HISTORY

Little Shop of Horrors started, being like a Hollywood joke. In 1960 Roger Corman was having lunch with a man who owned a studio that Corman had space in (in Hollywood). "He mentioned that they were finishing shooting on a film and had nothing coming in." said Corman "And I knew what the sets were like so I said 'Look, leave the sets up and I'll see if I can't make something very inexpensively and I will tailor something to the existing sets' and he says 'How long do you want them' and I say 'Two days' he said 'You can't make a film in two days!' I said 'I just want to see if it can be done'"

So Corman made the arrangements to utilize the sets for two days.

He then met with Chuck Griffith who was a writer whith whom Corman had worked with successfully several times before, particularly on the comedy horror 'Bucket of Blood' So Griffith and Corman brainstormed and eventually came up with the idea for the man-eating plant.

So then Griffith wrote the script in roughly two weeks and Corman made a deal with the actors for 1 weeks salary. They rehearsed off the set Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and then shot the film on Thursday and Friday, with a some night film footage afterward and the film was made.

22 years after the movie was released, Little Shop of Horrors opened in an Off-Broadway theatre as a musical.

One of the driving forces behind this musical was David Geffen. Says Geffen: "A musical about a plant that eats people and sings...I couldn't imagine what it was. In truth the movie that it was based on is one of the famous jokes in Hollywood: it was the movie that was made in two days. And it is famous because of how bad it is, so when somebody said 'Let's make a musical of this' I said 'Sure'......The worst idea I ever heard."

So Geffen took this "bad idea" and made it into a musical that was adored by all audiences. The songs composed for the musical were the Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors, Skid Row (Downtown), Da-Doo, Grow For Me, Ya Never Know, Mushnik and Son, Dentist, Somewhere That's Green, Feed Me (Git It), Now (It's Just the Gas), Closed for Renovation, Suddenly Seymour, Suppertime, The Meek Shall Inherit, Sominex Suppertime II, and the Finale: Don't Feed the Plants.

Then came the movie, released in 1987. When Geffen began the movie, he expected to go in, make an inexpensive film (under $6,000,000) and release it. It was beyond all of his and anyone's expectations. When they began shooting the movie, they pictured Rick Moranis as the perfect Seymour Krelborn.

When they eventually did get Rick Moranis for the part of Seymour, they had to find the perfect Audrey. They had it narrowed down to 2: Barbra Streisand and the Audrey from the original Off-Broadway production: Ellen Greene. When asked for the job, Greene was thrilled to except the role.

And so they found other well-known actors for the movie such as Vincent Gardenia as Mr. Mushnik, Steve Martin as Orin Scrivello, John Candy as Weeeeeeiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrd Wink Wilkinson, Bill Murray as Arthur Denton, Christopher Guest as The First Customer, James Belushi as Patrick Martin, Levi Stubbs of the Four Tops as the voice of Audrey II, Tichina Arnold as Crystal, Michelle Weeks as Ronnette, and Tisha Campbell as Chiffon. To direct, they got Frank Oz to do the job.

As few may have noticed they changed a few things in the movie. They deleted the songs Mushnik and Son, Now (It's just the Gas), and Closed for Renovation. They also truncated The Meek Shall Inherit and Sominex Suppertime II. And they changed "Ya Never Know" to be "Some Fun Now", and added a very upbeat song entitled "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space"They also changed the Finale (Don't Feed the Plants) to have a happier Hollywood ending, even though originally they didn't plan on changing the ending, therefore spending money on shooting gigantic Audrey IIs terrorizing New York as Don't Feed The Plants played.

Now, one of the latest shows on Broadway is a revival of "Little Shop of Horrors"! They kept all of the original songs, but did make some changes to a few of them, such as "The Meek Shall Inherit", and "Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors". Many changes were made to the song "Mushnik and Son", but as they say in the musical "Wicked" the change to Mushnik and Son is a "change for the better". It is now a song and dance number. Though, the changes to the lyrics in the song puzzle many people.

And playing Seymour is none other than Hunter Foster: Sutton Foster's brother (Sutton Foster starred as Millie in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" but has ended her contract with the show)! And playing Audrey is Kerry Butler who is best known for her performance in "Hairspray". Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. is played by Douglas Sills whose past performances include "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and others.

But we mustn't forget the version that got cancelled! In 2003 LSOH was supposed to come to Broadway earlier, with an almost entirely different cast. It was going to start previews at the Virginia Theatre on July 16 and officialy open there on August 14th. Alice Ripley was going to play Audrey, and Bill Porter was going to play Orin Scrivello. And here are some really interesting casting choices: Lee Wilkof was going to play Mr. Mushnik! He was Seymour in the 1982 Off-Broadway cast. Also, Hunter Foster was going to play Seymour, so I'm sure he wasn't disappointed when he got picked for the role with the new cast. The current revival cast of LSOH opened at the Virginia Theatre only 14 days after the cancelled version, so fans were not disappointed. Little Shop of Horrors has had a very interesting history, had many different versions made, and it is still a fantastic show!