When “Little Shop of Horrors” hits the stage on Nov. 21, sophomore AJ Phaneuf is excited to take on the role of the male lead in the musical for his first time at ARHS.
Since the first time Phaneuf acted in “Beauty and the Beast” in fourth grade, he has been a passionate actor, taking on various roles once or twice every year. Just last year, he played a Pilgrim Ancestor in the Algonquin musical, “The Addams Family.” Phaneuf has been working hard to prepare for playing Seymour, a florist shop worker, in the upcoming sci-fi comedy horror show.
“I really like trying to act as other characters and trying to impersonate other things,” Phaneuf said. “I find that there’s a joy in that.”
One thing Phaneuf found particularly exciting in cinematography is the task of embodying other characters.
“You get to be something that you don’t always get to be,” Phaneuf said. “It is really cool to just embrace another character.”
Phaneuf finds the contrast between last year’s musical and this year’s interesting.
”They’re different in a way that the characters contrast greatly with one another,” Phaneuf said. “In the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, everyone is acting very differently and in the ‘Addams Family’ everyone is similar in a way.”
At the start of the school year, Phaneuf auditioned for the male lead, Seymour. According to Phaneuf he was interested in everything about the show and just wanted to be a part of it, and he just happened to like Seymour best when he watched the movie.
“I thought it would be cool to be the lead,” Phaneuf said. “I watched the movie a couple of weeks before and I really liked it. I really wanted to see if I could get that character.”
Even though singing in character is the hardest part of the show process for Phaneuf, he still enjoys the challenge.
“It’s easy to talk in character, but it’s a lot different when you have to sing it,” Phaneuf said.
Phaneuf has worked hard to sing in character, particularly enjoying “Grow for Me,” a solo song where his character coaxes a blood-thirsty plant to grow.
“I really like ‘Grow for Me,’ so that would be Seymour’s solo part,” Phaneuf said. “I really like that, I think it’s a super good song. It’s really fun to do the blocking [location and movement of actors on the stage].”
Biology teacher and musical director Brian Kelly selected “Little Shop of Horrors” because it’s different from past ARHS musicals. The show features a giant monster plant named Audrey II and Seymour, the florist shop worker taking care of it.
“We thought this year would be fun to concentrate on something that was a little more edgy, a little more fun, a little more high school oriented in terms of the material,” Kelly said.
Kelly, who has been directing the musicals for the last four years, said Phaneuf has been hard at work rehearsing.
“AJ is doing a really great job,” Kelly said. “This is his first lead role here in high school… and he is working really hard. He’s got such a great sense of humor. He’s really demonstrating and portraying the character very well.”
