Before fame came fun.

Prior to reviving the Disney animated musical franchise with “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast,” composer Alan Menken and librettist Howard Ashman were working with a little lower Manhattan company called the WPA Theatre. It was there that they brainstormed something silly: A musical adaptation of “Little Shop of Horrors,” an extremely low-budget 1960 movie about a carnivorous plant that had become a cult classic via late-night TV and campus midnight movies.

Will Roland (Seymour Krelborn) and China Brickey (Audrey) in the Guthrie Theater’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” which runs June 22-Aug. 18, 2024, at the Minneapolis theater. (Dan Norman / Guthrie Theater)

Together, they created something that Ashman called “the dark side of ‘Grease,’” Menken tapping into many a circa-’60 source for inspiration, including doo-wop, rockabilly and vintage R&B. The WPA’s production became the biggest box office hit in off-Broadway history, running for five years.

So what happens if you take a musical that finds charm in its cheapness and place it on the thrust stage of one of America’s most high-budget regional theaters, the Guthrie? Is that too big a venue for something so proudly “little”?

Not if the artists keep the sense of fun that clearly permeated its genesis. And the Guthrie’s summer production of “Little Shop of Horrors” does that. Under the direction of Marcia Milgrom Dodge (who also choreographs), it’s a high-energy dark comedy filled with imaginative staging ideas that still manage to look appropriately cheap. It also unleashes top talent and admirable affection upon Menken’s melodies and Ashman’s relentlessly clever lyrics and script.

Silly as it is, “Little Shop of Horrors” was revolutionary in that no one had ever before brought a monster musical to the stage. The predator in question is Audrey II, a plant discovered at a farmers’ market by Seymour, an employee at a failing Skid Row florist.

It quickly gains notoriety and helps turn things around for the little shop and for sudden celebrity Seymour, but there’s a catch: The secret behind its extraordinary growth is a constant diet of human blood. Seymour only has so much of it, so something has to give. Or someone. Or several someones. You get the idea.

Seymour also has a big-time co-worker crush on Audrey (after whom he names the plant), and their budding romance introduces some surprisingly touching interludes into all this murder and mayhem.

For that, you can thank Ashman and Menken’s way with a ballad – both “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Suddenly Seymour” are beautiful songs – and the tenderness accorded each by China Brickey’s Audrey and Will Roland’s Seymour. Roland gives our conflicted nerd protagonist the right mix of awkwardness and spine, while Brickey is a constant scene stealer, lending captivating layers to a sweet but self-doubting woman stuck in a violent relationship.

They’re complemented well by David Darrow as a collection of characters (including Audrey’s abusive addict of a boyfriend), the soulful voice of T. Mychael Rambo as the blues-belting Audrey II, and the Motown girl group Greek chorus of Erica Durham, Gabrielle Dominique and Vie Boheme.

Lex Liang’s Skid Row set is delightfully detailed, and one of the show’s best elements emerges from the Zig Zag Records shop upstairs. That’s where music director Denise Prosek leads a versatile five-piece band in Menken’s infectiously engaging score, a key ingredient to making this “Little Shop of Horrors” so much fun.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

“Little Shop of Horrors”

When: Through Aug. 18

Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 Second St. S., Minneapolis

Tickets: $95-$19.50, available at guthrietheater.org

Capsule: The theatrical equivalent of a fun night at a drive-in movie.