Darren Criss Comes to Little Shop of Horrors with Disney Fandom and a Yen for an American Crime Story

“Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors is, of course, one of the great musical ballads. Beginning with feather-light piano and words of reassurance that are nearly sung-spoken, it grows and grows and grows—much like the plant the story revolves around—ending with a finale so rousing it could probably be heard in outer space.

If there’s one guy who knows his way around “Suddenly Seymour,” it’s Darren Criss. Among his countless performances of the song, he has sung it with Lea Michelle on Glee, on Carpool Karaoke and, most recently, on stage at Carnegie Hall. “There's never a point where I roll my eyes at it or go, ‘Oh god, I can't. I have to play this again,” he told Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek on The Broadway Show. The song is “bulletproof."

The number hits a little different lately. In January, Criss stepped into the role of the downtrodden flower shop assistant Seymour Krelborn in Little Shop of Horrors off-Broadway, with Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld, Across the Universe) in the role of the similarly put-upon Audrey. “‘Suddenly Seymour’ suddenly has a narrative context. It's not you and me at a piano bar having a couple beers singing our favorite song. It comes from a real narrative place. It's nice when you are doing the show in context, telling the story.”

Despite a deep love of the musical, Criss never thought he’d play the role of Seymour. “I can't say I ever sat around going, ‘Oh, one day I'll play Seymour'—I just never saw that,” he said. “But here we are and I'm doing my damnedest.”

Criss is especially delighted to be sharing the stage with Wood, a close personal friend. As Criss reveals, he personally asked Wood to join him in the show. "I can't take full credit for it, but yes, I may have nudged it," he said. A couple of weeks into their run, audiences are buzzing about the pair. “Listen, come for me. Stay for Evan Rachel Wood. She's the chef's kiss. I'm just the amuse-bouche that you forget about by the end.”

Not that long ago, Criss played Andrew Cunanan, the handsome and tormented real-life killer in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Weirdly, Cunanan’s story is not worlds away from that of Seymour Krelborn—another killer feeding insatiable appetites (albeit those of a monstrous plant). “I seem to have a thing—I don't know what it says about me—about playing men that will go to extraordinary lengths to accomplish greatness,” said Criss. The stories of Cunanan and Krelborn “have the same sort of parable to them, of the consequences and cost of obsession. There's only so far you can go before really bad things happen to the people around you and to yourself.” Seymour Krelborn: American Crime Story, anyone?

The crucial difference is that Little Shop of Horrors is enormous fun and packed with catchy doo-wop tunes. A lifelong Disney fan, Criss is also enjoying reveling in his love for the late Howard Ashman who, as well as writing and directing the original off-off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, was a central figure in the Disney Renaissance of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Before his death in 1991 due to HIV/AIDS, and in partnership with musical chameleon Alan Menken, Ashman brought tremendous heart and intelligence—and a Broadway sensibility—to The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.

“As the kids say, he’s like my Roman Empire,” said Criss. (Chatting before the formal part of the interview, Criss suggests that “Mushnik & Son,” with its minor-key Klezmer vamp, is a prequel to “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid, while the fizzy frolic of “Closed for Renovation” anticipates “Something There” from Beauty and the Beast.) “I spend a lot of time thinking about Howard Ashman. My whole life, he has been such a North Star in the way that I think about creating things as an actor, as a writer, as a songwriter, as a lyricist—anything. I never had the pleasure of meeting him. But anytime people ask me: ‘Dead or alive, who'd you have dinner with?’ I always say Howard Ashman. I pretend he's in the audience every night—sort of as a barometer of what I think he would like or not like."

As an example of Ashman's exquisite dramatic instincts, Criss points to the well known video of Ashman directing Jodi Benson's vocal performance of "Part of Your World" for The Little Mermaid. "If this show [Little Shop] is like proto-Disney Renaissance—if this show is the beginning of Little Mermaid and Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, which had such a profound influence on my life—then there are so many pieces of those things in the show that I'm tipping my hat to that it's hard not to feel connected to him in some way every night. It's an extraordinary legacy that I've been so obsessed with my whole life. Being in this is my own little contribution to the altar of Howard Ashman.”

Criss is already looking forward to sharing his love of Disney (and all things Howard Ashman) with his daughter, who turns two in April. “I'm praying she likes them. I'm pretty sure she will,” he said. “I mean, listen, you don't have to give me a reason to rewatch anything that I love, but now it's an even more elevated reason, to share it with somebody.”

With a second child on the way with his wife Mia, Criss also shared his thoughts on fatherhood more generally. Child-rearing, he explained, is kind of like creating a storytelling franchise: “Look, if you're a fan of storytelling—which, most of us that love Broadway are—the inevitable, most natural, logical sequel is having kids. Right? Because you now get to experience the same characters and themes with a brand-new character that isn't familiar with the prequel. In that person’s movie, it’s the first one.”