Lincoln Gets a Laugh - Little Shop of Horrors comes to Ford's Theater

Ford's Theater has had it's run of bad luck over the years. The first theater, known as Ford's Athenaeum, burned down in 1862, presumably before falling into the swamp. Not having huge tracks of land, the Ford brothers rebuilt the structure you see today. However, their success was short lived, as we all know, and the Theater never reopened after the assassination of President Lincoln. Purchased by the U.S. Government, the Theater housed the Army's Surgeon General's Office until disaster struck again on June 9, 1893, when a structural collapse killed 22 clerks, and injured another 68. Turned into a warehouse for many years, the Theater finally reopened in 1968 under it's current incarnation as a working theater and National Historic Landmark.

Things have been relatively quiet since then, so why would the Ford's Theater Society invite disaster by bringing a giant, man-eating plant onto the premises? And right during tour season? We're going to lose scads of eighth graders, keeping that beast happy.

But if you're willing to risk it, Ford's Theater is presenting Little Shop of Horrors, the campy musical that I know best from the 1986 movie with Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray. This time around, the highlight for me is watching a giant puppet Audrey II chomp on people. I know, I know, I tend to focus on the macabre, but come on, a giant plant eating people? In a live performance? In roughly the same exact spot where John Wilkes Booth shouted "Sic semper tyrannis" before dashing (well, limping) off the stage? The irony alone is worth the price of admission.

Little Shop of Horrors is a welcome, if unconventional, choice for Ford's Theater, which normally runs more historically based dramas. I have to imagine that great American humorist, Abraham Lincoln, is looking down with approval, pleased not to watch yet another portrayal of himself. After all, the man just wanted to get out of the office and have a laugh on April 13th, 1865. About time he got one.

Little Shop of Horrors kicks off today and runs to May 22, and tickets are available through the Box Office. To find out more check out Little Shop's own blog, with video snippets from the performance.