When I saw Jinkx Monsoon as Matron “Mama” Morton in Chicago on Broadway last year (a role she will reprise June 27th – July 12th, 2024), not only was I enraptured by her interpretation, magnetic stage presence, and vocal chops, but I also felt an added thrill from the sense that I was witnessing theatre history in the making. It is the kind of performance that people will no doubt be talking about decades from now, not just when they look back at Jinkx’s career, but at the annals of musical theatre. It was also a star turn that gave that show a big box office boost. I felt that same thrill, and sense of theatre history in the making, this week as I saw Jinkx set foot on stage to a sold-out house at New York’s Westside Theatre as Audrey in the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle award-winning revival of Little Shop of Horrors which has been running Off-Broadway since October 2019 (reopening after pandemic closures in September 2021). Based on Roger Corman’s 1960 movie, with a book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken, this is a stellar production of the enduring, endearingly eccentric and romantic horror sci-fi tragicomedy—with teeth—and a lot of heart.
Scenic designer Julian Crouch’s beautifully-crafted set immerses us in Mushnik’s flower shop, where most of the action unfolds, in the grimy heart of Downtown’s Skid Row sometime in the early 1960s. As the show opens, the rather irascible Mr Mushnik (an excellent Kevin Del Aguila) has given up hope as another day without a single customer draws to a close. He tells his shop assistant Audrey (Jinkx Monsoon) that there is no point in her returning the following day and he is especially short-tempered with the under-appreciated Seymour (Corbin Bleu) who he took in as a kid and has worked to the bone in return ever since. However, the store’s fortunes quickly turn around when, thanks to Audrey’s encouragement, Seymour places a Venus flytrap-like “strange and interesting plant” which recently came into his possession on display in the window. It immediately attracts the attention of a big-spending customer who happens to be passing by and news of the plant soon goes viral, in the old-fashioned way, by word-of-mouth and radio interviews, and then Life magazine comes calling.
Before long, Seymour finds himself a celebrity-on-the-rise making a Mephistophelian bargain with the persuasive plant—which he names Audrey II after his kindhearted co-worker—when he discovers that its insatiable appetite will only be abated by human blood and flesh. Based on the original design by Martin P. Robinson, puppet designer Nicholas Mahon’s Audrey II grows from cute to charismatically sinister in stages, with some deft puppeteering by Bleu, Zakiya Baptiste, Weston Chandler Long, and Teddy Yudan. Audrey II feels like another living, breathing character on stage, with seductive Motown-infused velvety smooth baritone vocals, and vibrant character work, courtesy of Aaron Arnell Harrington who really delivers the goods from off-stage. In a show full of great songs, the plant gets some of the best numbers, such as “Git It”, where Audrey II implores his green-thumbed handler, “Feed me Seymour, Feed me all night long!”
When we first encounter Audrey she has been given a black eye by her sadistic biker dentist boyfriend Dr. Orin Scrivello D.D.S (a hilarious James Carpinello, making various roles deliciously distinctive) and later we see her with her arm in a cast as a result of his brutality. At a low ebb, she has come to believe that she does not deserve any better than to be in a relationship with an unhinged creep who puts her down and beats her. As Ronnette (Tiffany Renee Thompson)—one of the three enchanting streetwise Skid Row urchins, along with Crystal (Morgan Ashley Bryant) and Chiffon (Khadija Sankoh), who serve as the show’s 60s girl group-esque Greek chorus—observes, Audrey “suffers from low self-image”. Her situation has not dampened her spirit though, and whenever Orin is not around we get to see a radiant Audrey with Jinkx bringing subtle shades to the character’s determinedly rosy outlook and pulsating inner life. When he is there, she is diminished and defeated, and her infectious joy shrinks too. Jinkx’s Audrey exudes a palpable, larger-than-life warmth and kindness that is compelling. If only she could direct those same qualities towards herself.
