voracious appetites

I have to admit, I was starving when I came out of The Canadian Stage Company's production of Little Shop of Horrors, now playing at the St. Lawrence Centre.

Maybe it was all those cries of "feed me, Seymour!".

It you're looking for something to take the kids to, that isn't the syrupy-sweet silliness of Peter Pan, but isn't quite the nasty darkness of Sweeney Todd, swing by Little Shop of Horrors.

Certainly, while the piece, directed by Soulpepper regular Ted Dykstra, isn't serious theatre, it is a good spot of fun, in a decidedly dark way.

While little ones may find some scenes a bit frightening, older kids will find the morbid humour and send-up of 50s -style musicals, with ironic modern touches, hilarious. The tunes are pretty catchy, too.

The story begins with loser Seymour (Ron Pederson), a lowly (and clumsy) clerk in Mushnik's Flower Shop. At the urging of his beloved fellow worker Audrey (a perfectly cast Patricia Zentilli), he puts his own invention, the "Audrey 2", in the window to attract business.

But this is no ordinary plant, having been thusly afflicted by suspicious alien activity during an eclipse. Unbeknownst to our hero, his plant has a certain taste -and it isn't for coffee grounds or pine needles.

Dancing their way through Seymour's seamy successes and acidic ascendency are an assortment of colourful characters, including Sheldon Davis as a entertainingly frazzled Mr. Mushnik, and Rejean Cournoyer as the oily Orin (talk about your Demon Dentist of Skid Row). Camp factor is provided not only with big hair, loud makeup and tacky dresses, but is personified in the forms of Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette, who act as the every-women characters, and were apparently cast in the small, medium, and large variety, upping the campiness even more.

But after two hours of tunes like Grow For Me, Git It and Suddenly Seymour, as well as the sight limbs sticking out of a gigantic plant (with an admittedly luxurious-looking velvet-lined mouth -I wanted to curl up in it for a nap, really) I had worked up a real hunger for some actual food.

Thank goodness JK Wine Bar is around the corner.

Ruminating over the to-die-for selection of lovely mezes-style dishes my companion and I ordered (velvety hangar steak, fragrant flatbread, saucy squid), I couldn't help but wonder about the bleak, if sarcastic, ending of Little Shop.

Unlike other, more festive fare around town, the good guys don't really win the Ashman/Menken world. To quote Audrey's tune, the whole world becomes 'someplace green' -though probably not half as nice as the mixed greens at JK.

Still, if salty, not sweet, is your preference this holiday season, check out Canstage.
And then follow it up with frites around the corner.

Forget asking Seymour -Jamie Kennedy's your man.

Little Shop of Horrors runs at the St. Lawrence Centre (Bluma Appel Theatre) until December 15th.

For more information, go to www.canstage.ca

For more information on JK Wine Bar, go to www.jkkitchens.com