AUDREY II isn't the most environmentally friendly carnivorous plant you'll ever meet but she's probably the only one to make it big on Broadway.

Little Shop of Horrors opened for business in Milton Keynes Theatre this week and the demands of its rapacious star must have tried the patience of the most green fingered members of staff.

For those unfamiliar with Audrey II, she's built like a redwood and demands constant feeding – with blood.

The roots of the spoof horror musical stem from a 1960 Roger Corman B flick which featured a young Jack Nicholson in a walk-on part.

It's since grown like topsy into an off-Broadway and international hit, branched out into a movie remake and is now germinating in theatres throughout the UK.

The plot centres around wilting wallflower Seymour Krelborn who works as a hired hand in a Skid Row florists run by seedy Jewish businessman Mushnik.

Mushnik has obviously never watched Location, Location, Location. Skid Row's hardly the pick of locales and business fails to bloom – until clever Seymour invents a new plant.

He names his creation, which resembles an exotic Venus fly trap, Audrey II after shop assistant Audrey who works in the shop (Seymour has a crush and hopes the way to a girl's heart is through giving her a man-eating plant...there's no accounting for taste).

Business picks up as news of the plant spreads. But the sickly little sapling demands a high price for fame and fortune and soon poor Seymour is feeling faint as the plant's daily diet of blood gets out of hand.

There's only one answer. As Audrey II grows taller Seymour must find human meat to satisfy its hunger....

During the show we get to meet the inhabitants of Skid Row, including Chiffon, Crystal and Ronette (named after Phil Spector's doo-wop girl groups of the 60s) who provide musical interludes to the story, hobos and bums, and Audrey's barking mad sadistic boyfriend Orin.

It has to be said that playing leather-clad Orin must be the craziest role that TV hard-man actor Alex Ferns has ever taken.

He's played seriously convincing psychos on more than one occasion at Milton Keynes Theatre but Little Shop gives him a chance to earn his comedy credentials as a barmy dentist who gets a thrill from pulling teeth and whiffing laughing gas. He's so over-the-top that it's hard to believe the star hadn't been sniffing the gas before going on stage.

Ferns is also pressed into action in a series of minor character roles, all equally eccentric, accomplished by a series of lightning-quick changes.

He's hilarious throughout especially when, during one scene, the paunchy actor exposes his flabby middle-age spread to the horror of Seymour.

But the actor does struggle in the singing department. Talented and versatile that he is, the musical really isn't his forte even though he appeared in Guys and Dolls.

Former Dr Who Sylvester McCoy hams it up as Mushnik though, as just about everyone in the production proves, this isn't a show for subtlety.

TV favourite Claire Buckfield plays Audrey, saccharine sweet in a street smart sort of way.

But the real star of the show is Audrey II and her team of minders. The giant plant is worked by puppeteers Andy Heath, Brian Herring and Iestyn Evans, who have all worked for Jim Henson, and vocalised (yes the plant speaks!) by gifted actor Clive Rowe.

Rowe, who has appeared in the BBC's All the Small Things, Dr Who Christmas Special, and Tracy Beaker among others, has a wonderful singing voice and uses it to great effect. It's a shame he wasn't given more solos.

Little Shop is a kitsch, camp, outrageous comedy that will have you laughing. It's not the greatest musical in the world, with only one or two memorable songs, but it's a fond homage to those old 1950s B movies that so entranced and influenced Corman and so many of us.

Running until Saturday (May 16). For tickets and information contact the box office 0870 060 6652 or go online at www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes