“We are the Mahmood and Blanco ‘of the musical …!”. The winning self-definition is by Fabio Canino and Giampiero Ingrassia, protagonists of the musical ‘The little shop of horrors’ by Howard Ashman, with the music of Alan Menken directed by Dino Scuderi, based on the film by Roger Corman, which will be staged from 22 to February 27 at the Brancaccio theater in Rome, directed by Piero Di Blasio. For Ingrassia it is a return to the ‘place of the crime’, indeed of his first crime, since 33 years ago he made his artistic debut in the world of musicals with ‘The little shop of horrors’, then in the Compagnia della Rancia directed by Saverio Marconi. What has changed since then, not only in the entertainment and technologies but in its very way of being on stage? “I remain fond of this show, which in the identical plot presents a text different from my youthful one … now I am an adult nerd who certainly does more tenderness – replies Giampiero Ingrassia to AdnKronos – I still have several reminiscences of the lines of the old script and initially I even substituted them for those of the new one, unconsciously. For me it is still a new show and I will certainly not play at mimicking my character of thirty years ago “. Ingrassia defines himself as” an actor who likes to sing, I am not born a performer ; let’s say that I am an actor lent to musicals, also thanks to my past of rock concerts and to the great school of Gigi Proietti, who was the first to underline the importance for an actor not only of knowing how to act but also of knowing how to sing. I like to change my artistic life, go from musicals to prose and then return to musicals: of course, I no longer propose roles as a young man … “. For Fabio Canino it is, instead, in turn of a debut in the musical, just like Giampiero Ingrassia in 1989. “I was the first spectator of this show, behind the scenes at the rehearsals, just to see and understand how a musical is born – he confesses – It’s a funny show, colorful, where you sing and dance and laugh, also suitable for children despite the fact that the title may recall the horror genre “. A novelty concerns the ‘plant’, Audrey II: in the original staging it was a puppet, here it is an actor in flesh and bones, Lorenzo Di Pietro aka drag queen Velma K while Audrey will be played by the former ‘Sister Act’ Belia Martin. “It is the representation of evil – explains Canino – It could be the Devil, the war, the mafia, today Covid …” A show that at the same time in Rome will also be staged in New York, for what the artistic director of the Brancaccio theater, Alessandro Longobardi, defines “a twinning”, not excluding – given the tenitura of just five days – a “second life also in the next Brancaccio theater season”. (by Enzo Bonaiuto)