I Think I Buy My Flowers Elsewhere
De Lütte Horrorladen (Little Shop Of Horrors)
Ohnsorg Theater, Hamburg, 13th June, 2012
First of all: I truly love the show having all elements in it which makes for me a musical a good one.
I had seen several other productions of this show before, the last one the TfN musicalcompany one which is just perfect (read various posts >> here) and I had looked forward to this production being intrigued what this old-established theatre where shows are usually performed in platt (low German) turned this into.
I had seen several other productions of this show before, the last one the TfN musicalcompany one which is just perfect (read various posts >> here) and I had looked forward to this production being intrigued what this old-established theatre where shows are usually performed in platt (low German) turned this into.
The reviews from the opening night a few days ago were very positive (saying that I know that means nothing these days) though the pictures and video clips did not convince me but live it could have been different - could....
So on Wednesday evening missing out on my company's summer party and/or watching football I was off to the Ohnsorg Theater. It was my first visit to the new building as the theatre moved a year ago, so that was something to look forward to and I must say the building did not disappoint looking amazing.
I had booked that show as there was an introduction to it which was good, not much new to me, I love these little extras nevertheless. The guy doing the introduction was actually the one who translated the show, I wish though now I asked him whether from the English version to platt or from the German version to platt as there are already differences. Well I bugged him with several questions already about the actual production he answered so I was happy. ;-)
I sat in the dress circle's front row which is good, a bit low with the barrier in front of you (the very friendly FOH staff actually even told every patron, incl. adults, sitting there at the door that they could have a cushion if they needed one. Nice gesture I thought as other theatres would not bother).
So far so good but at 8pm disaster started to take its course...
Cast:
Simon Krellborn (Seymour) - Erkki Hopf
Ortrud (Audrey) - Elisabeth Ebner
Mr Mushnik - Horst Arenthold
Ortwin Skambraks (Orin) - Oskar Ketelhut
Chrissie (Crystal) - Sandra Keck
Chantal (Chiffon) - Tanja Bahmani
Ronja (Ronette) - Silke Muriel Fischer
Wino/Customer/Masochist/Radio Announcer/Bernheim (Bernstein) - Markus Gillich
Ortrud II (Audrey II voice) - Patrick James O'Connell
Ortrud II (Audrey II manipulation) - Jan Radermacher/Marco Knorz
Swing for all female tracks: Christin Deuker
It started with the changes made:
I have a minor issue with it due to the language used being moved to North Germany where it is spoken though since the musical actually hardly ever touches the country/city subject bit it is an unnecessary change for me, same for most names being changed.
Things were added as during the songs as a ridiculous rap bit of a shitty 90s (the song title contains the word shit ;-) )from a crap girl band to "Downtown" - this was pathetic ("Downtown" is actually one of my favourite numbers and they ruined it!!!), other songs were adjusted too.
The bit that was added just before Seymour visits Orin at his surgery with the other patient being a masochist wasting several minutes which DRAAAAAAAAGGED. I just thought WTF? Was this done just to create some laughs? It was even not funny.
Once Audrey finished her "Somewhere That's Green" the soul girls came onstage dressed as garden gnomes and performed some stupid little dance - again this did not make me laugh, it was just laughable.
When Orin arrived at the flower shop and performed "Dentist" the girl trio were not part of the story as usual in their street girl outfits but soul girls in most ridiculous nurses costumes. "Call Back in the Morning", the act 2 opening number was completely cut so was "Closed for Renovations", well I suppose to give more time to the new bits something had to be cut to keep the running time at approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, both number were totally missed by me and the ending.... OUCH. I will not totally spoil it though some bits are mentioned further below but it is one I do NOT want to see.
Well I better stop, I could go on and on, let's say plenty of directing decision I could not understand, you may get the picture.
The performances also only partly convinced though I partly blame direction for that focusing too much on getting laughs which often seemed to take away the focus from the character development and deployment, even sometimes from the story.
