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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

La Petite Boutique des Horreurs, by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman

Dec 10–25, 2022
1 Place Boieldieu, 75002 Paris, France

“Must be blood! Must be fresh!” Audrey II, the people-eating vegetable of the Off-Broadway spoof Little Shop of Horrors, takes over at the Opéra Comique, birthplace of Carmen and Lakmé. The crystalline soprano Judith Fa tends the cash register as the shopgirl Audrey, whose songs spoof those of other Menken and Ashman heroines like Disney’s Little Mermaid. Marc Mauillon, a personable Papageno and Pelléas, morphs into Audrey II’s enabler Seymour, whose spinelessness threatens the end of the human race. Daniel Njo Lobé is heard as the plant on track to end our world. —Matthew Gurewitsch