Little Shop of Horrors Broadway Review

BJC899

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**REVIEW HAS SPOILERS**

Ok, I don't know if this is the right section to post this, but the thread can always be moved.

Here is my review:

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Review: Little Shop Of Horrors is everything but a horror!

On the afternoon of October 5th, 2003, my mom and I went into NYC to see Little Shop on Broadway for my 14th Birthday.

October 2, 2003 the curtain for Little Shop went up for the first time. What a show this was. It was a new take on the original, but once they get people to see this show, it is going to be sold out every night. It is the first time on Broadway. It was originally on Off-Broadway a few years back. The show is 2 hours, with a 15-20 minute intermission. This is very short for a Broadway Musical, where the average musical is closer to 3 hours. You’ve just sat down, and then the 1st act is finished. They did make it as long as possible, basing the show off of a (estimated) 70-minute movie.

This show has new songs, such as “Closed For Renovation” but the new songs are needed. This is so because there is a new ending in the show, and the songs are good transition pieces leading into a new scene, and the new ending.

The ending has a twist that most moviegoers don’t know. The plant in the Broadway show eats the two main characters, where in the movie, Seymour kills Audrey 2, and he and Audrey live happily ever after. The accomplishment is that you learn to “love” the bad person, more than the good guys. By the end of the show, you are “rooting” for the plant. Plant humor is so hard to come by these days. Anyway, In the original movie, they shot it with this everyone dies ending, but because of legal reasons, they had to re-film the ending, with the now seen happily ever after ending.

The cast for this show is great. It includes, Hunter Foster, Seymour Krelbourn, Kerry Butler, Audrey, Rob Bartlett, Mushnik, Douglas Sills, Orin Scrivello, Michael-Leon Wooley, Voice of Audrey II, Trisha Jeffrey, Crystal, Carla J. Hargrove, Ronnette, DeQuina Moore, Chiffon. The whole cast was great. In the first act, Kerry Butler, Audrey, had a much stronger voice than she did in the second act. This is a very hard part to play, because most people have the remembrance that Ellen Greene did as Audrey, and Ms. Butler has to impersonate the part as best as possible.

The sets, and costumes were very cartoon-like. For Example, the sky in the show, was a white backdrop, with black squiggly lines. The sets in general were ok. They only had one main set (Mushniks’ Flower Shop) which was brought down stage center, by tracks in the floor. The main backdrop was of building’s, which looked like they came right out of a comic book. When they needed another set, (the street) the Flower Shop set, was pulled upstage, and a curtain dropped, covering the back half of the stage (including the Flower Shop). What made up for the lack of elaborate sets, was Audrey II (the plant). The transitions of changing puppets were great, taking into account, the bigger Audrey II weighs hundreds of pounds. Also, the syncing of the puppets was perfect. Even at the bows, Audrey’s body was “pointing” to the orchestra when the cast was pointing to the orchestra. The puppets’ mouth was never moving when it wasn’t talking, or wasn’t moving when it was talking.

The comedy in the show was great, but the younger crowd won’t catch most of it. The audience loved the show, and all of the jokes were given a chuckle or two, or sometimes a minute of horrendous laughter.

The new ending, leads to one of the BEST show endings in a Broadway musical. We were sitting in the font mezzanine, but were still highly affected by the ending. The dramatic closing with the song “Don’t Feed The Plants” is what I am talking about. The Little Shop of Horrors curtain closes with Crystal, Ronnette, and Chiffon in front of the Little Shop Of Horrors curtain. “Blood” starts coming down from the top of the stage in front of the curtain. All of a sudden the curtain and blood, rise, and the whole stage is filled with smoke, which was green because of the lights. For the rest of the song Audrey II was hanging into the audience, and it seemed so real. Audrey was almost up to the, ceiling above the orchestra seats, and even pointed its face at one complete section. I am still shocked at the ending, because the puppet acted so real. It was an amazing ending.

Do I recommend this play? Yes

Will the show not succeeded if the actors are changed? I think the actors in the show now aren’t anything special, and if the cast were changed, it wouldn’t hurt the show, as long as the voice of Audrey II was good.

What do you think is the life expectancy of this show? I think it will be on a while, with at least 2,000 performances.

Conclusion: This show is great, and worth everything. The set-the music-the PLANT! Everything is perfect.
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Tell me what you think!
 

Phillip

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Nice review. Moved to "puppetry" with the other Little Shop and Avenue Q discussions.
 

fragglerockr

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Little Shop...

Ben,

Thanks for the review of the show. Only a couple of things...you mentioned that the show was based on the movie. Actually, it was the other way around. The Off-Broadway show was first, then the movie starring Rick Moranis and Ellen Green and expertly directed by Frank Oz!

The song 'Closed for Renovation' and the original ending where the plant eats everyone were all in the original production, however, were re-shot for the movie, becuase test audiences didn't like the fact that their hero's died. So, to appease the studio, the endings were re-written and reshot. I just hate that the song 'Mean Green Mother From Outer Space', is not in the original show. Did they manage to work that into the show at all? That seems to be the way broadway shows go these days. Take songs from the movie versions and squeeze them into the production.

