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Little Shop of Horrors (musical)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Little Shop of Horrors | |
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| Original Cast Album | |
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| Music | Alan Menken |
| Lyrics | Howard Ashman |
| Book | Howard Ashman |
| Based upon | Roger Corman film The Little Shop of Horrors |
| Productions | 1982 Off-Broadway 1986 Film 2003 Broadway 2004 U.S. National Tour 2006 Singapore 2006 West End |
| Awards | Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Outer Critics Circle Award Evening Standard Award for Best Musical |
Little Shop of Horrors is a 1982 Off-Broadway musical black comedy by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a nerdy florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The musical was based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman. The musical score, composed by Menken in the style of 1960's rock and roll, doo-wop and early Motown, included several show-stoppers including "Skid Row (Downtown)," "Somewhere That's Green," and "Suddenly Seymour," as well as the title song. Four songs were deleted during the show's early development process: "A Little Dental Music", "The Worse He Treats Me", "We'll Have Tomorrow", and "I Found A Hobby". These songs were recorded as bonus material for the 2003 Broadway Original Cast Recording, but were not part of the actual production. In addition to the original off-Broadway production, the musical has been performed all over the world including productions in Buenos Aires, Sydney, Vienna, São Paulo, Toronto, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Paris, Berlin, Athens, Budapest, Reykjavík, Jerusalem, Rome, Tokyo, Mexico City, Auckland, Oslo, Singapore City, Johannesburg, Madrid, Stockholm,Seinajoki,Vaasa, and London. Because of its small cast and relatively simple orchestrations, it has recently become popular with community theatre and high school groups. The musical was also made into a film in 1986, directed by Frank Oz.
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Although the basic concept of all three versions of the story is the same, the details vary between versions. The musical is faithful to the comic tone of the original 1960 film, although it makes a few slight changes to the story. The setting is moved from Skid Row in Los Angeles to Skid Row in New York. Seymour's hypochondriac Jewish mother is omitted and Seymour becomes an orphan. Also dropped is the subplot involving the two investigating cops. The characters of Mrs. Siddie Shiva and Burson Fouch are omitted (though "The Shivas" are mentioned in dialogue, as "a big enormous family and they're dropping off like flies!"). The character of the gleefully masochistic dental patient was deleted from the stage musical, but reappears in the 1986 musical film, where he is played by Bill Murray. The character of the sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello, (played by Steve Martin) is killed off from laughing gas instead of being stabbed with a dental instrument. In addition, instead of killing several other bystanders, Seymour feeds the plant only the blood of Audrey, Orin, Mr. Mushnik (who wasn't a victim in the original film), and himself in the musical. The musical introduces three new characters: a Greek chorus of female street urchins named Crystal, Chiffon and Ronnette, named after famous 1960s girl groups. The evil plant is named 'Audrey II', as opposed to the original 'Audrey Junior', and instead of being a crossbreed of a butterwort and a Venus Flytrap, is now a creature from outer space intent on taking over the world. It was brought to life through a series of elaborate puppets, some of which were large enough to be operated by an actor from the inside.
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The musical had its world premiere on May 6, 1982 at the WPA Theatre. It opened off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theatre on July 27, 1982. This original production, directed by Ashman, was critically acclaimed and won several awards including the 1982-1983 New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and the London Evening Standard Award for Best Musical. When it closed, after 2,209 performances, it was the third-longest running musical and the highest-grossing production in off-Broadway history.
An original cast recording, released in 1982, omits the songs "Call Back in the Morning", and "Somewhere That's Green (Reprise)", and only had abridged versions of "Now (It's Just the Gas)," "Mushnik and Son," and "Meek Shall Inherit." It also shifts the location of the song "Closed for Renovation," appearing in the show after "Somewhere That's Green" while appearing on the cast album after "Now (It's Just the Gas)" to serve as an upbeat bridge from Orin's death to the Act 2 love ballad, "Suddenly Seymour." This recording features Leilani Jones, who replaced Marlene Danielle as Chiffon two weeks after the musical opened.
- Seymour Krelborn - Lee Wilkoff
- Audrey - Ellen Greene
- Mr. Mushnik - Hy Anzell
- Chiffon - Marlene Danielle
- Crystal - Jennifer Leigh Warren
- Ronnette - Sheila Kay Davis
- Audrey II (voice) - Ron Taylor
- Audrey II (manipulation) - Martin P. Robinson
- Orin, Bernstein, Snip, Luce, and Patrick Martin - Franc Luz
A film version of the musical was made in 1986. The Japanese company (re-creating the original production but with direction and choreography by Victor Valentine) was filmed to be broadcast on Japanese television, like similar broadcasts of Victor/Victoria, 42nd Street (musical), and Pacific Overtures. However, for unknown reasons, the taping was never shown and only exists in a crude bootlegged form. The taping features Marsha Waterbury as Audrey and Burt Hilkes as Seymour. The other players are uncredited. This production, though in Japan, was performed in English.
