A horrible pressure is taking up society – ruthless, self-serving, hateful. Who can escape its terrifying grasp for energy and mayhem?
Don’t fear, this isn’t a column about politics.
We’re writing about theater right here – good, secure, air-conditioned, but filled with monsters simply the identical – one in Middle Metropolis on the Academy of Music, and the opposite within the ‘burbs at Folks’s Gentle in Malvern.
On the Academy, we’ve acquired a voracious sand worm managed by the principally evil Beetlejuice, within the highly regarded, long-running comedy/horror Broadway musical by the identical title. And in Malvern, it’s Audrey 2, a rapacious plant with an insatiable urge for food for human blood in “Little Store of Horrors,” one other Broadway hit within the comedy/horror style.
Each enjoyable, each scary, and each involving very superior stage results to provide the monsters.
“There’s a sure a part of human nature that may be explored if you find yourself speaking about this style,” mentioned Amina Robinson, an assistant theater professor at Temple College and busy Philly theater scene director, who isn’t concerned within the Folks’s manufacturing however has labored on “Little Store” previously.
“You’ve gotten some otherworldly creature coming to destroy and impinge on people and our lives,” she mentioned. “You may actually illuminate issues about people and society that doesn’t really feel heavy however nonetheless makes its level.”
(Picture by Matthew Murphy)
Primarily based on a 1988 movie starring Tim Burton, “Beetlejuice” facilities on the story of younger Lydia, who feels ignored by her father after her mom’s current loss of life. An outdated demon, Beetlejuice, reveals up and mocks the thought of residing to the fullest, since loss of life is the one end result.
There’s a whole lot of passing between loss of life and life on this play with ghosts and double-crossing and foul play at each flip. A part of the Ensemble Artwork’s Broadway sequence of touring reveals, “Beetlejuice” consists of some forged members with native roots – Michael Biren from Cherry Hill, an ensemble member who additionally serves as Beetlejuice’s understudy, and Marc Ginsburg, of Philadelphia, one other Beetlejuice understudy.
Set in a flower store, “Little Store of Horrors” stars a bloodthirsty monster/plant and examines darkish paths taken within the title of energy and want.
“Energy, financial standing, the wealthy vs. the poor, the evils that may be present in fame and superstar — all of these actually deep themes exist in that musical,” Robinson mentioned about “Little Store.”
“It turns into a way of leisure that enables these conversations to occur in a really totally different means. It might probably make these conversations simpler to have interaction in if you find yourself speaking about an alien plant versus an actual individual,” she mentioned.
‘Tempted to do terrible issues’
Not removed from Folks’s Gentle in Malvern, Valerie Joyce, the chair of Villanova College’s theatre and studio artwork division, teaches courses in musical theater. Like Robinson, she has additionally directed “Little Store” previously – greater than as soon as.
A part of its attraction, she mentioned, is that “Little Store” permits us to playfully discover the darkish facet of our personal natures “as a result of we’re at all times going to be tempted to do terrible issues to get what we wish.”
In “Little Store,” the viewers turns into complicit within the evil, not sad that an abusive boyfriend will get what he deserves when he’s devoured by the bloodthirsty plant. However how will the plant’s keeper fulfill its demand for increasingly more blood? What compromises will he make? What compromises will the audiences approve?
“The type is darker than typical musical theater,” Joyce mentioned.
Musical comedies comply with a formulation – boy meets lady, boy loses lady, boy will get lady again. Not so in horror/comedies, she defined.
“The comedy is ironic and satiric and infrequently makes use of camp, so it’s larger than life and broader than life. This frees up characters to behave in methods and audiences to have expectations in methods that aren’t regular.”
And for the theater makers — administrators, designers, props folks, costumers — to have a whole lot of enjoyable.
“In our model, we wished to take a completely new tackle the plant,” mentioned “Little Store” director Molly Rosa Houlahan at Folks’s Gentle. “There’s a standard picture that has been used – huge, inexperienced Venus flytrap with the large mouth connected to it. It’s a voiceover voicing an unlimited puppet for the plant.”
“Our performer is a hybrid alien plant/human – a vibrant magenta purple orchid,” Houlahan mentioned. “The designers took inspiration from a pitcher plant, which begins as just a little bud, however grows a gaping maw the place flies get caught within the plant’s poisonous juice. One other inspiration? The angler fish, with its big jaw and nasty-looking enamel.”
Quickly the plant has hips, a head and a torso. “Our choreographer did analysis into how crops transfer and that acquired included,” Houlahan mentioned.
“It’s fairly huge as a result of it has to eat entire people,” she mentioned. “It’s a extremely thrilling design problem.”
That form of problem, Houlahan mentioned, is baked into the thought of the horror-comedy musical.
“It offers you liberty, as a result of camp and sincerity go hand-in-hand,” she mentioned. “It lets you be actually elevated with the quantity of vitality, design and coloration that you would be able to experiment with. It’s actually a broad permission slip that you’re given.”
FYI
“Little Store of Horrors,” by way of Aug. 3, Folks’s Gentle, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, 610-644-3500.
“Beetlejuice,” July 29-Aug. 3, Ensemble Artwork’s Broadway Sequence, Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St., Phila. 215-893-1999.