Fresh off his triumphant turn in Broadway’s “Company,” Matt Doyle is about to make Skid Row his new theatrical home.
Producers announced Wednesday that Doyle is joining the smash off-Broadway revival of “Little Shop of Horrors” on Nov. 15. He’ll succeed actor Rob McClure in the starring role of Seymour Krelborn, a meek flower shop clerk who discovers an extraterrestrial plant that feeds on human flesh.
“I’ve been rehearsing this role in my living room and car since I was a teenager,” Doyle told HuffPost in an email. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take on one of my favorite characters in musical theater.”
Landing the part, the New York actor and singer said, was “an absolute dream.”
“At my core, I’m quite an introverted nerd,” he added. “I’m thrilled to embrace that side of myself through this timeless story and score.”
The role of Seymour was originated by Jonathan Groff in the current production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” which opened at New York’s Westside Theatre in 2019, garnering rave reviews. In addition to McClure, Groff’s successors have included actors Gideon Glick, Jeremy Jordan, Conrad Ricamora and Skylar Astin.
First staged in 1982, “Little Shop of Horrors” features songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. The revival’s current cast includes Lena Hall as Audrey and Bryce Pinkham as Orin Scrivello, Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend.
Doyle won critical praise, along with a Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, for his performance in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company.” The production concluded its run in July.
The new “Company” swapped the genders of several characters from the 1970 original to offer a fresh, 21st-century take on love, marriage and intimacy. Doyle played Jamie, a gay groom-to-be who is having last-minute doubts about his relationship with fiancé Paul (Etai Benson). Originally, Paul and Jamie were depicted as Paul and Amy, a heterosexual couple.
“The last time this show was revived was in 2006, when same-sex marriage wasn’t a legal right, so I don’t think [Sondheim] imagined Jamie would ever evolve in that way,” Doyle told HuffPost in May. “But he was resistant to his shows becoming museum pieces. He believed in new ideas and new concepts.”
In addition to “Company,” Doyle’s theatrical résumé includes “War Horse” and “The Book of Mormon.” He made his Broadway debut as a stand-by in “Spring Awakening” in 2007, later assuming the part of Hanschen. His debut solo album, “Uncontrolled,” was released in 2016.