Dean Bryant, who directed the touring 2014 production of Sweet Charity that came to Canberra, is helming LSOH for the same producers, Luckiest Productions and Tinderbox Productions.

"I took the same approach as I did with Sweet Charity," he says.

In both cases he took a well-known vintage show – Sweet Charity premiered in 1966 – and sought to explore ways to make the show fresh for audiences in 2016 so it works while maintaining the integrity of the original.

"With Little Shop of Horrors you know what people love about it – it's funny, it's scary, it's sexy – so it's about finding out what IS funny, scary and sexy now to us."

It's the story of meek Seymour Krelborn (played by Brent Hill), who works in the Skid Row flower shop owned by Mr Mushnik (Tyler Coppin) and has a crush on his co-worker Audrey (Esther Hannaford). But she's going out with a sadistic and abusive dentist, Orin (Scott Johnson), and it looks like Seymour is doomed to a life of frustration and loneliness until he comes across a mysterious plant he dubs Audrey 2 in his colleague's honour. He brings it back to the shop where it wilts until he pricks his finger accidentally and discovers his blood makes it thrive. Audrey 2 grows bigger and bigger, becoming a major attraction, and both it and the shop begin to thrive. But Seymour is having trouble producing enough blood to feed the plant, which reveals itself to have a voice – and a very demanding one at that. It wants more blood – human blood – and Seymour will have to find a way to get it.

Even thoughLSOH was never a blockbuster on the level of The Phantom of the Opera, it has remained popular since it premiered off-off Broadway in 1982, moving the same year to a venue off-Broadway where it ran for five years and won several awards. It spawned a 1986 musical film version and has enjoyed frequent revivals, professional and amateur, including a Broadway production in 2003.

Although the company is stil relatively modest – eight actors, five musicians – this 2016 Little Shop of Horrors is a more elaborate touring production than Sweet Charity. Paying homage to its twin cinematic origins, Bryant made the first half "black and white" in its stage and costume design, referencing Roger Corman's original low-budget movie The Little Shop of Horrors with its almost film-noir look, then bursting into full colour – "a Technicolor filmland" – a la the Frank Oz musical movie in the second half when things appear to be looking up, Audrey 2 is rampant and the blood is running free.

Bryant cast the vocally versatile Hill in a significant dual role – as the downtrodden Seymour and as the voice of the voracious Audrey 2. And he sings them both live. Bryant says through careful blocking, Hill's talents, and the scene-stealing qualities of the plant – brought to life in several sizes by puppet-making company Erth – audiences don't notice that Hill is singing both parts and the illusion works perfectly.

"He can swing voices on a dime – he's a soul singer as well as a musical theatre singer."

While it's unusual to have one actor play both parts, the dual casting underscores the Faustian nature of the story: Seymour, in effect, sells his soul to Audrey 2 for fame and fortune.

"The theme of the show is how hard it is for working-class people to get out of their situation," Bryant says. Someone like Seymour, with no education and no prospects, faces a hard time getting out of his dead-end job and achieving something, and Audrey 2 represents a way of getting ahead, even if the methods Seymour adopts are extreme.

As this suggests, Bryant and company haven't flinched from presenting the darker side of LSOH. They haven't stinted on the blood – "It's definitely more gruesome than normal", Bryant says, agreeing it could be called "the Quentin Tarantino version".

But this doesn't mean the production is taking cruelty lightly. It isn't, for once, playing the role of the abusive dentist for laughs, a sign of changing times and attitudes.

"You can't make domestic violence the butt of a joke ... you can't do that, it's horrible," Bryant says.

He has worked with the actors to try to make sense of the relationship between Orin and Audrey, and says Johnson is playing the role of the dentist as "very creepy" rather than trying to make him funny or sympathetic or a simple Elvis Presley caricature.

"He tries to see himself as a cool person but it's not working and he takes it out on anyone he can find to be his victim."

All this might make Little Shop of Horrors sound terribly serious, even tragic, but although that darker side is present, there's also a more-upbeat aspect to the show, represented largely in the score, which combines the sounds of Broadway, 1960s rock and roll and soul. Angelique Cassimatis, Josie Lane and Chloe Zuel play three street urchins who make up a vocal trio in the manner of The Supremes, just to underscore that period flavour. They're even named Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon, after famous girl groups of the 1960s.

Musical director Andrew Warboys is also part of the returning creative team, along with choreographer Andrew Hallsworth. Warboys says, "The Motown groove is a feature of the show, and 1950s doo-woop features a little bit."

He says there have been so many reinvented versions of Little Shop of Horrors that for this production, "I decided to go back to the original score".

Over the years, he says, Crystal, Ronette and Chiffon have been given more and more to do, even being inserted into a number like Feed Me between Seymour and the plant where it gets in the way of what's happening theatrically, and he wanted to remove all that and get back to the tighter, more-economical feel of the original work.

"It's such a classic – people love a lot of the songs," he says. Some numbers, like Somewhere That's Green and Suddenly, Seymour, manage to be humorous and poignant while advancing the story and others are scary, breezy, funny or whatever the scene requires.

He praises the talents of the cast, especially Hill, whose casting he says was a "coup" that allows for an interesting psychological profile of Seymour because Audrey 2 at first is never seen talking to anyone but him.

"At the end of Act One you wonder if the plant is actually alive or if it's just in his mind. The question is answered in Act Two. I thought, 'This is interesting'.''

And it's intriguing possibilities such as this, together with the combination of light and shade and fantasy and reality, along with a catchy score and a monstrous, ever-growing plant with a soul singer's voice, has helped give Little Shop of Horrors a life beyond its B-movie origins and keep it popular to this day.

Little Shop of Horrors is on at the Canberra Theatre from May 25 to 29. Recommended for ages 12 and up. Bookings: 62752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au