There were cast settings, e.g. where someone stood in a scene I just could not understand as at the end when Audrey died or where the soul girls would stand when being some kind of a Greek chorus. It was very hard for me to believe (and still is) that Anatol Preissler had directed this show before at other theatres. I definitely would not want to see another one after Wednesday night.
Anyway, not all was bad mentioning the cast: I was massively impressed by Horst Arenthold as Mr Mushnik. His Mr Mushnik is not Jewish so misses these "character" bits you usually get to see but I do not miss them and he was so grouchy, grumpy and miserable that I could not help but enjoy his performance. His bits in "Mushnik & Son" were greatly sung, just a bit bad that the choreography only indicated the tango once briefly, but nevertheless one highlight.
Patrick James O'Connell as the voice of the plant was also great, equipped with a deep strong voice, came across rather scary but also entertaining, due to some line changes, not sure why done, there were some punch lines, Audrey II normally has, missing.
The plant is played by either 'my' beloved Jan Radermacher or 'my' also beloved Marco Knorz alternating and I got to see Marco and while I was not impressed with the size of the plant in act 2 looking not as stunning as e.g. the TfN one (yeah, me nitpicking again but considering all the other issues I have with this production it is only minor) the actual look was great and well played being wonderfully synch with Patrick which I had seen off before in other productions. For the final Marco actually appeared with a small version of the plant reminding me a lot of how he was with the Felix puppet in "Villa Sonnenschein" earlier this year. Great to see him but actually a major waste of talent as I can picture him as Seymour.
The bit that was added just before Seymour visits Orin at his surgery with the other patient being a masochist wasting several minutes which DRAAAAAAAAGGED. I just thought WTF? Was this done just to create some laughs? It was even not funny.
Once Audrey finished her "Somewhere That's Green" the soul girls came onstage dressed as garden gnomes and performed some stupid little dance - again this did not make me laugh, it was just laughable.
When Orin arrived at the flower shop and performed "Dentist" the girl trio were not part of the story as usual in their street girl outfits but soul girls in most ridiculous nurses costumes. "Call Back in the Morning", the act 2 opening number was completely cut so was "Closed for Renovations", well I suppose to give more time to the new bits something had to be cut to keep the running time at approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, both number were totally missed by me and the ending.... OUCH. I will not totally spoil it though some bits are mentioned further below but it is one I do NOT want to see.
Well I better stop, I could go on and on, let's say plenty of directing decision I could not understand, you may get the picture.
The performances also only partly convinced though I partly blame direction for that focusing too much on getting laughs which often seemed to take away the focus from the character development and deployment, even sometimes from the story.
There were cast settings, e.g. where someone stood in a scene I just could not understand as at the end when Audrey died or where the soul girls would stand when being some kind of a Greek chorus. It was very hard for me to believe (and still is) that Anatol Preissler had directed this show before at other theatres. I definitely would not want to see another one after Wednesday night.
Anyway, not all was bad mentioning the cast: I was massively impressed by Horst Arenthold as Mr Mushnik. His Mr Mushnik is not Jewish so misses these "character" bits you usually get to see but I do not miss them and he was so grouchy, grumpy and miserable that I could not help but enjoy his performance. His bits in "Mushnik & Son" were greatly sung, just a bit bad that the choreography only indicated the tango once briefly, but nevertheless one highlight.
Patrick James O'Connell as the voice of the plant was also great, equipped with a deep strong voice, came across rather scary but also entertaining, due to some line changes, not sure why done, there were some punch lines, Audrey II normally has, missing.
The plant is played by either 'my' beloved Jan Radermacher or 'my' also beloved Marco Knorz alternating and I got to see Marco and while I was not impressed with the size of the plant in act 2 looking not as stunning as e.g. the TfN one (yeah, me nitpicking again but considering all the other issues I have with this production it is only minor) the actual look was great and well played being wonderfully synch with Patrick which I had seen off before in other productions. For the final Marco actually appeared with a small version of the plant reminding me a lot of how he was with the Felix puppet in "Villa Sonnenschein" earlier this year. Great to see him but actually a major waste of talent as I can picture him as Seymour.
