Little Shop of Horrors feeds the thirst for cute

Director Michael Weber’s production of Little Shop of Horrors for Porchlight Music Theatre is cute with a capital C, and that’s my only quarrel with it. In my first encounter with the show, I’d expected something a bit more macabre—not Sweeney Todd, but closer to The Sorcerer’s Apprentice than to Babes in Toyland. The plot, about a man-eating plant dropped to earth from outer space, alludes to all the fears of devastation afflicting the world in 1960, when Roger Corman made its nonmusical original: horror, indeed. Little Shop of HorrorsThrough 12/13: Wed–Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Fri 11/27 and Thu 12/3 and 12/10 2 PM; no show Thu 11/26; Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln, porchlightmusictheatre.org, $81-$104 Having said that, though, this version of the musical (which, to be fair, boasts an upbeat score by Alan Menken which knocks out any trace of grimness; Howard Ashman wrote the book and lyrics) is impeccably done.

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