The opening show of the 2009 season at Stages St. Louis succeeds in so many ways that it's hard to know where to start. It is perfectly cast, brilliantly staged and thoroughly delightful to watch. And then there's the show itself. Little Shop of Horrors is a gem of a musical which started out as a cute-but-prickly Off-Broadway success and has gotten perilously close to being a classic, so frequently performed that there is actually a web page devoted to sources from which to rent Audrey II, the menacing alien plant which grows throughout the show. On the most basic level, it's an undemanding piece, the kind of show that can carry a cast, with cartoonish characters and dialogue (no surprise that Ashman and Mencken went on make another fortune doing Disney animated films) and music that makes few demands technically. On another and higher level, it becomes the kind of virtuoso piece that gives a director, a choreographer and a talented cast a chance to craft something absolutely brilliant out of words and music and movement. On top of all that, it's a many-layered satire of science-fiction movies, of the music and culture of the rock and roll era, and of the charming and infuriating naiveté that was so characteristic of the America of the period.

Done with the energy and immaculate precision of movement that it gets in this Stages production, the show is a high-voltage romp, full of color and as witty as it is tuneful. Michael Hamilton directs and stages with his usual genius for pacing and for keeping both the big stage picture and the tiniest details under absolute control. Stephen Bourneuf's choreography is charming, and the dancers are, as usual, rehearsed to a fare-thee-well. John Inchiostro gets credit for the beautifully made costumes, and Richard Ellis's set, with the help of some intricate lighting by Matthew McCarthy, is both colorful and functional.

Ben Nordstrom has done so many roles so well that it's not fair to say that Seymour is perfect for him, but he is certainly perfect for it; he sings and dances beautifully, of course, and his long, absolutely still take after his pet plant utters its first words is a moment of pure genius. I'm not sure how many women could actually sell the song "Somewhere That's Green," with its utterly sincere but genuinely silly paean to the suburbs that Pete Seeger called "ticky-tacky little boxes," but Maria Couch as Audrey does it so well that it brings laughs and tears at the same time. Todd Dubail does a nifty turn as the Elvis-inspired "semi-sadist" dentist Orin, and then comes back in a dazzling array of vignettes, including a hilarious moment as Clare Luce Booth. Darin DePaul is very impressive as the long-suffering Mr. Mushnik, and Valisia Lekae, Rashidra Scott and Lisa M. Ramey are dreamy as the Supremes-inspired doo-wop Greek Chorus—and if that description doesn't make sense, well, you'll just have to see the show to appreciate it.

In short, Stages St. Louis has another winner in their season-opening production of Little Shop of Horrors, a bright and breezy romp of a musical that might be a bit scary for little kids but is simply delightful for everybody else.

The show will run through June 28 at the Robert G. Reim Theater in the Kirkwood Civic Center; for ticket information, call 314-821-2407 or go online to www.stagesstlouis.org.

-- Robert Boyd