Our July 2024 production of Little Shop of Horrors has come to an end and the doors to the shop are now locked. The musical itself might not have a ‘happy’ ending, but here at Limitless Academy of Performing Arts we certainly did. We couldn’t be more proud of our students and the hard work of the entire cast and crew.
Great reviews
The show had tremendous support from the audience who left some amazing five star reviews of the show:
“Huge congrats to the Little Shop of Horrors team. Limitless shows never fail to impress – gripping performances, fast paced, visually stunning, and awesome vocals. We loved it!” – Jo Knight
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“What a performance from Limitless Academy of Performing Arts. The show was amazing. It’s funny, it’s professional, the set is very impressive and the talent on stage is incredible – go Limitless go!” – Rachel Buttress
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The show
Becoming one of the most performed musicals by amateur-dramatic societies, American high-schools, and professional theatre companies, Little Shop of Horrors was written in 1982. Spanning off-Broadway and Broadway runs, the musical theatre show was a huge success, gaining the interest of Warner Bros. Executives who approached the creative’s with an offer of a movie.
The Little Shop of Horrors movie is regarded as one of the best movie-musicals of all time; capturing the essence of the musical perfectly, but still making the film feel like its own counterpart. The films budget of $30 million allowed for incredible special effects that still hold up today. It was the success of the movie that helped turn Little Shop movie and stage musical into a cult-classic.
By the time the original run closed, the show was both the third-longest running musical and the highest-grossing in off-Broadway history.
Our production
Here at Limitless Academy of Performing Arts we take great pride in our sets, props, costumes, and overall production value in our shows.
We strive to give our performers the backdrop their hard work and talent deserves. These high standards to staging is what our audience expects from us in every production we do, from large scale musicals like Little Shop, to smaller productions in our in-house theatre.
The puppet of the huge man eating plant, Audrey II, revived a lot of praise from our audience. It had to look great, be able to be controlled by a puppeteer, and also be practical with several instances of the plant devouring victims.
All set and props for Little Shop were hired from local company Not Just Props who we have used several times before, and once again they created us some incredible items.
The cast for Little Shop was made up of students enrolled in our part time acting and musical theatre classes. We run youth drama classes for three age groups and have ongoing courses for adults. If you’re interested in being involved in our next production, you can try a class for free to see if Limitless Academy is right for you.
The theatre
The wonderful team at The SandPit Theatre helped deliver excellent stage lighting and sound, bringing the whole production together. In any musical, it’s important to have the performer’s voice clear and the subtleties of their vocal range heard, and their technical team really excelled here.
We have used the St. Albans theatre before for The Addams Family Musical in 2022, and they were once again their entire backstage and tech team, and front of house staff were very accommodating and welcoming.
Cast and crew
Little Shop of Horrors was originally written and composed by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. The in July 2024 run at The SandPit Theatre in St Albans was brought to you by:
Cast
Seymour Krelborn: Freddie Goold
Audrey: Victoria Hope
Audrey II: Kyle Goold
Mr Mushnik: Jay Thomas
Orin Scrivello: Evan Johnson
Street urchins
Ronette: Mikki Heppelthwaite
Chiffon: Iona Berry
Crystal: Alanis Jacintho
Ensemble
Archie Griffiths (understudy Seymour/Mr Bernsttein/Skip Snip)
Aimee Reeder (understudy Audrey)
Alice Walker (Swing street urchin)
Eve Buttress (Dance captain)
Becky Alonefits (Mrs Luce)
Grace Taylor
Christina Colomb
Imogen Little
Emily Wainwright
Creative
Director: Peter Heppelthwaite
Co-director: Jessica Heppelthwaite
Music director: Louise Atkins
Choreographer: Emily Hegarty
Costume design: Ruth Burton
Set design: Peter Watson (Not Just Props)
Marketing design: Kyle Goold
Lighting technician: Miles Leven
Sound technician: Jai Thaker
Puppeteer: Theo Brignall
Audio engineers: Amadeus Hall and Tommy Eplett
Theatre manager: Miles Leven
Assistant theatre manager: Abi Carter-Downing
Special thanks: Lianne Goold, Victoria Okell, Natalie Taylor, and the entire SandPit Theatre team.