With his Skid Row florist's and plant shop on the slide, Mushnik thinks its time to throw in the trowel. But when his weedy orphaned assistant, Seymour, successfully nurtures a strange and exotic plant, business suddenly blooms again. Seymour (Paul Keating) names the plant Audrey II, because of his love for sales assistant Audrey (Sheridan Smith), but the plant turns out to be considerably less sweet-natured than its namesake - always growing faster when fed human blood.
Soon Seymour is caught between his desire for success, fame and the love of Audrey, and the monstrous appetites of Audrey II - whose taste for human flesh is unlimited. A jaunty cross between The Rocky Horror Show, Gardeners' Question Time and Macbeth, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's musical is all good grisly fun.
There may be a message lurking here about the dangers of feeding our unconscious murderous desires, but Matthew White's shoestring production certainly isn't dwelling on them. Instead, it piles on the comedy, makes the most of Ashman's witty lyrics (although we can't always hear them too well) and, in Audrey II, produces a giant star - voiced by Mike McShane and animated by puppeteer Andy Heath - who can quite literally grow on you.
The production's other undoubted hit is Jasper Britton, inflicting painful comedy as Audrey's sadistic, motorcycling dentist boyfriend; a man who is very much "leader of the plaque," and who also plays an assortment of other minor characters, each more eccentric than the last.
The intimacy of the Menier ensures that this lightweight evening never looks as wafer-thin as it might in larger premises, and there is never the slightest danger of anyone taking themselves too seriously. The cast camp it up to just the right degree - with Sheridan Smith's tart with an apple-pie heart genuinely raising a tear as she dreams of an all-American life on a suburban housing estate, endlessly watching reruns of I Love Lucy. It's not rocket science, it's not even nourishing plant food, but it's a hugely enjoyable piece of popular fluff. London may need another musical like it needs a hole in the head, but with low ticket prices and a space where the actors can really connect with the audience, this offers better value that many more high-profile shows.
· Until February 25. Box office: 020-7907 7060.