Jinkx is one of those rare performers who receives enthusiastic and extended applause for her first entrance, before a word is uttered or a note is sung. Clearly many in the house are here to see her. Of course, that kind of star power has to be backed up with talent, and it is. She might be Drag Race’s “Queen of All Queens” after her coronation on the winners’ season of All Stars in 2022, but her performance here is not about drag (not that drag can’t be nuanced and affecting). Jinkx comes at the role as a gifted actress, fully embodying Audrey, bringing a heartbreaking poignancy to her impossible dream of a life of domesticity, escaping her urban environment for “Somewhere That’s Green” in one of the show’s standout numbers that brought me to tears in the spoken lead-up before she’d even started singing, and sustained a deep emotional pull throughout. Jinkx truly makes the song her own. Not only are the vocals divine and characterful, but I was hanging on every word like I’d never heard it before because she is such an adept, in-the-moment storyteller and interpreter of songs. The show’s four-piece band (Patrick Sulken conducting and on the keyborad, Robert Morris on guitar, Dena Taurellio on drums, and Christopher Agar on bass) with music supervision, arrangement and orchestration by Will Van Dyke, provides delicate support at times and suitably booms at others, but never at the expense of the vocals.
Jinkx’s stagecraft is impeccable, with her making the most of every beat as she delivers delightfully bold and surprising choices vocally and physically, mining the dialogue and lyrics for all their comedy, and discovering plenty more in the moments in between with her reactions, while always keeping her Audrey grounded in the truth of her situation. She is a quirky character, but Jinkx ensures the humour is never at Audrey’s expense, a woman who wears her hyper-feminity as a from of self-protection. While Tom Broecker’s costume design for Audrey, with her figure-hugging movie star glamour on a budget (she dreams of looking like Donna Reed) has some flamboyant touches, like her leopard print coat, they are not so extreme that we don’t take her seriously. She not only dresses for a better life than the one she has, but her wardrobe, along with her makeup, is part of her defense against the world and attempt to disguise her pain. All elements present in Jinkx’s insightful reading of the character too.
In the show’s Playbill, Jinkx dedicates her performance to “the women who raised her: Nana, Mama, and Mimi”, and she graces them with a beautiful tribute with her indelible take on this beloved character, rich with humour and humanity. Her Audrey is so vivacious and burns so bright, that we miss her light when she’s gone. If it wasn’t already clear, this gal’s got range, as Jinkx’s magnificent, pitch-perfect turn as the music-stealing villain Maestro in the new season of Doctor Who goes to show, which could not be more strikingly different than her Audrey.
As Howard Ashman writes in his introduction to the script, “when Little Shop is at its most honest, it is also at its funniest and most enjoyable” and Jinkx and Corbin Bleu in particular take that note to heart. Without winking at the audience, their sincerity has real impact. Bleu proves to be a great counterpart to Jinkx and both performers entirely command the stage with these unassuming, mild-mannered characters with low self-esteem who gradually attempt to take the reigns of their own lives. Like Jinkx’s Audrey, Bleu brings something fresh to his Seymour and the character’s trajectory from zero to suddenly being “somebody” in society’s eyes and his own, is richly satisfying to watch, with shifts in his physicality and vocals as he gains in confidence.
Although their moves towards one another might be tentative at first, the chemistry between the pair really sizzles as it builds to one of my favourtite musical theatre songs, “Suddenly Seymour”, with all its touching tenderness. Their gorgeous voices beautifully blend, and Jinkx’s distinctive belt is sublime, with neither of them ever resting on the familiarity of their songs to get through the numbers. One of the most blissful moments comes at the end of that duet as Seymour sweeps Audrey off her feet and they share their first kiss.
Michael Mayer’s direction keeps things tight, pacy and continually visually interesting as he uses the full expanse of the stage, and has fun with Ashman and Menken’s satirical take on both musical theatre and B-Movie tropes by creating some striking tableaux, and a recurring motif of characters lifting one leg behind them to express their exuberance. Ellenore Scott’s choreography is upbeat and playful too and there is some great phone-ography involving Audrey and Seymour when business is booming at the flower shop. The dentist-set scenes are economically but inventively staged in front of a blood-splattered white curtain (try to avoid seeing this show the night before a dental check-up) which had me squirming in my seat.
This marks Jinkx Monsoon and Corbin Bleu’s final week of shows as the leads—do catch them if you can—but the good news is that this a blooming outstanding production in an intimate Off-Broadway space that is unmissable for musical theatre fans.
By James Kleinmann
Jinkx Monsoon and Corbin Bleu star in Little Shop of Horrors through Sunday, May 26th, 2024. Sarah Hyland and Andrew Barth Feldman will take over the roles of Audrey and Seymour from Tuesday, May 28th, 2024. Purchase tickets at LittleShopNYC.com.