Biggest disappointment was Elisabeth Ebner as Audrey. Yes she was blond and wore some tacky clothes in act 1 especially but her performance totally lacked the sweetness and naïvety I want to see and her comic timing was usually way off. Not sure whether it had something to do with the "platt", she's originally from Vienna and just learnt it for the show, but I just felt she missed how to deliver emotions through the lines she had to say seeming too focus too hard on the right pronounciation of her lines but still missing the right intonation, the certain 'melody' that comes with the "platt" which is more similar to English actually than German imho.
Of the soul girls just Tanja Bahmani could wow. Not only does she have an incredible strong and full mezzo-soprano there's so much natural power in her whole play but the other two especially Sandra Keck were just not right for soul girls totally lacking the SOUL in voice and performance.
Sandra Keck, who is a member of the theatre ensemble, clearly thinks she can sing.
She actually says it on her website she is a singer and she has done concerts and show revues at this theatre BUT what she cannot sing are musical songs totally missing special techniques, her breathing is so bad trying to sing and breath sometimes at the same time and her intonation is so way off besides other issues. The other girl on the other side shows off way too much techniques coming across as rather inexperienced. It all felt so artificial and forced. It was hurting to watch these when you got to see utter talent in past productions.
The normally so infectious songs they sang often lacked energy. I wanted a proper "Dreamgirls" performance, give me the Supremes, the Crystals, the Ronettes, maybe even a light version of the Spice Girls and not the Buranowskije Babuschki you may remember from this year's ESC with maybe either the choreography not seeing the true potential of these numbers or the girls but Tanja just not having the talent?
I was only partly keen on Oskar Ketelhut as Orin. His Orin was truly an a**ehole most of the time, which I enjoyed, but played rather dumb but for me Orin is everything but not dumb (he is a doctor after all!). The abusive, sadistic part, while yes, it was shown that he hits his girlfriend was not strong enough and with the changes in the surgery when the masochistic patient arrives somehow reduced which just did not make sense for me.
Erkki Hopf as Seymour was also just partly convincing though the partly is a good share of the whole picture. His portrayal was good, especially at the beginning being wonderful as the clumsy and accident-prone shop assistant but the transformation to angst and guilt and decisiveness was so little there which was a major disappointment though particularly in this case it is due to the changes they made to the ending with Seymour instead of fighting is very much resigning. Not a fan of the ending as said above, not a fan of how it was portrayed. The singing, well, yes beautifully sung, but actually it was often so beautifully sung that it was not Seymour anymore missing the emotional content and his typical traits a lot.
What musical songs makes special to me is there is more to them than just words and a melody. They are to tell a story usually linked with emotions but when I have the impression it is not felt the performance fails.
It also did not help that the band which sat at the back of the stage behind the set sometimes just missed the drive and energy especially for the usually bigger show numbers as "Downtown" or "Dentist" though during the quieter numbers as "Somewhere That's Green" it was fine giving the right support for the performers IMHO. While there were as many people in the band as other productions it just sounded sometimes a bit empty and bloodless.
The set was sufficient utilising the theatre's revolving stage for the various scenes though due to the size of it the shop using half of the revolving stage lost its counter when the largest plant in act 2 appeared. Maybe reducing the street part a bit more or bringing it forward off the revolving stage or even not using it (but then as I was told in the introduction they wanted to show off!) would have been my preferred option.
Costumes were sometimes nice, sometimes ridiculous. So they moved it to somewhere in North Germany but why did they also change the period considering the 60s style music etc?
The street girls wore some 80s/90s trash outfits, their soul girls outfits also missed the glam and were cut rather misshapen. The others were largely sufficient/good imho though why the heck was Audrey wearing a bridal dress at the end? Yes I could come up with some stupid idea of "she bought it many moons ago blah blah blah" and Seymour proposed to her in this production so she was trying it on but I do not want that and in the original script it is late in the evening so where the hell did that dress come from? And WHY the change?
