Little Shop of Horrors

St Joseph’s College staged the challenging but brilliant musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and it was an astounding success. 40 students worked extremely  hard alongside Mr Cook and Mr Baxter for nearly 50 days of singing, acting and puppeteering and last week all their their work certainly paid off.  Chola Lumingo from Year 10 played Seymour, the show’s lead. Chola’s Seymour was cheeky, funny and he sung powerfully throughout the show. Chola put many weekends and evenings into his preparation and although singing the duet ‘Suddenly Seymour’ alongside Thelma Konning’s Audrey is daunting, his stage presence and poise meant he hit all his notes in this the most romantic and famous part of the play.

Thelma Konning from Year 13 played Audrey, the show’s female lead and unfortunate victim in more than one scene in the play. Her renditions of’ Suddenly Seymour’ and ‘Somewhere That’s Green’ were phenomenal and Thelma is well on her way to a career in stage theatre following her 2 years in a row as the female lead.

The quadruplets were played by Mark Onofrei (Year 7), Victor Konderak (Year 8), Stephanie Addai (Year 12) and Tiffany Queva (Year 13). Their skill and responsibility as narrators, backing vocalists and soloists was extra special. The silver dresses were glamourous and the girls looked fantastic on stage.

Mickel Goldson’s ‘Mr Mushnik’ and Oluwatosin Adebiyi’s ‘Dentist’ did their best to steal the show in all three evening performances.

Mickel’s singing and dancing in ‘Mushnik and Son’ was memorable and Oluwatosin’s hilarious song ‘I am your Dentist’ will never be forgotten by those who attended.

Rohaan Rizwan (Year 9) and Kayden Morris (Year 7) had cameo roles and were professional with their comic timing and delivery of lines.

The band that was put together by Mr Baxter and who had been together before in the Classidelics were outstanding. They received huge accolade following all 3 nights. The show’s choir were also excellent and enjoyed their singing and acting roles. They also got to dress up as dentists to support one of the show’s main songs.

With over £50,000.00 of donated lighting and technical equipment the show looked and sounded like it was straight from the West End. The students who assisted technically were: Damian Slayzyk, Kaylem Linton-Shepherd, Michael Asante, Christopher Oritis, Jamaal Walker and Tiago Afonso. Their contribution was outstanding.

It is pleasing to see the student talent across the year groups and we all look forward to next year’s show.

Peter Cook
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