Little Shop Of Horrors’s man-eating plant Audrey II, who has been happily scoffing cast members nightly at the Duke of York’s since March, is moving to the Ambassadors (formerly the New Ambassadors) in June, where the show continues until November.
The darkly comic musical has its last performance at the Duke of York’s on 23 June, and begins performances at the Ambassadors on 27 June at the new evening time of 19:45. The show is booking at its new home until 3 November. The cast remains the same: Sheridan Smith as Audrey, Paul Keating as Seymour, Alistair McGowan as the dentist, Barry James as Mr Mushnik and Mike McShane as the voice of Audrey II.
Little Shop Of Horrors, which began life at the Menier Chocolate Factory last year before transferring into the Duke of York’s, tells the story of Seymour, a florist’s assistant in Mr Mushnik’s struggling shop in Skid Row. When Seymour discovers an exotic plant – which he names after his secret love Audrey – the shop’s fortunes look up, but as the plant grows it demands an unusual food, human blood. Tempted by the better life that Audrey II promises him, Seymour is drawn into the plant’s evil plans for world domination.
Little Shop Of Horrors will be the first show in the newly renamed Ambassadors theatre, which was recently bought from Ambassador Theatre Group by former Society of London Theatre President Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, owner of the adjacent St Martin’s and the Victoria Palace. The Ambassadors is the theatre’s original name, before it was renamed the New Ambassadors, and was the first home of London’s longest-running show, The Mousetrap, currently residing at the St Martin’s.
Presently running at the theatre is Whipping It Up, which ends its run on 16 June. em>CB