October 24 - November 17, 2024

Music Theater Works in association with Music Theatre International

KYLE A. DOUGAN
Producing Artistic Director

Presents
Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop Of Horrors

Is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
www.mtishows.com

Any video and/or audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

Like many people of my generation, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS came into my life while I was in high school. It seemed like everyone had a cast of 40 playing the people on the street in Skid Row. I saw so many friends in the show multiple times at multiple schools throughout my time as a St. Louis teen.

The show always resonated with me. It still does. A scrappy, socially awkward guy trying to make it in the world…throw in the sci-fi and horror inspiration and it’s almost like it was made for me, an avid horror and sci-fi film fan. 

When I first started thinking about this show, there were two things that I really wanted to explore: Sci-fi style B-movie techniques and influences and the idea of paranoia both personally and culturally. From there our team and I worked to build the show. In a world where you are paranoid that someone will see your true self, how do you fall in love, succeed, or stay alive? What are the influences around you affecting how you act and react? Is fate already decided for you? Is love even possible in a place so broken and crumbling? 

The puppets are key to the production, as well as the science fiction “frame”-- there are very few sci-fi musicals, fewer still that ask dark questions like what you would do for fame and riches (Keep the plant? Or reject your heart’s desire?). Even though the musical asks us to consider this moral dilemma, the joy at the center of LITTLE SHOP shines through.

So, I hope you, as an audience, have a great time and enjoy the theatricality of it all. Believe in the puppet Audrey II, so key to the production, and what theater does best– suspending your disbelief and asking you to revel in the charm that is directly in front of you. This show makes you think, laugh, cry, tap your toes, and even has a few surprises… And, as always… Don’t feed the plant!

(Musicians are members of Chicago Federation of Musicians, Local 10-208)

Bill Kirchmeyer and Binny’s Beverage Depot, Javier Vega at Byline Bank, The Walder Foundation, Jon Will, LaLonna J. Jackson of the Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Amanda Billings, Jamie Lynn Thome, TPatrick Whalen at the office of State Senator Laura Fine, Ann Davis, Scott Stratton