At The Arts Hub in Lafayette, a few missteps can’t slow down one of the best spooky-season musicals.

If you can, you never want to miss a production of Little Shop of Horrors. Right now, the opportunity to watch a nerdy flower-shop employee battle a malevolent plant from space is at The Arts Hub in Lafayette.

This solid community theatre production features a mixed bag of local talent singing the musical’s well-known numbers to a soundtrack. Action takes place on a functional set, designed by Todd Welch, that spins easily to show the interior and exterior of Mushnik’s flower shop on Skid Row.

Our hero, Seymour, is portrayed nicely by Deven Ogle, with Sammie Armatas as his love interest, Audrey. Both go a bit over the top with their New York accents but generally work well together as the doomed lovers. One thing that stood out, though, was the choice to go with a wavy red wig for Audrey — a character normally portrayed with a platinum blond bouffant. It’s not a great wig to start with and just doesn’t fit the character as we know and love her.

Armatas also occasionally breaks into peculiar, jerky movements not associated with any of the dance numbers. Whether it was meant to be comedic wasn’t clear, but it was distracting nonetheless and something Director Emily Barber should have cleaned up.

Otherwise, Barber does a good job with the material, and the choreography by Joan Lohoff is straightforward and manageable for the actors. As for the plant, it’s typically advisable to make room in the budget to rent the puppets (the show requires several of them in different sizes). But here, Jason Lindsay does a remarkably good job with the design and build of the Audrey II puppets.

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What’s amiss, though, is the voice. The role is typically filled by a strong, male baritone, but a female voice can be fine if it’s got the grit required. In this production, Emma Reed is a fine singer, but she lacks the soulful, Motown voice and swagger that make Audrey II both funny and menacing.

A scene from The Arts Hub production of ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ | Photo: Jack Barber

Well-rounded cast

Little Shop is always a fun, funny musical even with a few glitches, and The Arts Hub’s production has some nice surprises. One of them is Sean Campbell as the sadistic dentist, Orin. He may not have an actual motorcycle, but he’s got the insane laugh and charisma to pull off one of musical comedy’s most enduring characters.

Also strong is Dave Willner as the flower-shop owner, Mr. Mushnik, who’s tasked with bemoaning his fate as a Skid Row florist when fame and fortune suddenly come knocking. Chiffon, Crystal and Ronnette — the trio of backup singers who appear in just about every scene as a Greek chorus of sorts — are well played by Karina Kucherova, Sabrina Williams and Shawntisha Bailey, respectively. Williams, a newcomer to Colorado, is a real standout.

What the production lacks in polish is more than made up for by the enthusiastic cast having fun with one of the weirdest but most enjoyable musical comedies out there.

Sean Campbell is the dentist Orin in ‘Little Shop of Horrors.’ | Photo: Jack Barber