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On the twenty-first day of the month of September, in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, a ‘strange and interesting’ plant appears and changes the dull and ordinary lives of the employees of the Skid Row florists forever…

Act I

(Little Shop of Horrors, Skid Row).

Seymour Krelborn discovers the seemingly innocent plant at Chang's flower market (Da Doo) and takes it back to Skid Row florists where he works as a general dogsbody for Mr Mushnik, the owner. He gives it a name, Audrey II, in honour of the love of his life, the seemingly unattainable Audrey, who works with him at Mushniks.

Skid Row florists is on the verge of closing until Seymour introduces Audrey II to the front window and the plant begins to attract a great deal of attention (You Never Know). It is then that he discovers the plant has a gruesome and seemingly insatiable appetite—for human blood (Grow For Me).

Audrey, meanwhile, is being terrorised by her vicious boyfriend, Orin Scrivello, a sadistic rocker dentist. She wishes she could escape from Skid Row to an idyllic life in suburbia with a nice guy like Seymour (Somewhere That's Green).

The plant continues to thrive, and the business continutes to flourish (Closed For Renovations). Orin visits the shop (Be A Dentist), and suggests Seymour leave Mushnik's, and take the plant with him. Mushnik is so alarmed by the prospect that he adopts Seymour as his son (Mushnik & Son).

Seymour is rapidly running out of blood—and Band-Aids—but still the plant demands to be fed. It suggests the ideal solution: killing Audrey's psychotic boyfriend (Git It (Feed Me)). Seymour has second thoughts about committing murder, but fate intervenes and Orin accidentally asphyxiates himself (Now (It's Just The Gas))...

...and Seymour guiltily feeds Orin's body to the ravenous plant (Coda).

Act II

Mushnik's florists is overwhelmed with business (Call Back In The Morning), but Audrey feels strangely depressed. Seymour tells her not to worry and confesses his love for her (Suddenly Seymour).

Mr Mushnik catches them mid-embrace and supposes that Seymour has disposed of Orin in order to win Audrey. He has pieced together the evidence of Seymour's involvement in Orin's death, and a voice in Seymour's head suggests that Mr Mushnik could be the plant's next meal. The plant eats Mr Mushnik (Suppertime).

The next morning, Seymour is beset by offers of fame and fortune from moguls Patrick Martin, Mrs Luce and Skip Snip. He realises that if he takes their offers, he is commited to performing murder and dismemberment to feed the plant, but he fears that Audrey will not love him if he is poor again, so he signs the contracts (The Meek Shall Inherit).

Seymour has second thoughts, and vows to destroy the plant. By this time, however, it is too late; the wheels of fate grind inexorably towards Seymour's destruction. While Seymour is out of the shop, the plant tricks Audrey into coming a little too close with the watering can (Sominex/Suppertime (reprise)), and starts to eat her, before she is rescued by an indignant Seymour.

Audrey is expiring, and in her dying moments, she asks Seymour to feed her to the plant so that they will always be together (Somewhere That's Green (reprise)).

The emotionally distraught Seymour finally snaps, and attacks the plant with a machette. But the plant eats him. And so the plants begin what they came here to do…
The moral: Don't feed the plants! (Finale.)