ALL ABOUT THE GIRL

You won’t find the diva—er, star of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS listed at The Smoking Gun. She makes few celebrity demands: no required dressing room size or décor; no provisions for a stretch limo; no 24 white towels (washed once only).

What this femme fatale/theatrical monster named Audrey II does require in her national tour is computerization guided by two talented puppeteers and a techie. And a backstage actor who can boom out both songs and lines with jivey élan. And, of course, a nightly “meal” of human co-stars who climb between its green jaws and disappear down its red throat. Audrey II is thus well-equipped to steal the show every night, as a good diva should, at the Palace Theatre November 8-20.

No matter what incarnation of the show is being discussed—the original 1960 Roger Corman film, the Off-Broadway sensation that opened in 1982, the hit movie in 1986, or the recent winning Broadway revival—the story always depends most on its hungry botanical villain for laughs and thrills. Designed by master puppeteer Martin Robinson with help from the Jim Henson Workshop, Audrey II is actually a series of four puppets. The first two hand versions, according to Robinson, are “puppy-like, very sweet and needy. The third is a Porsche, the fourth is a tank.” The final, and largest, one stands 5 feet tall and 6 feet long.

Audrey II wasn’t always such an imposing presence. She grew from a simpler prop in the 1960 film to a multiple personality in the Off-Broadway production of 1982. It was then that Robinson, a Sesame Street veteran puppeteer was commissioned to create an imposing Audrey II for the stage version. He crafted a four-stage puppet who eventually could sing, dance, get some laughs, and chomp down co-actors with a bit of comic flair.

For the recent Broadway revival, under Jerry Zaks’ direction, Robinson expanded on his original stage design. He upgraded the fourth stage Audrey II to a half-ton, steel-framed giant that worked with an elaborate counterweight system and tracks built into the stage. Robinson was inside it, manually manipulating this heftiest Audrey II with the aid of several fellow puppeteers and a backstage technician.

For the road tour, however, the producers chose to further computerize Audrey II so she could be guided by just two puppeteers and a technician, Michael Latini, Anthony Asbury, and Marc Petrosino. They have their work cut out for them.

The stage one Audrey II is a pleasant-enough-looking potted plant, a hand puppet manipulated by a puppeteer seated inside a mobile cabinet. The character of Seymour actually supplies the movements for the second Audrey II, with some clever help from the costume department.

The larger-than-life third Audrey II is made of an aluminum frame covered with hard foam and fabric, and requires two puppeteers to work the jaws and pucker the lips. They try to match the puppet’s movements as closely as possible to actor Michael James Leslie’s performance as the plant’s voice. The actor sits in a small backstage booth equipped with monitors and a microphone, synchronizing his spoken lines and songs with the motions of Audrey II’s jaws and the rhythms set by the orchestra conductor. But when the enormous fourth, and final, model is rolled onstage, the puppeteers have their hands full.

One plays a “killer claw” of the plant, while another works the “pod” by a computerized joystick and stage monitors. The plant’s moves have to be exact to keep the action smooth and to protect the actors whom she gulps down, digests, and expels as only she can do.

So, is Audrey II a diva like so many others? The Smoking Gun doesn’t say, so you decide. Just know that onstage Audrey II again rises to the top of the food chain.