Supergirl's Jeremy Jordan to Headline Off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors Revival
Jeremy Jordan is moving from National City to Skid Row!
The Supergirl star, 35, will be be returning to his musical theater roots this spring when he’ll step into the lead role of Seymour in the acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s landmark musical Little Shop of Horrors
His eight-week limited run in the production will begin at New York City’s Westside Theatre on March 17, and conclude on May 10.
“It’s exciting,” Jordan tells PEOPLE. “Seymour is definitely a role that I always loved. I remember seeing the [2003 Broadway production]; it was one of the first showsI ever saw in the city, actually. I had seen the movie, but that’s how I became really familiar with it. From there, I went on to sing some of the songs before too, in concerts. But I never thought I’d have the chance to play it, so it’s especially fun to be jumping in to this.”
“I really couldn’t ask for anything better,” he added.
Jordan will be the third actor to play Seymour in the production of Little Shop of Horrors, which is directed by Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening). The show opened with Mindhunter star Jonathan Groff in the role, before Tony nominee Gideon Glick took over the part.
Glick’s final performance as Seymour will be on Sunday, March 15. The rest of the original cast — including Tammy Blanchard (Audrey) and Christian Borle (Orin Scrivello, D.D.S), Tom Alan Robbins (Mushnik) and Kingsley Leggs (The Voice of Audrey II) — will all remain with the production.
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The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Jordan, who welcomed daughter Clara Eloise with wife Ashley Spencer a little over nine months ago.
Doing the part will make commuting home to his New Jersey suburban home a breeze, something that’s become a key factor for Jordan when choosing work since becoming a father.
“Being a parent puts your priorities in perspective,” he says. “In the entertainment industry, your whole career is about looking out for No. 1. ‘What’s the next gig? How am I going to advance my career?’ And that all sort of goes out the window when you have this little person to take care of. Suddenly you’re like, ‘I don’t want to go out of town. I don’t want to leave and go on tour. I don’t want to go shoot a TV show in a foreign country for months and months. I just want to be home and be with my family.’ It changes the way you look at the business.”
That’s what happened with Jordan and Supergirl. Back in 2018, the actor stepped back as a regular from the hit CW series during its fourth season. He returned this year, in a limited capacity.
“I loved doing the show, loved the cast, but it was just really hard for me to be so far away. My wife and I wanted to start a family,” Jordan says. “So to be able to leave and then come back this season, on my own terms, was really perfect. I’ll return to play anytime they want, if they’ll have me. But probably not full-time again because of my daughter.”
“You know, fatherhood has definitely opened up my heart, more so than ever before,” he adds. “It’s challenging to put this little person in front of everything else, and exciting and strange. We’re still figuring it out, day by day.”
America's future is cute. #happy4th
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Fatherhood hasn’t just changed the way Jordan thinks about his career; it’s also changed the way he sees theater.
He looks at Little Shop of Horrors as a chance for audiences to “escape for a while” and experience the world through the eyes of a child.
“I think it’s important to remember what it’s like to have things be magical and have things be extraordinary,’ Jordan says. “It’s that universal thing of feeling uplifted; of reconnecting with that sense of wonder and that sense of childlike excitement that a lot of us feel disconnected from as they get older.”
“If there’s anything that I’ve sort of learned from being a father, it’s that those sorts of feelings come back really quickly because you see your child going through new things for the first time,” he continues. “Even the most mundane things are exciting and wonderful to them. And theater can do that for adults — especially a show about a murderous plant.”
Little Shop of Horrors follows Seymour, a down-on-his luck florist who helps turn his boss’ plant shop around when he discovers a rare (and voracious) plant. He names the mysterious greenery after his co-worker Audrey, his longtime crush.
The sci-fi musical first premiered Off-Broadway in 1982, and became a global phenomenon (thanks, in part, to a hit 1986 film adaptation that starred Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, and original cast member Ellen Green). A staple in high schools across the country, the show is known for its catchy score, with songs like “Suddenly Seymour,” “Somewhere That’s Green,” “Skid Row,” and the title track, “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Jordan last treaded the boards on Broadway 2018’s American Son, opposite Kerry Washington (both reprised their roles in a recent Netflix adaptation). Other Broadway credits include West Side Story, Rock of Ages, Waitress, and Newsies — which earned him a Tony nomination.
Aside from Supergirl, Jordan’s also had memorable roles in NBC’s Smash, voiced a part on the Disney Channel’s Tangled, and starred alongside Anna Kendrick in The Last Five Years film adaptation. He was in Joyful Noise, with Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton, too.
Tickets to Little Shop of Horrors are now on sale.
