“I’m gonna cry,” said Tiffany Haddish on opening night of Little Shop of Horrors at Pasadena Playhouse in California. It was the 25th day of the month of September, and the actors had just performed “Skid Row (Downtown),” an upbeat doo-wop anthem to the downtrodden and the desire for upward mobility. By a stroke of luck—or the generosity of the theatre gods—I was seated next to Haddish to witness her reactions to the production. (I can report that she was singing along throughout.)
Little Shop, that campy classic about a flower shop employee, Seymour, who finds a talking plant which brings him fame and fortune by eating his enemies, is known mostly for making audiences laugh, not cry. But the Pasadena Playhouse production, running through Oct. 20, is not a typical Little Shop.
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Diep Tran 