Review: Drama Delivers a Horrifically Good Time

Palos Verdes High School’s Drama Department presents Little Shop of Horrors, a riveting play about a mysterious, man-eating plant.

The play opens in a small, failing flower shop on urban Skid Row. Naive flower shop assistant, Seymour, longs to be with his sweet yet insecure co-worker, Audrey. Unfortunately, she is trapped in an abusive relationship. To save Mushnik’s Flower Shop from closing and to gain affection from Audrey, Seymour raises an unusual plant he discovered after a total eclipse in hopes to increase business.

Seymour’s strange plant attracts business; however, he becomes frustrated at the plant’s lack of growth despite how well he has taken care of it. One day he accidentally pricks his finger, and he soon realizes the plant only feeds off of human flesh and blood.  

Lead of the play, senior Alex Katnic plays Seymour and describes his character as “the underdog and the protagonist, but at the same time part antagonist.”

“The whole goal of why he is doing antagonist-like things is because he’s in love with this girl Audrey. I think it’s really symbolic of what people will do to get to certain lengths. The whole show is about greed, and how everyone can disregard others to feed themselves,” he said.

The actors of the production were delightfully shocked at the announcement of what the show was. Junior Addie Mollo said she was “immediately excited because I love the movie version of this and kept watching it over and over again to study the characters.”

The cast of the musical has been hard at work since the end of summer break, preparing and perfecting every week to create the masterpiece they envisioned.

Drama teacher Nicole Thompson, the director of Little Shop of Horrors, said that she chose this musical because she knew she had the perfect group of drama students to put on the play and dazzle the crowd. Audiences were astonished by the performance by the actors and their ability to resemble the characters’ personalities and appearances so well.

Little Shop of Horrors brings a new style of dark humor musicals to PVHS. The show goes deeper to show beneath the surface of average characters and questions each character’s morality.

Senior Kailee Kakazu, the voice behind the murderous plant, depicts the show as “a lot dark than any other show I’ve been in.”

The cast also enjoys the thrilling and dark music that compliments the storyline and allows the actors to decorate or change the style to make it unique to them. The thought provoking music is flawlessly adopted by each actor which makes watching the show, so much better.

Senior Abby Mohaddes, playing one of the featured showgirls, said “I really love how different the show is.  You don’t see a man-eating plant all the time, especially in Broadway.”

The individuality, enthusiasm, and passion of every member of the play makes this a show you won’t want to miss.

This is the last weekend of the show, so be sure to check it out.

“This show has a lot of plot twists and it has to do with blood, murder, stuff like that so it is actually really interesting for that kind of crowd who doesn’t really like all those cheesy musicals, like my dad.” -Addie Mollo/Audrey

“My character, as part of the trio, narrates the story and goes in and out of the scenes… I really like being in the trio. It’s a great experience working with two other girls doing the same singing and dancing. I’ve really gotten closer with a lot of the people in the show.” -Abby Mohaddes / Showgirl Crystal

“My favorite song is sung by your truly, The Dentist. It shows or tells, who I am and why I became a dentist.” – Michael Ticknor / Orin or the dentist