Jenna Coker-Jones and Christopher Kale Jones in Little Shop.

What happens when a show often relegated to high school auditoriums gets main stage treatment? Well for one thing, that man-eating plant sure looks impressive.

Everything, really, about this Ford’s Theatre production of Little Shop of Horrors feels like it’s been taken up a notch from whatever previous incarnation you might be familiar with (the 2003 Broadway revival being a possible exception). The show-stopping doo wop chorus has room-riveting stage presence. The pulp-y set and costumes are glaringly bright and fun. And not only is there one hell of an Audrey II imploring Seymour to feed him; you’ve got the original Audrey, the one really stealing the show.

Director Coy Middlebrook heightens the sci-fi feel of Little Shop for this production (Seymour may say it was a “Total Eclipse of the Sun” that brought the plant to earth, but we can see it’s an alien space ship which should be held responsible), accenting the set with campy flair. Little Shop, which comes from composing team Alan Menken and Howard Ashman of “Little Mermaid” fame (and the men behind one of my favorite Broadway flops, Smile), isn’t a show to take too seriously, but Middlebrook manages to get a comedic reaction even in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places, as the show would say.