Little Shop of Horrors

History of the show


The grisly tale tells of Seymour Krelborne, an assistant at Mushnik's Florist Shop on Skid Row, who decides to boost sales by producing a strange house plant. He names it Audrey II because of his love for sales assistant Audrey, and finds that it grows faster if it is fed with a few drops of blood—and subsequently human flesh. Things rapidly get out of hand as the monster plant—and the business—thrives, eventually devouring just about everything and anyone in sight.

After making its debut at the tiny WPA Theatre in New York, Little Shop Of Horrors moved to the Orpheum Theatre on the Lower East Side on 27 July 1982.

The book by Howard Ashman, was based on Charles Griffith's screenplay for the 1960 (non-musical) film The Little Shop of Horrors [imdb.com], a spoof of the horror movie genre which had become a cult classic.

The show continued to amaze and delight off-broadway audiences for 2209 performances and was awarded the New York Critics Award for Best Musical.

Little Shop Of Horrors then made history when the musical (based on a movie) was then shot as a movie itself [imdb.com] starring Rick Moranis as Seymour, Ellen Greene (reprising her stage role) as Audrey and Levi Stubbs (of the Four Tops) as the voice of Audrey II.