Rehearsals haven’t started yet, but the director of this year’s Showbiz Queenstown production reckons audiences will be wowed by the talent on stage.
Tickets went on sale on Thursday for the 2023 season of Little Shop of Horrors, being staged at the Queenstown Memorial Centre from May 18 to 27.
Mountain Scene can reveal Andy Bell will play Seymour Krelborn, who works at Mushnik’s Flower Shop — Mr Mushnik’s being played by Chris Mackenzie — in New York’s ‘Skid Row’, with colleague Audrey (Dana Hamilton).
Struggling with a lack of customers, Mr Mushnik decides to close the store, till Seymour displays an unusual plant — Audrey II (voiced by Alex Fraser) — he bought from a Chinese flower shop, during a solar eclipse, which turns fortunes around.
But Audrey II starts to wither and it’s only when Seymour accidentally pricks his finger he works out the plant needs blood to survive.
Showbiz Queenstown newcomer Mitchell Walsh, meanwhile, will play Audrey’s sadistic boyfriend, Orin Scrivello (Dentist), while the ‘Ronnettes’ are Sofia Taquet, Eve Corbett, Danni Blow and Janey Bytheway.
It’ll be Tiffany Bindon’s directorial debut, with Pol Nicholson back as musical director, Drey Tendron in as choreographer and Vicki Elliott as production manager.
Bindon says the standard during auditions was ‘‘just phenomenal’’.
‘‘We were all stunned — we could have cast the show three times over.
‘‘We know we’re going to have a really good show before we even start rehearsals, because the cast are just incredible.’’
Meantime, the crew is on the hunt for a large shed or garage which they could use to start constructing their set in.
Normally they’d use the Red Barn at Remarkables Park, but they can’t access that till after the Remarkable Markets finish for the season.
‘‘We’re hoping to find somewhere, maybe if someone’s got a shed space or something that they’re not using, where we can start that build a bit earlier,’’ she says.
Anyone with an available space can email [email protected]
Tickets to Little Shop of Horrors are available via Eventfinda or showbizqueenstown.com
