DAVIE | LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
'Little Shop of Horrors' still a laugh riot
NUTTY 1982 OFF-BROADWAY SMASH COMES TO DAVIE VIA LOCAL THEATER GROUP BROWARD ON BROADWAY

Special to The Miami Herald
BY EILEEN SOLER

A bloodthirsty alien from another planet? A masochistic dentist? A brainless bombshell with a broken arm?

Prepare to laugh, yes, laugh till your tummy splits, during Broward on Broadway's dark comedy musical Little Shop of Horrors opening Saturday at David Posnack Jewish Community Center's Brickman Family Foundation Theater in Davie.

''Sometimes during our first few rehearsals, we had to focus so hard to not laugh at each other,'' said Robert Kraljevich, who plays hilarious, though orphaned, lonely clerk Seymour Krelbourn.

A nerd down to his Charlie Brown wardrobe, Seymour works in a failing flower shop alongside his secret passion -- the ditsy Audrey, played by Sabrina Head. Audrey's lover is sicko dentist Orin (Reynaldo Alvarez), who gleefully inflicts pain on patients while he sucks in laughing gas.

When shop owner and mensch Mr. Mushnik (Stephen Jerome) reveals the store will soon close for lack of business, Audrey convinces her boss that a strange, mysterious plant Seymour discovered during a solar eclipse will surely lure customers if placed in the store's window.

Soon the store is packed with people, Seymour becomes a media hit and Audrey begins falling in love with her gentle co-worker.

But no dark comedy can end with such a happy turn, and this one goes delightfully gruesome when the plant, lovingly named Audrey II, turns carnivorous with teeth set on taking over the world.

''We watch each other and enjoy what we see so much that we can barely wait for the audience reaction,'' said Bob Boyer, a preproduction pianist who plays several roles in the show.

Set on New York City's Skid Row during the 1960s, the show's plot is punctuated with parodies of '60s pop music. Audrey II rocks the house with the rhythm-and-blues of James Brown and Isaac Hayes.

Director Joan Dresch leads the cast into scenes of extreme animation, plus an added dream sequence. Dresch's husband, J.P. Oliver, created the magical set with two rotating stages and four Audrey II puppets that grow as the creature dines first on droplets of blood and then on corpses.

Broward on Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors will be performed at 1 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. Sundays Feb. 16 through March 9 at the Posnack Jewish Community Center's Brickman Family Foundation Theater, 5850 Pine Island Rd., Davie. Tickets cost $17 for adults, $13 for senior citizens and students, and $10 children 13 and younger. Call 954- 747-7589 or visit wwwbrowardonbroadway.com.