

Saturday's performance was clearly a labor of love drenched in all the sweet-hearted cheesiness it's meant to have. Martel's set design is gloriously tacky, a garish slice of skid row adorned with posters from B horror movies from the '50s: "The Attack of the Crab Monsters," "The Killer Shrews" and "Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster."

The doo-wop music and lyrics are sung with affectionate lampooning by Chiffon (Aimee Kewley), Ronette (Kelley K. Vantre) and Crystal (Bethany Iwanski), the girl-group trio who boogie in and out of the campy story of Seymour Krelbourn (Jeremy Woloski), a nerdy floral assistant who finds a human-eating plant plopped into his humdrum life after a solar eclipse.

Martel returns this bountifully entertaining musical to its off-Broadway roots. It was never meant to be a grandiose, theme-park spectacle, but simply what we see here - a silly, wonderful pastiche of homage and spoof. It's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" meets "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," with a dash of "Sweeney Todd" thrown in for good measure. And if you want to add another pop culture reference to the mix, you might argue that Zach Murphy's leather-wearing dentist, Orin, is a sadistic version of Danny Zuko of "Grease."

Martel uses every square inch of the stage to maximum effect, having removed some theater seats to make room for Orin's dentist chair to magically appear during one scene. Seldom has a team effort been so apparent. It's a blast to watch Audrey II grow from a hand puppet-sized plant to a voracious Jabba the Hut-sized monster who repeatedly booms "Feed me!" in a sinister mantra to poor Seymour.

Kevin McGerigle supplies the deep, authoritative offstage voice of Audrey II, and he nails "Git It" and "Suppertime" with malicious, rattling soul. While he's doing that, Lisa Glasheen invisibly manipulates Audrey II's cavernous mouth, as he devours all the principal actors one by one, with expert elan. Before they all become Audrey II's latest meal, though, let's talk about their all-out performances.

Woloski has played this kind of role before. In fact, he was the star of Stageloft's production of "The Nerd," but here he seems to find new ways to make Seymour the quintessential nice guy too shy to assert his feelings. Not only that, he does a pretty fine job of singing "Grow For Me," "Closed for Renovations" and "Suddenly Seymour."

As the object of his affections, Christine Taylor's Audrey I is a "Joisey"-accented knockout. Taylor plays her with trampy, air-headed sweetness. Her rendition of "Somewhere that's Green" is extremely touching, a longing for the ideal suburban life, replete with "a tract home, frozen TV dinners and plastic on the furniture."

Fred D'Angelo gives his most fully realized performance yet as Seymour's anxiety-ridden boss, Mushnik, spared the fear of going out of business on skid row by the publicity generated by Audrey II's arrival. He and Woloski perform delightfully together on "Mushnik and Son."

Murphy gives dentists a very bad name, and that's a very good thing in this case, as Audrey's abusive boyfriend, Orin, singing "Dentist" with malevolent hilarity. Along with this production's already stated virtues, Dennis Wrenn would also have been proud of the musical accomplishments of Erin Murphy and Dave Twiss.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

* * * *

Music by Alan Menken, book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, based on the film by Roger Corman, screenplay by Charles Griffith, directed by Neal Martel. Presented by Stageloft Repertory Theater, 450A Main St., Sturbridge. Performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m., through April 5. Tickets: $16 adults, $14 seniors 65+, $8 students 14 and younger. For reservations call Ed Cornely at [phone], or visit www.stageloft.com online. With Jeremy Woloski, Christine Taylor, Fred D'Angelo, Zack Murphy, Aimee Kewley, Kelley K. Vantre, Bethany Iwanski, Kevin McGerigle and Lisa Glasheen.

Key to the Stars

* * * * ... Hot Stuff

* * * ... Good Job

* * ... Not Bad

* ... Never Mind