ON STAGE
COURTESY UH-M THEATER DEPARTMENT
Nicole Brilhante stars as the innocent Audrey, Pedro Haro is Seymour and Daren Kimura is Mr. Mushnik in "Little Shop of Horrors" at Kennedy Theatre.
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Actors bring big talent to ‘Little Shop’
The University of Hawaii-Manoa's theater department rarely does musicals. When it does, the music is almost Asian, and part of an expansive richly costumed production of kabuki, Chinese opera or Indonesian rendai on the Kennedy Theatre main stage. Western musical theater, an equally rich genre, is rarely part of the schedule at Manoa. That makes director Jennifer Linstad's upcoming production of "Little Shop of Horrors" something unusual, albeit not completely mainstream.
'Little Shop of Horrors'
Place: Earle Ernst Lab Theatre, University of Hawaii-Manoa
Time: 8 p.m. Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, and 2 p.m. Dec. 4
Tickets: $10 general; $9 seniors, military, students and UH faculty/staff; $3 UHM students with valid Fall 2005 ID
Call: 956-7655
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"Little Shop," the musical parody of the classic low-budget horror movie of the late-1950s, opens at the Ernst Lab Theatre on Wednesday and runs through next weekend.
It's the story of Seymour, a mild-mannered flower shop assistant who falls under the spell of a megalomaniac carnivorous plant. While several of the songs in the show are campy knockoffs of the hits of that era, others are more substantial and give the show its heart and soul.
Pedro Haro stars as Seymour, and that's reason enough to give this revival of "Little Shop" a try.
He returns to the UH stage after his fine performance as Lefou in Diamond Head Theatre's summer production of "Beauty and the Beast."
Haro established his range as a dramatic actor last year at UH with his portrayal of the noble Markus Gallerius in "Philemon" at the lab theater, and as Keith, the geeky serial killer, in "Betty's Summer Vacation" on the main stage. Anyone who has caught Haro singing karaoke knows he has more vocal range than he needs to make for a good Seymour.
Nicole Brilhante, who played a rape/incest survivor (for laughs) in "Betty's Summer Vacation," co-stars as Audrey, the innocent who dreams of living "Somewhere That's Green."
Daren Kimura, a multi-talented veteran of numerous community theater productions, makes a rare campus appearance as Mr. Mushnik, the owner of the flower shop.