BARROW Amateurs brought a totally different style of musical to the Forum 28 stage with Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's Little shop of Horrors in 1992.
Set in a Skid Row florist's shop, the show was a delightful send up of the late 50s and early 60s culture.
The population were bombarded with awful 'alien movies, dreadful three-girl singing groups with bouffant hairstyles and slinky dresses and a tradition that a young woman's only hope was a boy with a lot of money even if he did beat her up.
It featured rock music played by a six piece band instead of the usual orchestra and backing vocals were done by four three piece female groups in Ronettes mode and a line up of do-wop showaddy-waddy men.
The set construction team was led by Martin Craig had created a superb Skid Row with a revolving stage as Mr Mushnik's florist housing the vicious man eating plant, Audrey II.
It was an ingenious singing, talking, sniggering almost living construction built by Mike Smith, operated by Martin Craig and featuring the voice talent of Kenny Smyth.
Friday saw the show was well on the way to selling out but there were seats left for the opening night.
Thursday and Saturday were the shows performance nights, and tickets were being sold for £4.50 and the action began at 7:30pm on both evenings.
Little Shop of Horrors is a horror comedy rock musical with its music written by Alan Menken.
Based on a book by Howard Ashman, the story follows a hapless florist shop worker who raises a magnificent plant.
Unfortunately, he soon discoverers that it feeds on human blood and flesh.
The musical is loosely based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film of the same name.
The show achieved fame through it's inclusion of several well-known tunes, including the title song "Skid Row (Downtown)", "Somewhere That's Green", and "Suddenly, Seymour".
The two lead roles of Seymour Krelborn and Audrey were performed by Jonathan Nichol and Sarah Tracy that year. Both were praised for the show.
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