Actually "Why the change?" is what I asked myself way too often. Plenty of people around me seemed to love or at least enjoy it though the applause at curtain call was rather weak but for me this is a production I do not need and especially do not want to see. Now when is the next TfN musicalcompany performance of it?
Pictures from the show here
Of the soul girls just Tanja Bahmani could wow. Not only does she have an incredible strong and full mezzo-soprano there's so much natural power in her whole play but the other two especially Sandra Keck were just not right for soul girls totally lacking the SOUL in voice and performance.
Sandra Keck, who is a member of the theatre ensemble, clearly thinks she can sing.
She actually says it on her website she is a singer and she has done concerts and show revues at this theatre BUT what she cannot sing are musical songs totally missing special techniques, her breathing is so bad trying to sing and breath sometimes at the same time and her intonation is so way off besides other issues. The other girl on the other side shows off way too much techniques coming across as rather inexperienced. It all felt so artificial and forced. It was hurting to watch these when you got to see utter talent in past productions.
The normally so infectious songs they sang often lacked energy. I wanted a proper "Dreamgirls" performance, give me the Supremes, the Crystals, the Ronettes, maybe even a light version of the Spice Girls and not the Buranowskije Babuschki you may remember from this year's ESC with maybe either the choreography not seeing the true potential of these numbers or the girls but Tanja just not having the talent?
I was only partly keen on Oskar Ketelhut as Orin. His Orin was truly an a**ehole most of the time, which I enjoyed, but played rather dumb but for me Orin is everything but not dumb (he is a doctor after all!). The abusive, sadistic part, while yes, it was shown that he hits his girlfriend was not strong enough and with the changes in the surgery when the masochistic patient arrives somehow reduced which just did not make sense for me.
Erkki Hopf as Seymour was also just partly convincing though the partly is a good share of the whole picture. His portrayal was good, especially at the beginning being wonderful as the clumsy and accident-prone shop assistant but the transformation to angst and guilt and decisiveness was so little there which was a major disappointment though particularly in this case it is due to the changes they made to the ending with Seymour instead of fighting is very much resigning. Not a fan of the ending as said above, not a fan of how it was portrayed. The singing, well, yes beautifully sung, but actually it was often so beautifully sung that it was not Seymour anymore missing the emotional content and his typical traits a lot.
What musical songs makes special to me is there is more to them than just words and a melody. They are to tell a story usually linked with emotions but when I have the impression it is not felt the performance fails.
It also did not help that the band which sat at the back of the stage behind the set sometimes just missed the drive and energy especially for the usually bigger show numbers as "Downtown" or "Dentist" though during the quieter numbers as "Somewhere That's Green" it was fine giving the right support for the performers IMHO. While there were as many people in the band as other productions it just sounded sometimes a bit empty and bloodless.
The set was sufficient utilising the theatre's revolving stage for the various scenes though due to the size of it the shop using half of the revolving stage lost its counter when the largest plant in act 2 appeared. Maybe reducing the street part a bit more or bringing it forward off the revolving stage or even not using it (but then as I was told in the introduction they wanted to show off!) would have been my preferred option.
Costumes were sometimes nice, sometimes ridiculous. So they moved it to somewhere in North Germany but why did they also change the period considering the 60s style music etc?
The street girls wore some 80s/90s trash outfits, their soul girls outfits also missed the glam and were cut rather misshapen. The others were largely sufficient/good imho though why the heck was Audrey wearing a bridal dress at the end? Yes I could come up with some stupid idea of "she bought it many moons ago blah blah blah" and Seymour proposed to her in this production so she was trying it on but I do not want that and in the original script it is late in the evening so where the hell did that dress come from? And WHY the change?
Actually "Why the change?" is what I asked myself way too often. Plenty of people around me seemed to love or at least enjoy it though the applause at curtain call was rather weak but for me this is a production I do not need and especially do not want to see. Now when is the next TfN musicalcompany performance of it?
Pictures from the show here
