(upbeat music)
- Now that we've talked about Broadway's biggest night,
let's talk about off-Broadway's hottest ticket,
"Little Shop of Horrors"
because suddenly Seymour is Skylar Astin.
Let's send it out to Paul Wontorek.
- Thanks, Tamsen.
Hailed by theater fans
for performances in "Spring Awakening"
and TV's "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist,"
Skylar Astin is finally back on the New York stage in
"Little Shop of Horrors."
We caught up outside the Westside Theater.
(suspenseful music)
This is "Little Shop of Horrors."
- This is "Little Shop of Horrors."
- One of my favorite musicals.
Is this like a show that you have deep connections to?
Have you been performing this in your bedroom
since you were a little wannabe Broadway performer kid?
- A little tyke, as they say in "Little Shop."
I actually, hot take, no.
It's now become something I'm deeply connected to,
but I only knew the hits.
"Somewhere That's Green" and "Suddenly Seymour."
And I came into this seeing,
I have seen the 2019 production in the original cast.
So I saw John.
- Jonathan Groff, okay.
Your "Spring Awakening" friend.
- Yes. Yeah.
So I saw that.
So based on that and just the source material,
I was so excited.
- You did not have this.
What, what?
- Like, I didn't know "Skid Row".
I didn't know "Grow For Me."
I didn't know.
No, I didn't see the movie.
Insane.
- Where have you been?
- A big musical theater blind spot.
I'm not some like movie, TV guy doesn't know
his stuff either.
Like I know my stuff.
- Yeah.
- It's weird.
I guess in hindsight now that I know it's so well,
it's, I could say it, it was a dream role.
Now I would be disappointed
if I didn't get to do it in some capacity.
- But it must be fun.
It's such a great, classic Alan Menken, Howard Ashman score.
- Well, just like with any of his stuff,
now you can't unknow it.
I'm like quoting it in this interview.
Like I, you know,
it's so embedded in me already now.
You hear the seedlings of "Be Our Guest"
and "Part of Your World" and "Newsies"
and that classic iconic Manken, Ashman sound.
And this is one of their earlier works.
So it's exciting to do one that I find perfect.
- So let's talk about Seymour.
He's kind of the ultimate nerd.
Is he a nerd?
Is he a geek?
What is he ?
- I think he's an introvert.
A misunderstood, a young man who sleeps
under a counter in the basement of a flower shop.
And so that affects him socially.
- An orphan?
A child of the streets?
- A child of the streets.
And I think that affects the way he sees life.
He wants what he, he does, he can't have,
and that's freedom from his given circumstances.
And that's a very understood thing.
That's a classic, I want moment, you know,
"Part of Your World," "I want to be where the people are."
And, that's how we find Seymour.
And then he is presented with a pretty unique opportunity.
- Right now I'm sure this changes all the time,
but right now, what is like your favorite moment
in "Little Shop" every night?
- "Git It"'s really funny.
Not funny, fun.
"Git It"'s fun.
- With the plant?
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- I like the moment I lead into the song
'cause the audience always like gets excited.
The lights go green.
He says, feed me.
Does it have to be human?
- [Paul] Feed me
- Feed me.
Does it have to be mine?
Feed me.
Where am I supposed to get it?
And then I have a big rockstar moment.
- Yeah, you do.
- And I get up on the table.
- Yeah. What is it like being with that puppet?
- Love it.
It feels like I'm talking to the real thing.
- [Paul] Yeah.
- [Skylar] It's done so expertly by Eric Wright
and Teddy Udaine and Aaron of course voicing the plant.
It's just this beautiful moment of theatrical synergy
and magic.
And I love playing with it where.
We actually like found a beat, like a fun new beat
with the plant that we have to like now kind of readjust for
Like physically 'cause it takes literally three people.
- [Paul] Wow.
- To come up with a new bit.
So there's a moment where I kind of draw him in
to look at me, but now it we've been doing this kind of tag.
I don't know.
It's just nerdy stuff like that, that I love
- "Little Shop of Horrors" started as a
little off-Broadway show.
- Right.
- And then it became this big movie
then it became a Broadway musical.
- Right.
- [Paul] And this is sort of a return to the roots.
- Yes.
- So nice small intimate.
The Westside Theater is like a great
- Perfect
- Great theater for this show.
- Yes.
I think this is the perfect house for this production.
- [Paul] Yeah.
- I think it's integral to the piece.
What I love so much about Michael Mayer's vision
with this production specifically is that it has
no intentions of transferring to Broadway and
becoming any sort of run like that.
And so I think that took the pressure off
and it just gave a perfect sandbox for this to live in.
- Yeah. It's like, it's this real theater magic, right?
- Yeah.
- And it's like kids in high school doing a show almost.
- Yeah.
- Cause it's like it's everything's sort of
down to the bare bone.
- Yeah, one boy's dressing room, one girl's dressing room
like close quarters and all love.
All bits, all comedy, all nerdy,
like little trinkets we all have in our stations.
These are my people.
(orchestral music)
- [Paul] You know, there's been a lot of sort of celebrating
about "Spring Awakening" again.
Now that you're all accomplished adults who have gone on
to so many amazing things.
- [Skylar] Right.
What's it been like hearing everybody sort of talk
about it again and doing the
and reuniting on Broadway and?
- It's been amazing.
I really like talking to people that saw the documentary
that weren't here in 2006 to see it.
And they just, they get the sense of its importance.
And of that time specifically
in my life that I've only been retelling people.
You know, I was like, you don't understand
'cause it was pre Twitter in a way like pre camera phones.
I mean there were pictures to be taken,
but not in the same way.
And we were like the Beatles of 49th street.
Like you remember it was, you know, pre-COVID.
So people were at the stage door grabbing and tugging
but it really speaks to the vitality
and the strength of theater and the significance
of being here when it happened, it's like a time capsule.
And so explaining that to people is kind of difficult
and now we have this amazing representation of what it was
and what it's become and where we are and where we've come
and very grateful for the Those You've Known documentary.
(light music)