Jackson Evans

Little Shop of Horrors – Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre – March 15, 2026

Posted on by admin

The only cast member from the 2018 production of Little Shop of Horrors I saw, who also was in this year’s Marriott version, was Lorenzo Rush, Jr. Given that Lorenzo perfectly gives voice to the person-eating plant Audrey II, I’m guessing that he has a repeating gig for life, at one theater after another, if he wants it, given the everlasting popularity of this fun-loving romp.

Little Shop is in a select group of movies that have become musicals and then movie musicals. I add Hairspray and The Producers to that short, great list (but not Mean Girls, because I would never admit to seeing any version of it, as much as I love Tina Fey).

I would have loved to be in the room when Howard Ashman took a Roger Corman movie and wrote the book and lyrics for a musical version of Little Shop. He, and everyone around him, must have had a great time.

I always wonder how decisions are made regarding character names. The wonderful chorus of Crystal, Ronnette and Chiffon is obvious, but what about Audrey? When Corman picked that name, he couldn’t have known that Ashman would later rhyme it with tawdry in the lyrics of The Meek Shall Inherit. Our good fortune.

And what about Orin Scrivello, D.D.S., played to the hilt, along with several other characters, by Andrew Mueller? My rampant curiosity led me to discover that scrivello is actually a word meaning, according to Merriam-Webster, an elephant’s tusk of a small size commonly used for making billiard balls. Tusk – incisor tooth – dentist – coincidence?

There were other welcome, familiar faces in the cast, for example Jackson Evans, always a treat sharing the stage with a puppet, like the time I saw him in 2014 in Avenue Q. And Mark David Kaplan, set to receive the Guy Adkins Award from Porchlight Music Theatre in May at Chicago Sings Broadway’s British Invasion.

Anything Goes – Porchlight Music Theatre – January 18, 2024

Posted on by admin

In Porchlight’s aptly-named production of Cole Porter’s hit-filled Anything Goes, it does.

Meghan Murphy (aka Big Red) doesn’t just enter a stage, she commands it, as is only right in a broad comedy. And her fans in the audience, which now is all of them, hooted and hollered in acknowledgement every time.

Original book writers, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (and subsequent revisers Timothy Crouse and John Weidman) and lyricist Porter throw everything and then some against the wall, and most of it sticks. Am I the only one who thinks the character name Elisha (Eli) J. Whitney somehow relates to his constant consumption of alcohol, which I assumed to be gin.

In a bizarre way, related to his manipulation of the English language, Yale graduate Porter reminds me of Harvard graduate Tom Lehrer (who, coincidentally, had a roommate named Crouse – no kidding, no relation). And then throw in the fact that I last saw Jackson Evans, who plays Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, when he portrayed Princeton in Avenue Q in 2014, and you’ve got more ivy than the outfield walls at Wrigley.

Speaking of Evans, his limb-splaying comedic dance moves reminded me of Squidward’s dancing in The SpongeBob Square Pants Musical, only Evans only needed two legs, not ten.

And speaking of dancing, watching tap dancers strut their stuff on a big Broadway stage is one thing, but watching the same number of them fly across the compact Ruth Page space in a synchronized frenzy of fun is a whole different level of entertainment.

And then there are the beautiful singing voices of Luke Nowakowski (Billy Crocker) and Emma Ogea (Hope Harcourt), who, ridiculously, is still in college.

But back to Murphy, who held her pose and smile for so long every time the crowd gave her an extended ovation at the end of her songs that I thought her face would freeze in that position like that of Mr Sardonicus in the 1961 William Castle film.

If all that isn’t enough for you to run out and buy a ticket, one last thought, the band alone, nailing the memorable Porter tunes, is worth the price of admission.