It's official! The hit Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Westside Theatre has announced that Evan Rachel Wood and Darren Criss will be the show's next Audrey and Seymour, respectively. The two begin their tenure January 30, 2024.
Wood and Criss will succeed Constance Wu and Corbin Bleu, who, as previously announced, will play their final performances in the long-running revival January 28.
“The casting of this show has become one of the greatest joys of our lives. The fact that in year five, we continue to attract talent like Evan Rachel Wood and Darren Criss is a testament to Howard Ashman’s and Alan Menken’s Little Shop of Horrors being one of the finest achievements in musical theater, and to Michael Mayer’s perfectly and joyously staged production at the Westside Theatre,” says the producers of Little Shop in a statement. “As two of the most daring, enticing, and dynamic stars of their generation, we cannot wait to see the magic that real-life friends Evan and Darren bring to their roles."
In an interview on Sirius XM on Broadway’s A Very Darren Crissmas Hour, Criss said the two will be starring in the show until "late March." Criss also said he'd been trying to persuade Wood for years to do stage work, calling her a "wonderful person in my life and such a Broadway baby and...I've given shit to for years to be like, 'When are you coming to Broadway?'" Well, all that cajoling has paid off.
See the show's fun announcement in the video below.
Wood is a three-time Golden Globe nominee and a three-time Emmy nominee for her work in film and television. Some of her credits include Mildred Pierce, True Blood, Westworld, Across the Universe, The Wrestler, and Frozen 2. This is her New York stage debut, though she has sung on-screen in Across the Universe (the Beatles jukebox movie musical directed by Julie Taymor) and Frozen 2. She also is in a band with Zane Carney (the brother of Broadway star Reeve Carney), called Evan + Zane.
Criss came to fame on the Ryan Murphy musical television series Glee, and since appeared on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and most recently, American Buffalo. He is an Emmy winner and Golden Globe winner for portraying murderer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
The current cast of Little Shop of Horrors features Tony nominees Bryce Pinkham (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, The Heidi Chronicles) as Dr. Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. and Brad Oscar (The Producers) as Mr. Mushnik, alongside Aaron Arnell Harrington as The Voice of Audrey II, D’Kaylah Unique Whitley as Ronnette, Tiffany Renee Thompson as Crystal, Khadija Sankoh as Chiffon, as well as, Camryn Hampton, Najah Hetsberger, Michael Iannucci, Weston Chandler Long, Jeff Sears, Teddy Yudain, Zakiya Baptiste, Jonothon Lyons, Noel MacNeal, Johnny Newcomb, and Kevin Pariseau.
The Howard Ashman and Alan Menken revival opened at Westside Theatre October 17, 2019. Previous players in the roles of Seymour and Audrey have included Jonathan Groff, Tammy Blanchard, Jeremy Jordan, Lena Hall, Maude Apatow, Gideon Glick, Rob McClure, Skylar Astin, Conrad Ricamora, and Matt Doyle.