Thanks for the awesome review...I'm going to have to get NY to see it. It's one of my favorite shows.

Thanks,

Fragglerockr
 

Buck-Beaver

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Actually Fragglerockr, "Little Shop" (the musical) is based on the original 1960s Roger Corman film.
 

Kamit

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Little Shop Time Line:

1960's B&W Little Shop Of Horrors --> Off Broadway Musical --> 1986 Colour movie (based on musical) --> 2003 Broadway production

(Plus, there was a 80's Saturday morning cartoon as well. Never saw it, but I know it existed. Does anyone remember it?)

I love Little Shop to pieces. I loved the Frank Oz movie and then we did it in highschool. I think I talked in another thread about getting to play Twoey in our highschool version.

When Little Shop was first released on DVD one of the extras on the disc was the original ending (where Twoey kills everyone, grows to gigantic size and goes on a rampage through NY). However, when the producer, David Geffin, found out he had the discs recalled as he didn't like the quality of the footage (because they had had to use the grainy, B&W test footage). So some lucky Little Shop fans managed to grab the 'special discs' and the rest of us are stuck with the regular DVD (which is still very cool! Includes full length audio commentary by Frank Oz!)

The accomplishment is that you learn to “love” the bad person, more than the good guys. By the end of the show, you are “rooting” for the plant. Plant humor is so hard to come by these days.
Darn straight! EVIL PLANTS RULE!

Cool review BTW. I would have loved to see Little Shop on Broadway. Glad that you had a good time.
 

BJC899

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I did a ton of research on the previous preductions, and preformances but every site said something different.

Thanks for those updates, and I'm glad you liked the review.
 

Don'tLiveonMoon

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Wow, I didn't know about the other ending. I can see why movie audiences might not have liked it. I'd hate to see Rick Moranis gobbled to pieces...
Erin
 

fragglerockr

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Little Shop...

Buck-Beaver said:
Actually Fragglerockr, "Little Shop" (the musical) is based on the original 1960s Roger Corman film.
Hi guys...

I'm aware that Little Shop was a 1960's 'B' movie written by Charles Griffith and directed by Roger Corman before it was
an off-Broadway muscial. (I am a huge horror movie fanatic). I was referring to the musical production being a 'musical' before the 1986 Rick Moranis film version. Sorry! I can see how that would be misleading.

Btw, Nicholson was great in it. (The movie, not the musical)


Later,

Lee
 

Buck-Beaver

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Entertainment Weekly has a review of the show posted in this week's issue (George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones on the cover). It also has a nice photo of Seymour and Twooey, actually the nicest shot of one of the plants I have seen so far....
 

TravellingMatt

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The chronology is correct in this:

1960--original film
1982--off-Bway
1986--film of musical (directed by Frank Oz with Brian and John Henson working behind the scenes and Heather Henson doing a walk-on as a dental patient)
2003--Broadway revival

(It should be noted that Rick Moranis and Steve Martin apparently have permanent cards in Frank Oz's Rolodex...Steve has appeared in numerous Frank Oz films as well as "The Muppet Show" and "The Muppet Movie", not to mention stock footage of him being used in "Muppet Babies". Rick also appeared on "Muppets Tonight" and did a memorable number on Sesame Street called "Stick Out Your Hand And Say Hello" with Bert, who, of course, is performed by Frank Oz.)

There was briefly a cartoon on FOX called "Lil' Shop"...Seymour and Audrey were little kids and the plant was more of a help to the proceedings than an evil monster bent on world domination. This show didn't last too long. :frown:

Still you will note...Mel Welles, who played Mushnik (and I've had the honor of meeting and being taught by him) will tell you that the subtle plot changes throughout the years have made it so one *shouldn't* compare the original 1960 film to the musical. In the original film, the plant was just hungry and Seymour maintains his innocence (most of the "victims" are bumped off accidetally), but in the show, the plant more or less corrupts Seymour into bumping off the dentist and Mushnik, with the moral of the story being to be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.

And I did revise the "Little Shop of Muppets" cast:

Seymour/Scooter
Audrey/Miss Piggy
Mushnik/Sam
Orin (the dentist)/Gonzo
Crystal/Janice
Ronnette/Annie Sue
Chiffon/Yolanda Rat
The First Customer/Kermit the Frog
Peter Bernstein/Clifford
Mrs. Luce/Mildred
Skip Snip/Rizzo
Patrick Martin/Convincing John
Audrey II puppeteering/Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker, and Sweetums (and for once they wouldn't goof it up)
Audrey II Voice/Dr. Teeth (he'd be in the orchestra pit, surrounded by a bank of keyboards, a hand microphone,and a video monitor so he could see what was going on, do his lines without being seen since he'd be in a corner of the orchestra pit, and he'd still be able to play that Hammond B-3 that is prominent throughout the show's score)
 
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