Little Shop 7/2 Eve - all female cast out

An absolutely bizarre performance of Little Shop of Horrors in Chicago this evening (7/2) - all four regular female cast members (Audrey and the three "urchins") were out of the show. What made it bizarre is there is only one understudy for the "urchins" so she was on alone doing what I assume was a mix of all three roles. Having never seen the show before (movie excepted) so no idea if this was normal or trying to make up for the missing cast but I did notice some of the other cast members singing chorus stuff with our one "urchin" (and in the understudy announcement, she was billed as "the urchin" rather than one of three names).

Anyway, how does an entire female cast go out at the same time? We couldn't get any answers at the theater other than they were all there for the matinee. The only thing we could guess is they all went out to dinner together and got food poisoning (and it's Taste of Chicago going on right now all of two blocks from the theater so perhaps more of a possibility if they went there than at other times).

I did think the understudy Audrey (Yvette Lawrence) did a very good job as well as the understudy urchin (Iris Burruss) did as good a job as could reasonably be expected (some of the attempts to blend the roles did not work all that well but there was little choice as the alternative was to drop lines from songs).

Oh. My. God. That is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. How the hell do you do the show with only one Urchin? I can't even imagine how that would play, especially since they have so many lines that answer each other. It must have sounded weird vocally too!

I actually wondered how the understudy situation worked since there is no chorus to move up. One of the urchins was on vacation when I saw it and they had brought in a standby.

"Oh. My. God. That is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. How the hell do you do the show with only one Urchin?"

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!!! WTF??? What did she do, have conversations with herself?

I'm sure the understudy did a great job but wow...frankly, I think that would majorly suck. The "greek chorus" dynamic, both vocally and presence-wise, is an ENORMOUS part of the show.

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i'm half suprised there wasn't a male urchin in the mix, the audrey 2 understudy ( a friend of the family) is also the dance captain so he could have definately pulled it off in a pinch like this

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I saw today's matinee and everyone was in except one of the urchins and tari kelly. That is VERY weird about having one urchin. It must have been bizarre for the audience too.

It seems that Little shop has been having some problems lately, like during the matinee there was a big set problem at the end of act I. The dentist set didn't go off stage, so all you could see was Audrey II going crazy. The show curtain didn't come down all the way at intermission until someone pulled it down manually. It was also a DEAD audience. There were hardley any laughs and no big applauses.

I feel so sorry for this very talented cast. I hope everyone feels better soon!

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That is very bizzare that the y were all out on the same day. And I still do not understand how the show could've been done with only one urchin.

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That is so weird. When I saw it one urchin was out ans someone covered the role, the acting, singing, dancing, and set seemed fantastic. There were some sound problems but it wasn't that bad. The audience laughed and clapped too. I wonder what is happening. Tari Kelly is amzing! (Just adding that in )

Updated On: 7/3/05 at 01:21 AM

I feel bad for the Urchin, but she made it through (hopefully) So that is good.

Hi, everyone. I'm Tari Kelly, Audrey on the tour of Little Shop of Horrors. I'd like to set the record straight about Sat. evening. For everyone's info there is a terrible sickness running rampant through our cast. Jonathan Rayson, Seymour, had is last week and now I have it as well as the urchins. We cannot sing - it has attacked our vocal chords. It is not food poisoning, our periods, or anything like that. I have now been out for 3 shows in a row which is highly unusual being I've only missed 3 other shows in the past year and those were back in November when I had pretty much the same sickness. Our 3 regular urchins have also been fighting it all week and one of them came in on Thursday only to make it halfway through before having to go home - mind you our wonderful understudy was already on for another urchin at the time. What happened Saturday night is very rare but sometimes there's just no stopping nature. Once someone in the cast gets sick it's usually only a matter of time before everyone has their bout with it. It has just snowballed much to everyone's dismay. Just thought you all might like to know the truth.

Now whether or not the show should have been canceled due to 1 urchin....... that's another subject ......

Tari- That is awful what is happening. Feel better to you and the rest of the cast! You are all amazing!

Hi Tari,

Thank you for setting the record straight on that, and I hope everyone gets better soon! As I said, I'm sure Iris did a fantastic job under the circumstances.

In addition, I saw you in Los Angeles last year and you were FANTASTIC as Audrey! I also vividly remember how you spent about ten minutes talking to my girlfriend and I outside the stage door until WE finally had to run due to the cold! I really appreciated the performance, and the graciousness.

Thanks,
Scott

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Updated On: 7/3/05 at 01:36 AM

That is INTERESTING! A lot of the show must have been changed around!

Feel better!

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