You will believe a plant can sing and dance when Levels presents Little Shop of Horrors on Thursday, June 2, Friday, June 3, and Saturday, June 4, at 8 p.m. in the auditorium of Saddle Rock Elementary School, 10 Hawthorne Lane in Great Neck. Free tickets are currently available for the spring musical.
Levels, the Great Neck Library’s cultural center for teens, presents several fully staged theatrical productions a year, directed, produced and performed by students from seventh grade through college. While the Main Library is being renovated, Levels has been operating at Saddle Rock Elementary School and doing smaller weekend events at the library’s Station Branch.
Little Shop of Horrors is the story of Seymour Krelborn, a nerdy flower-shop employee on NYC’s Lower East Side, who discovers a “strange and unusual” plant that brings him fame, fortune and the love of his sweet coworker, Audrey. It turns out that the plant eats people, grows bigger every time it eats and isn’t shy about asking to be fed. Seymour soon realizes that he’ll have to stop the botanical monstrosity before it takes over the world.
Levels’ production features some surprising casting, updated musical arrangements and a very different approach to the character of the man-eating plant, which you’ll have to see to believe.
Based on Roger Corman’s 1960 horror movie that provided Jack Nicholson with his first major role, Little Shop had successful runs both on and off Broadway, and was made into a popular musical movie featuring Steve Martin, Rick Moranis and Bill Murray. The score, by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Disney’s Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast), includes the songs “Suddenly Seymour,” “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Feed Me.”
Little Shop’s all-student production is led by Director Zarabeth Senft, a four-year Levels veteran. Choreography is by Violet Elizabeth and stage management is by Molly Racsko. The show features set design by Netanel Kohn, costume design by Rebecca Hirschhorn, Audrey II design by Daisy Korman and makeup and hair design by Rayna Cooke and Simona Fine. Associate vocal directors are Maureen Guy and Jonathan Schindler, and Lauren Brill serves as lighting consultant. Publicity art is by Elaine Zhang, and Tyler Hakimian is head of construction.
The cast of middle school, high school and college students includes an amazing mixture of Levels veterans and newcomers, including Daniella Brancato, Ricky Cole, Phoebe Gordon, Maureen Guy, Rebecca Hirschhorn, Daisy Korman, Lea Levi, Alex Mousazadeh, Nina Phillips, Jonathan Schindler, Katherine Smolens and Ashley Yu. Student musicians include Sara Chitsaz, Scott Levy, Molly Racsko, Jonathan Souferian and Elaine Zhang.
Tickets, which are free of charge, are intended to guarantee seating and are available at the Circulation Desk of all Great Neck Library facilities. Doors open 45 minutes before showtime for ticket holders and 15 minutes before showtime for non-ticket holders. For more information, call 516-466-8055, ext. 216, or email levels@greatnecklibrary.org. For a behind-the-scenes look at the production, follow @levelsshopofhorrors on Instagram.
