Little Shop of Horrors



Little Shop of Horrors is a musical with music by Alan Menken and book and lyrics by Howard Ashman that was based on the 1960 Roger Corman film The Little Shop of Horrors. The musical debuted Off-Broadway in 1982 (with Martin P. Robinson designing and performing Audrey II, and Anthony Asbury as his understudy). In 1986, the musical was turned into a film, directed by Frank Oz in his first non-Henson film (but still utilizing puppetry).

Plot
Little Shop of Horrors tells the story of a nerdy young florist's assistant named Seymour Krelborn, an employee of Mushnik's Skid Row Florist Shop. The incompetent Seymour is about to be fired by Mr. Mushnik when Audrey, another employee, urges him to bring out a mysterious new strain of plant that he's been tinkering with. Seymour, who has a secret crush on Audrey, names the mysterious plant after her. Mushnik gives Seymour one week to see if the "Audrey II" plant improves his lackluster business.

Unfortunately, Seymour soon learns that Audrey II can talk and has a gruesome appetite for fresh human blood. He also discovers that the plant brings him success, money and fame--as well as the romantic interest of Audrey. In order to continue his good fortune, Seymour decides to keep Audrey II alive by feeding it blood...with tragic results.

Film
Directed by Frank Oz and shot in England, the film starred Rick Moranis as Seymour, Ellen Greene as Audrey, Vincent Gardenia as Mushnik, and Steve Martin in an acclaimed turn as sadistic dentist Dr. Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. Also in the cast were John Candy (as radio host Wink Winkenson), Miriam Margolyes (as a dental nurse), Kerry Shale (as a Life Magazine flunky), and Danny John-Jules (as a doo-wop singer). The original ending featured Paul Dooley as sales entrepreneur Patrick Martin, but when the scene was reshot and recut for a more upbeat ending, his footage was dropped, and Jim Belushi replaced him.

Oz's own comments on the film tended to focus less on the puppetry effects and more on the difficulties of adaptation in general: "It's not War and Peace or even a huge, splashy musical. I adhere to the essence of the Howard Ashman book. The street is simply the background, but I'm not opening up the story, going in for dizzying overhead crane shots or shoving in irrelevant dance numbers."

The movie utilized multiple animatronic versions of the plant Audrey II, ranging from a tiny bud to the enormous version for the climax (with multiple buds built for the end, and a huge array of rampaging plants for the discarded "Don't Feed the Plants" finale). Though not an official Creature Shop production, many of the same performers, designers, and technicians worked with Oz on the film. As Jim Henson remarked in a 1987 interview, he didn't have a hand in the puppetry for Little Shop, but "I was very close to some of the people in that production." . These included offspring Heather Henson, in a bit part as a dental patient, and Brian Henson, who served as a principal puppeteer on Audrey II.

The puppeteer crew also included, amongst others, Donald Austen, David Alan Barclay, Michael Bayliss, Marcus Clarke, Sue Dacre, Graham Fletcher, David Greenaway, Toby Philpott, Nigel Plaskitt, Mike Quinn, and Mak Wilson (the latter appearing on camera as a doo-wop singer). Lyle Conway designed Audrey II for the film (based on Marty Robinson's theatrical designs), with Sherry Amott as head of fabrication, and Neal Scanlan and Dave Elsey also contributed.

Reviews
"Virtually every number becomes a show-stopper under the direction of Muppeteer Frank Oz. The staging is at once boisterous and big enough to out-Busby Berkeley but still intimate enough to make the screen seem like a stage. The setting is cartoon squalor, peopled with baritone bums and a Greek chorus of ghetto teens in frou-frou and shoo-bop, like streetsmart Supremes." - Rita Kempley, The Washington Post, December 19, 1986

2003 Broadway Revival
The stage version was revived 2003, making its Broadway debut on October 2, and ran until August 22, 2004. Kerry Butler starred as Audrey. Once again, Martin P. Robinson supervised the puppet design, but this time, Audrey II was constructed in collaboration with the Jim Henson Company. Robinson was the primary plant puppeteer, with assistance from Anthony Asbury, Matt Vogel, and Bill Remington, all of whom doubled as singing Skid Row occupants/derelicts. The new Audrey II was considerably different from the original off-Broadway version, while still more stylized in contrast to the film's animatronic plant. As with the other productions, however, four versions were used, from a hand-puppet Audrey to a giant version which, at its full height, rose 22 feet into the air and hovered menacingly over the fifth row. A hydraulic lift, operated by joystick, is used to help this effect.

The same puppet, weighted down further, was used in a national tour; Paul McGinnis, Marc Petrosino, Michael Latini and Anthony Asbury all performed on this version with Matt Vogel filling in for vacationing puppeteers. Robinson and the Jim Henson Company received puppet design credit in all listings and reviews.

Other productions

 * Leslie Carrara starred as Audrey in a Concord, California production of Little Shop.
 * Andy Heath puppeteered Audrey II in both the 2004 Jersey Opera House revival; and more recently the 2006 Menier Chocolate Factory production, which has since transfered to the West End.