In 2003, a new $8 million revival of Little Shop of Horrors was planned with the goal of opening on Broadway on August 14. Though a Broadway transfer had been proposed for the original Off-Broadway production, book writer Howard Ashman felt the show belonged where it was. This decision ultimately allowed the production to run for a successful 5 years. The production's lack of Broadway transfer made it ineligible for the 1982 Tony Awards. However, the show's success in film and numerous regional productions made it fall under the "Revival" category for the 2003 Tony Awards. Funnily enough this was the first time it had played on Broadway making it the Original Broadway Production.
To kick off the revival, a $1 million pre-Broadway start-up production debuted at the Actor's Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida on May 16, 2003. The revival featured several people involved in the original 1982 production. Wilkoff, who created the role of Seymour in 1982, was cast as Mr. Mushnik. The production was directed by Wilkoff's wife, Connie Grappo, who was the assistant to Howard Ashman during the original production. Robinson, who designed the original Audrey II puppets and was a muppeteer for Sesame Street, enlisted his friends at The Jim Henson Company to create new, high tech puppets especially for the show. Alice Ripley joined the cast as Audrey, and the prologue was recited by Robert Stack.
This version of Little Shop of Horrors received mixed reviews, with some critics complaining that the intimacy of the show was lost by expanding it to fit a larger (and thus more profitable) theatre. Other critics were harsher, calling the show "flat" and "uninspired" with several actors miscast. On June 2, 2003, producer Marc Routh announced that the Broadway production was being canceled because "the magic, the chemistry just wasn't there." Hours after the announcement was made, the producers had the Virginia Theatre marquee painted over with black paint.
Despite the fact that the revival was officially canceled, the production was not quite dead. In an effort to save the show, producers ousted Grappo in favor of veteran Broadway director Jerry Zaks and fired everyone in the cast except Foster and Robinson. New casting began on June 3 and the producers held the lease on the theatre for September previews. The show finally made its Broadway debut at the Virginia Theatre on October 2, 2003 with the following cast:
- Seymour Krelborn - Hunter Foster
- Audrey - Kerry Butler
- Mr. Mushnik - Rob Bartlett
- Orin, Bernstein, Snip, Luce and everyone else - Douglas Sills
- Ronnette - Carla J. Hargrove
- Crystal - Trisha Jeffrey
- Chiffon - DeQuina Moore
- Audrey II (voice) - Michael-Leon Wooley
- Audrey II (manipulation) - Martin P. Robinson
- Audrey II (manipulation) & Derelict - Bill Remington
- Audrey II (manipulation) & Derelict - Matt Vogel
- Prologue Voice - Don Morrow
Hunter Foster was nominated for a 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance.
The revival was fairly faithful to the original 1982 production, although there were some changes. It used the expanded version of the title song heard in the 1986 film, expanded the song "Closed for Renovation" with a "WSKID" radio introduction while also revising the Act 1 Finale and adding an Entr'acte before "Call Back in the Morning." The orchestrations were also beefed up to include reeds and horns, a noted change from the original's production 4-piece combo. In addition, the mechanics of stage puppetry had become more advanced to allow for a more "realistic" portrayal of Audrey II, which even extended into the audience during the show's finale to snap its hungry jaws at the audience. The cast album of the production was recorded by the original cast on September 15, 2003 and was released on October 21.
The Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors closed on August 22, 2004 after 372 performances and 40 preview performances. The closing Broadway cast included Joey Fatone as Seymour and Jessica-Snow Wilson as Audrey.
On August 11, 2004, a US national tour of Little Shop of Horrors began just as the Broadway version was about to close in New York, with Anthony Rapp starring as Seymour. In December of 2004, Rapp left the national tour to film the movie version of Rent and was replaced by Jonathan Rayson. Marc Petrosino joined as an additional puppeteer for Audrey II.
Paul McGinnis, one of Audrey II's puppeteers, left the tour in July 2005 to work on It's A Big Big World. Anthony Rapp's replacement, Jonathan Rayson, left the tour in November 2005, as did the tour's original Audrey, Tari Kelly, and its original Mushnik, Lenny Wolpe (who can currently be seen on Broadway in Wicked). James Moye, the tour's original Orin, left the tour Christmas 2005. The tour closed April 16, 2006 in Columbus, Ohio.
In Singapore, Little Shop of Horrors, produced by Dream Academy and Dim Sum Dollies, previewed on the 2nd, 3rd & 4th of November 2006 and opened 5th November 2006 for a limited time only at the Victoria Theatre. It stars the Dim Sum Dollies - Selena Tan, Pam Oei and Emma Yong as the story-tellers and Hossan Leong as Seymour.
After not having been performed professionally in the city for twenty years, a new production began previews the 17th November 2006 at the Menier Chocolate Factory. This revival, directed by Matthew White, features an all-new Audrey II design, likely based on the Pitcher plant. The production was a critical and commercial success, and transferred to the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End in March 2007. At the end of June 2007, the show transferred to the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End. Its run ended on September 8th 2007. The production will tour the UK in 2008.
- Seymour Krelborn - Paul Keating
- Audrey - Sheridan Smith
- Mr. Mushnik - Barry James
- Chiffon - Katie Kerr
- Crystal - Melitsa Nicola
- Ronnette - Jenny Fitzpatrick
- Audrey II (voice) - Mike McShane
- Audrey II (manipulation) - Andy Heath
- Orin - Alistair McGowan
- Ensemble - Cat Davies, Matt Eames