INTERVIEW: This week, Melissa Victor is Audrey in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’
Photo: Little Shop of Horrors welcomes Melissa Victor and Camryn Hampton in the role of Audrey this October. Photo courtesy of Michaelah Reynolds / Provided by Vivacity Media Group with permission.
The successful off-Broadway run of the beloved musical Little Shop of Horrors continues to welcome so many wonderful performers for the Audrey and Seymour roles, and this week is a special one. Audiences will have the chance to catch Melissa Victor as Audrey, from now until Sunday, Oct. 20. Victor has been with the show for quite some time as an understudy and swing, but this week, she owns the Audrey role herself.
For the actor, who is making her off-Broadway debut on Skid Row, this experience is one that reminds her of a high school production.
“I actually did Little Shop when I was in high school with a summer program that I used to go to every summer, and we actually had four Urchins in the show,” Victor said in a recent phone interview. “But that was my first introduction, and I fell in love with the music. And I just remember me and my friends singing this musical at the top of our lungs all summer, and funny enough, that same summer we went to see it on Broadway with Joey Fatone from NSYNC. And we were so proud of our production that we would go around to the people that were watching the Broadway show trying to tell them to come to Baltimore to see our show.”
Victor had been auditioning for this new production of Little Shop ever since 2019 when the show first opened at the Westside Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. When she finally received the call to join the company, she was ready to ascend that stage.
“Let’s go,” she remembers thinking. “The company has been so great and loving. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to do this iconic show with. … [For my first performance], I had so many people from my friend group, and my family was there. I was nervous. I was like, OK, let’s do it, but as soon as I hit the stage and sung the first note, I was like, this is where you belong. This is where you’re supposed to be. Give them a great show, and it was kind of a you-made-it moment. This past decade-plus, all your hard work and dedication and hitting the pavement is paying off. It was surreal.”
After several performances of understudying Audrey and the Urchins, Victor was so happy to see her name on the schedule for an entire week. The producers wanted her for the role in mid-October, and this week she is ready to bring her unique take to this iconic character. She also wasn’t alone in celebrating this career-changing news. Camryn Hampton is another actor in the Little Shop company who played Audrey earlier this month. Read Hollywood Soapbox’s interview with Hampton here.
“First of all, I didn’t even think that they were going to give me a full week, so when I saw on the schedule that I was going to be Audrey for a full week, my mouth dropped,” Victor said. “OK, I really got to sink my teeth into this role and bring Audrey to life. Not saying I don’t take any other part seriously, but I really want to deliver a dynamite performance, especially if I’m going on for a week, which doesn’t really happen for swings or understudies. You get thrown in on a Thursday night, and you may not go back until Tuesday. So to have a whole week to kind of sit and get to know Audrey in my body is so great, so I’m so grateful that they trusted me enough to put me on for a week.”
One can definitely expect Victor’s family and friends to be in the audience for this week’s performances.
“As soon as I posted it to social media, so many of my community was like, oh, we bought tickets,” Victor said with a laugh. “I didn’t even have to ask them this time. They just bought tickets on their own. They’re like, ‘We’ll be there the 17th. We’ll be there the 18th.’ So I’m really, really excited.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Little Shop of Horrors, starring Melissa Victor as Audrey through Sunday, Oct. 20, continues at the Westside Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
