Jessica-Snow Wilson
Currently: Rocking the revival of Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey, the down-on-her-luck, quirky blonde for whom Seymour pines.
Hometown: Toronto, Canada. Wilson developed her craft in high school through the Claude Watson Arts Program Toronto's version of La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts and made her professional stage debut in Anne of Green Gables at age 17. In 1994, she headed to New York to join the cast of Les Miserables, in which she understudied and later played her dream role of Eponine.
Original Seymour: Wilson has been rehearsing her role in Little Shop since high school, when she and her friend Sara kept the local video store in business by renting the film every weekend. The two pals would act out the leads, with Wilson as Audrey and Sara as Seymour. Apparently, Sara isn't ready to relinquish her post to Wilson's co-star, Joey Fatone. "When I told her I got this role, she said, 'I still want to be Seymour,'" Wilson laughs.
Joseph Anthony Fatone Jr.: With Fatone minding Little Shop opposite Wilson, a bevy of boy-band fans has been spilling into the Virginia Theatre. Wilson says she notices a definite change in the audience dynamic, since many of the fans are new to theater--and occasionally out of sync with the show. "They're a lot more vocal. Sometimes it's even inappropriate. Every once in a while, I think, 'Why are they screaming and laughing there?'" Still, Wilson is thrilled to see a full house each night, and she says her co-star is surprisingly unaffected. "He's Joseph Anthony Fatone Jr. from Brooklyn, New York; he's got this great family; and he's just like a real guy. You would never know he was in *NSYNC. I don't know how he's so normal. I'm shocked by it."
Miserables…and Funny: Little Shop is Wilson's second show with Robert Evan, who plays Audrey's insensitive and ill-fated boyfriend, Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. among a slew of other characters. They first crossed paths nearly a decade ago in Les Miz, in which Evan understudied and eventually replaced the role of Jean Valjean. "I had no idea he was so funny!" Wilson exclaims. "You can't get a more serious, tragic show than Les Miz, so neither of us had any idea the other could do comedy. I said, 'Oh my God, you're so funny!' and he said, 'So are you!'"
Her Life as a Dog: Wilson calls herself "dorky and strange" with many quirks--one of them being her propensity for smelling anything and everything. "I like to smell things, even if they smell bad, like stinky feet or something. It's weird, right? I just think smells are so emotional. They make you feel so many things. But people don't know what to think, because I'll just pick up this marker and go sniffs marker. I think maybe I was a dog in my past life, if there is such a thing."
Somewhere that's Greene: It's tough to make a role your own when it is so famously associated with someone like Ellen Greene, who created Audrey in the original off-Broadway production of Little Shop and went on to play opposite Rick Moranis in the movie. "I have Ellen Greene in my head, as every other person probably does, so I have to somehow build off that because it's there," Wilson says. Although it's a challenge, Wilson tries to personalize her portrayal of Audrey. "I try to bring as much of myself to it as I can--like you do with any role, really. I try to be honest and make her real, because she's so complicated and interesting--and so much more than just the dumb blonde character that so many people think she might be."
Real Appeal: While infectious tunes, a one-of-a-kind story and outrageous comedy may have a lot to do with Little Shop being such a cult favorite, Wilson says it's also oddly more real than most musicals. "It's not your typical big chorus number, people-come-onstage-and-dance musical. It's more realistic than that. It's got a groundedness to it that is really neat. Even though it's also got a man-eating plant."