The classic Alan Menken-Howard Ashman musical will play a developmental engagement at the Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables, FL, May 7 to June 15 prior to arriving on Broadway — at a theatre to be named — in July. This short run will allow the production a chance to perfect the complex scenic elements of the musical prior to the full-scale New York production this summer. Performances at the Florida theatre are Wednesday through Friday evenings at 8 PM, Saturdays at 2 and 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM. After the show's opening on May 16, the musical will also play an additional performance Sundays at 7 PM. Tickets for the musical comedy are priced at $27 during previews for all performances. After opening, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings and all matinee performances are $35; Friday and Saturday evening tickets are $40. Tickets may be purchased by calling the theatre's box office at (305) 444-9293 or Ticketmaster at (305) 358-5885. The Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre is located at 280 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, FL; for more information, visit www.actorsplayhouse.org.
Although confirmed casting has yet to be announced, Hunter Foster, Alice Ripley and Billy Porter have been offered the roles of, respectively, Seymour Audrey and Audrey II. Lee Wilkof — who starred as skid-row schlub Seymour in the original Off-Broadway company of Little Shop — is also in negotiations to play plant shop owner Mushnik. A spokesperson for the production said complete casting will be announced shortly.
The original production of Little Shop of Horrors opened at the old WPA Theatre in Chelsea and then transferred to the Orpheum Theatre in 1982, where it stayed for 2,209 performances. Ashman, who died on March 14, 1991, directed the piece. Edie Cowan was choreographer. The musical, which boasts such tunes as "Suddenly Seymour," "Downtown" and "Somewhere That's Green," was made into a 1986 film starring Ellen Greene as Audrey, Rick Moranis as Seymour, Vincent Gardenia as Mushnik and Steve Martin as Orin, the dentist.
