LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Broadway Revival Finale

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 12:21pm

I never got to see the Broadway incarnation of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. But, I heard talk of Audrey II reaching out into the audience and grabbing audience members during "Don't Feed the Plants."

Is this what actually happened? I know people can exaggerate when they speak and I find it hard to believe they physically grabbed audience members.

Can someone explain what happened?

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 12:22pm

Audrey II reached out beyond the stage and above the audience, but she did not grab anyone. She more just hovered over the audience in the first few rows. It was pretty cool.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 12:26pm

After all was said and done, it was a pretty lackluster effect (IMO), especially compared to the original production. I've heard that Audrey 2 vines "dropped" from the rafters during the last blackout to engulf the audience.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 12:31pm

Yes, the original vines dropped from the ceiling, but they just really hung there.

The revival's finale was much more dramatic in my opinion. I was in the first row of the balcony and had a perfect view. The entire flower shop set slid down to the edge of the stage, surrounded in green smoke. When the set got to the edge, it stopped, but then the plant's pod just kept going out over the first four rows of the audience, it's neck extending, as if it were hunting for food. It growled. lunged and snapped at audience memebers who were practically climbing out of their seats.


I loved it.

[theaterdude87]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 12:34pm

The ending to the revival was great. It was also funny to see all the characters that were eaten by Audrey II in like flower form.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 12:37pm

Yeah the ending was pretty dramatic..best thing about the revival. I remembering sitting in the front row of the mezz and I almost felt like I could reach out and touch it.

[Actinggbugg474]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 1:02pm

I sat in the 6th row Orch. for the Little Shop revival and I have to say that the plant effect was incredible! The pod was right over our heads, growling and snapping and the audience and everyone sunk into their seats to avoid the swerving pod. It was really an amazing moment! I was in awe as I saw the plant coming right for us and it just kept coming farther and farther out into the crowd. (it was also Halloween, which made the whole thing even cooler!)

I really loved the whole show, I'm upset that it closed so soon, I wish I could see it again!

[mallardo]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 1:54pm

Yeah, I was in the third or fourth row and it came right at us. Some kids along the row screamed and meant it! It was effective

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 3:18pm

It was very cool and very well done. I wish i could see it again.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 3:59pm

I was also in the mezz- and it was so awesome! Even though the show wasn't that great, the finale sure was amazing. Sadly, I saw it again on tour and this effect was not reproduced.

[James885]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:51pm

Yeah I saw LSOH on tour and the plant didn't reach into the audience during the finale. Instead the plant rose up and towered over the set and the actors, which was still impressive, but not as dramatic as the Broadway finale.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 6/1/07 at 4:55pm

I saw the tour in Boston and the finale wasn't very successful at all. I believe they were having technical difficulties that night, so that could be why. Nothing really happened, nothing extended. It was just there.

~Steven

Posted: 6/1/07 at 6:10pm

As someone else said by far the best part of the revival. Ironic that it genuinely was a scary part because for the most part the revival kinda (and I like Disney so hate using this word but...) "Disneyfied" everything--Skid Row didn't feel dangerous or gugly but sorta a cartoony cute version of a skid row, Butler as Audrey didn't have any real sex appeal except for a wholesome one--unlike Ellen Greene, etc

E

[mallardo]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 3:34am

"Butler as Audrey didn't have any real sex appeal except for a wholesome one--"

Whaaaaat??? Bite your tongue, Mr. Montreal. Kerry Butler was HOT. She definitely had my full attention.

[amoni]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 8:49am

"After all was said and done, it was a pretty lackluster effect (IMO), especially compared to the original production. I've heard that Audrey 2 vines "dropped" from the rafters during the last blackout to engulf the audience."


