Poor Brent Hill. His Seymour in this production of Little Shop Of Horrors is flawless. His comic timing is delightful, his enthusiasm for his plants and for colleague Audrey are pitched just right and he lays the foundation for great performances in his fellow cast members.
But halfway through the first half, Esther Hannaford sings Somewhere That's Green and with a simple two-minute ballad she steals the show. With a voice that contains all the hope of her futile dream and all the power of a diva, Hannaford's solo is star-making. And then she backs it up in the second half when she belts out her parts in Suddenly Seymour.
With every aspect of this production perfectly pitched, from Tim Chappel's comic-esque costumes and Owen Phillips' beautifully off-beat set, to Erth Visual & Physical's innovative and outrageous Audrey II, Little Shop Of Horrors is a masterpiece of schlock, small-scale musical theatre.
Now this show has opened and people have begun to talk about it, tickets won't last long. But you should try and nab some anyway, or cross your fingers that it comes back to Sydney after it charms the pants off the rest of the country.
This kind of production is why Hayes Theatre was developed and the creative team and this fabulous cast have done a wonderful job bringing to the stage a show that is camp and comic but full of emotional resonance and pathos.
