(Ben Brantley’s article appeared in The New York Time, 7/2; via Pam Green.)
If you were in the vicinity of Seventh Avenue and West 55th Street at about 7:40 p.m. on Wednesday, you may have been alarmed by the sight of a really big Moorish dome sailing into the air. That would have been the roof of City Center, which was blown right off the building when Ellen Greene made her entrance in the blissed-out, two-nights-only concert production of “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Portraying the sweetest masochist in musical-comedy history — Audrey, the Skid Row florist’s assistant — Ms. Greene received the kind of entrance applause you might imagine greeting the resurrection of Maria Callas at the Metropolitan Opera for a beyond-the-grave performance of “Norma.” But Ms. Greene, make no mistake, is very much alive.