E-Mail This Article to a Friend Plant life A chat with Little Shop’s Audrey II BY SALLY CRAGIN

Now that spring has arrived, is there any bloom more, uh, captivating than Audrey II? The carnivorous plant grown by nebbishy Skid Row florist Seymour Krelboure dominates the noir musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors. The touring version of the Broadway show based on the 1960 Roger Corman film arrives at the Colonial Theatre this week with several ferocious plants designed by Martin P. Robinson (who did the killer flora for the original 1982 Off Broadway run) in collaboration with the Jim Henson Workshop. But the new Audrey II is to a Muppet what a polar bear is to a Steiff teddy. With a pod the size of a small car and leaves that spill onto the stage, the plant is such a challenge that three performers — Michael Latini, Paul McGinnis, and Marc Petrosino — will alternate as puppeteers. The ever-expanding Audrey II’s final incarnation is so big, it requires an additional backstage operator.

"What’s cool is that the puppeteers get nuance out of a puppet the size of a VW bug," comments Jonathan Rayson, who plays Seymour. Further plant characterization is provided by sonorous-voiced Michael James Leslie, who originated Audrey II’s voice Off Broadway and worked with the late book writer and lyricist Howard Ashman on several different productions. "There’s a lot of story the plant is telling," says Leslie, who adds that Ashman was a "stickler" about emphasizing certain words. "He would give me a reason why he wrote it, and why he wants it to be heard, and I hear that in my ear to this day. I know we’re doing well when the reviewers talk about the plant as if it were a person."

"The plant is another character in the show," says puppeteer Paul McGinnis. "It has a goal, which is to take over the world." McGinnis’s background includes work with funny, mostly lovable puppets from Sesame Street and Crank Yankers, but he sounds mildly besotted with Audrey II and her mission of mayhem. "It starts out as a cute little plant that just needs some blood, then a sly little plant that convinces Seymour he needs to be great. At the end, when Seymour has second thoughts, it’s gone past the point of being a partner."

Rayson laughs and points out that playing opposite a gigantic animatronic blood-sucking blossom "should be stranger than it is." But when he was in high school, he says, he saw a production of the show in an Omaha dinner theater, and "I used to stand in the mirror and play Seymour." Even so, he adds, "there are safety issues to work out," especially when Audrey II decides to consume full-size human beings. "There’s a metal plate we call a ‘skateboard’ that runs the length of the plant, and that’s what the puppeteer stands on and holds bars to make it talk." When actors need to get eaten, the ingestion is a carefully choreographed bit of business. "I ride her while she’s chomping me to death. I start head first."

There are four puppets ranging from hand-size (manipulated by Rayson) to the stage-sprawling diva who rises 29 feet in the air. Two puppets have TV monitors so that the puppeteer can see what’s happening on stage, and Leslie has both a monitor and the house sound piped into his booth so he can work with audience response. "Working with Michael is amazing," says McGinnis. "He gives that plant the character that everyone comes to love over the show."

But Leslie has a long-time affinity for green things. He has rescued plenty of abandoned plants, and they now fill his apartment in Manhattan. "I talk to them. I stroke them and they thrive. They’re living."

Little Shop of Horrors is at the Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston Street in the Theater District, May 3 through 15. Tickets are $25 to $82.50; call (617) 931-ARTS or visit the Colonial box office.