So a giant articulated singing plant stretching out over the stage to the mezz was not as impressive as a few vines hanging from wires because you HEARD it was. Mmmm OK. The finale was both cool, shocking, if you didn't know what to expect and very funny as it is a musical comedy. In fact I question why Paper Mill Playhouse is choosing to do this so soon after the ultimate finale has been achieved just across the river. Maybe they are going to rescue Audrey II from a warehouse, perhaps? To anyone who saw the Broadway ending, any now will be a bit of a letdown. There used to be a clip on line shot from the front of the mezz that I wasn't able to find.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 8:53am

"So a giant articulated singing plant stretching out over the stage to the mezz..."

It didn't strech to the mezz, it stretched to the 4th row of the orchestra.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 10:50am

The vines coming down out of the ceiling were cool, in the original off-Bway production, anyway. It has to be remembered that this was at the Orpheum theatre, a tiny tiny little house with a tiny little stage that was really filled to overflowing by that Audrey II puppet, in a way that no larger Broadway stage could really reproduce.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 10:52am

Mallardo- Maybe it's because I don't swing that way, but Kerry had 0 sex appeal on that stage. She was very...cute. Her performance was technically fine. She sang everything well, she gave some good line deliveries, and she's pretty. But she wasn't sexy and she didn't have any edge. Nothing really about her performance was that memorable. I wasn't asking for an Ellen Greene imitation, but I was hoping that Butler would do SOMETHING with such a juicy role. Alas, she didn't.

The entire revival was glitzed and glamoured. Nothing Audrey wore looked cheap enough, as someone said Skid Row didn't look at all dangerous but a place where you could take the entire family, and the street urchins were vocally wonderful, but they had no grit. It was a pretty lackluster revival with great performances by Hunter Foster and Douglas Sills.

[mallardo]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 2:38pm

wickedfan we can agree on Hunter Foster and Douglas Sills. As for Kerry, I thought she was HOT as Penny Pingleton so I may be biased.

Posted: 6/2/07 at 6:26pm

That's the thing--I like Kerry (I even watched One Life to Live at its worst for her) but her performance was wrong for the part IMHO (and I blame the director--as this was a prob with the full production--more than her)--again it was more liek a Disney heroine--zero edge to her sex appeal. I've only seen Ellen in the movie--and I agree we all have to get away from thinking of her in the role--but you need that element.

The whole production was cutesified--yes it's a satire and not realistic but you have to play up some of the sleaze and dirt and not make it all look liek a theme park ride.

But the ending plant was spectacular

E

[wickedfan]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 6:44pm

Oh, I TOTALLY blame Jerry Zaks for that entire production. I wish I could've seen what the original revival was going to be (with Foster and Alice Ripley). Alice would've been great. Zaks was supposed to come in and tweak the show in Florida and ended up totally re-imagining and recasting the entire thing (with the exception of Foster). And I think the changes were for the worst.

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 6:45pm

Wait... so the plant can move on its own? :) Updated On: 6/2/07 at 06:45 PM

Posted: 6/2/07 at 6:52pm

Wow I didn't know there was any backstage story to the revival--like Zaks re-conceiving it. Interesting

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 6:53pm

WickedFan,

I'm 100% with you on Keery's performance...


EH.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 6/2/07 at 7:03pm

Thanks, theatrediva.

Eric-Oh yeah, there was a big "to do" about the whole thing in Variety and all this other stuff about Zaks and the production. From what I recall, it didn't get bad reviews in Florida. I think Variety's review was mixed but encouraging. Stating that the pace needed to be quickened and other stuff to that extent, The producers obviously weren't happy with the first director (forgot who) and brought in Zaks to touch it up and give it that extra push to make it ready for Broadway. Well, needless to say, Zaks saw the production and thought that it needed a "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" makeover.

The costumes and the set and the cast were all replaced (again, with the exception of Foster). It was made larger, shinier, and totally redone. This didn't make the production better. It just made it more Broadway/Disney. Zaks may have done the Anything Goes revival, but ever since Little Shop of Horrors, he is going to have direct something of utter, earth shattering, for the record books brilliance in order for me to consider him credible again.