Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?- Page 2

[Marguerite Chauvelin]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 12:58pm

I saw the tour, and I thought they did a great job! I wish I could have seen Douglas Sills in it though.

By the way Melissa Errico fan, I LOVE your sig. Yay Rags!

[melissa errico fan]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 1:09pm

Thanks, love. There's so much RAGS love on this board; it overwhelms me!

Anyway, I've coughheardcough Alice as Audrey. She sounded superb. Very reminiscent of Greene, but not a rip-off. She would've been sublime.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 1:14pm

AHEM... They replaced Alice Ripley with KERRY BUTLER...Alice in my opinion is a far better performer for that role.

[theaterlover45]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 1:14pm

Wonderboy- I just like Kerry in the role and I thought Ellen Greene's voice got annoying at sometimes(thats what I meant), she did make me laugh. I meant it like I didn't hate her in the show.
Updated On: 9/5/05 at 01:14 PM

[thejcm]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 1:57pm

I saw the tour at the end of July and Tari Kelly was fabulous. If anyone is a good replacement for Ellen Greene it's Tari Kelly. She had the voice, the timing, and the look. I liked the show and also found myself wondering why it failed on Broadway.

[bare_nakedlady]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:31pm

Just a side note. In Florida the original Recorded Prologue Voice was ROBERT STACK. This was just before he died. I wish when they revamped that they would have kept his intro! What a tribute it would have been.

[andyf]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:32pm

Just to follow up on what's already been said:

"Butler was clueless."

Agreed. Now I don't want to blame her just in case it was Jerry Zaks (which it very well could have been given the way he handled the urchins), but the best review I heard of Kerry in the role said something to the effect that she looked like Penny Pingleton playing Audrey in a high school production of Little Shop Of Horrors.


I thought the way Zaks treated the Urchins was very careless. I don't think he understood their function.

Agreed. They're either in the show (like what Zaks did, except for "Meek Shall Inherit") or out of the show (like the movie). Zaks was pretty incosistent in the way he treated them.

And finally
AHEM... They replaced Alice Ripley with KERRY BUTLER...Alice in my opinion is a far better performer for that role.
Disagree. I would say Alice would be a better performer in any role.

What I do like about the revival, well...the revival recording, is that they included "Call Back In The Morning" and even better "Act One Finale," which I LOVE. I also like the new orchestrations in "Closed For Renovations."

And to be fair to Kerry, I really like what she does at the end of "Suddenly Seymore," from "Suddenly Seymore showed me I can (crazy riff) leaaaaaaarn (growl)," but I'm a sucker for a good riff and a growl...

[LaCageAuxFollesFan2]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:40pm

While Sills & Foster were in top form and very good in their roles...Kerry Butler (who was divine in Hairspray) was absolutely CLUELESS when it came to playing Audrey. Had the casting of Audrey been better (as it was before they went and screwed with it) - I honestly believe the show would have faired much better. I don't blame the Virgina, soon to be the August Wilson Theatre, at all honestly.

[andyf]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:44pm

Did anybody else fall in love with Trisha Jeffrey as a result of this show?

She was my favorite urchin by far. She went cage-dancer CRAZY in "Feed Me"...it was HOT!

[noahrp3]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:47pm

How is the Virginia Theatre HUGE??? It seems to me one of the smallest if not the smallest theatre on Broadway.

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:48pm

Not to mention the fact that Kerry Butler's voice makes my ears bleed profusely!

[suddenlyseymour]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:53pm

Well personally I loved Kerry in the role and I think she was in a no win situation playing a role like that. Obviously Ellen Greene is a legend and that role is hers basically. Kerry was going to be criticized either way she played it. But I liked how Kerry played it, it was completely different from Ellen. I also liked what she did with "Suddenly Seymour". The urchins were fabulous and I became a huge fan of Trisha afterwards. I loved Hunter Foster and Doug Sills they were hilarious. I can't wait to see the tour though, Tari Kelly especially =)

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:54pm

At 1275 seats, the Virginia is bigger than 20+ Broadway houses. The Helen Hayes is the smallest with 597 seats (followed closely by Circle in the Square).

Updated On: 9/5/05 at 02:54 PM

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 2:56pm

That show most definitely needs to be in a small venue!

[bare_nakedlady]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 3:04pm

The Virginia seats 1222 according to Playbill.com.

While not the largest is larger than these theatres where major musicals have played:

Broadhurst(LENNON) - 1201
Golden(AVE Q) - 796
Ambassador(CHICAGO) - 1080
O'Neill(GOOD VIBRATIONS/ CAROLINE OR CHANGE) - 1077
Nederlander(RENT) - 1181
Circle in Square (SPELLING BEE) - 684
Beaumont (PIAZZA) - 1041
Schoenfeld (BKLYN) - 1044

And much larger than a lot of other houses with current plays on broadway and even most of the Dark ones:

Walter Kerr (DOUBT) - 924
Royale (Glengarry) - 1078
Helen Hayes (Jackie Mason) - 586
Booth (PILLOWMAN) - 788
Longacre (WAOVW) - 1095
American Airlines (THE CONSTANT WIFE) - 740
Atkinson (Blond in the thunderbird) - 1043

Hope that helps!



Oops MARGO Beat me

Updated On: 9/5/05 at 03:04 PM

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 3:19pm

hmm...I saw the tour and i thought it was really well done, I guess it really depends on the person, well it ran for a reasonabally long time considering it wasnt a big hit

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 3:21pm

Wasn't it the first Broadway production?

The off bway never transferred.

Correct me if I'm worng.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 3:24pm

That's right. The original ran off-Broadway at the Orpheum for about 5 years and never transferred. The Broadway production was newly mounted. It was called a "revival" under the Tony classics rule, where shows that famous (thousands of productions around the country over the years, plus a movie) can't rightly be considered a "new musical."

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 3:44pm

who implied that it was on Broadway before?

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 6:22pm

I loved it. I dunno?

[Jimmcf]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 6:25pm

I did not have any desire to see this revival after the firing of Ripley. The only thing that would have possibly changed my mind would have been to bring Greene in to reprise her Audrey. I remember reading at the time she was certainly open to the idea. I think that may have brought in some box office boost, but I may be wrong (they could tout ads with the orignal star of both the show and the film, etc).

And for those of you who don't have it, Greene's latest cd is the best thing I have heard in years. It can be bought on her website...www.ellengreene.com (and she has sound clips too). Highly recommended!

[WonderBoy]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 6:34pm

ELLEN GREENE

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 9/5/05 at 6:58pm

I must say I really enjoyed this revival. I saved Clive Barnes' review of it and just read it again and agree 110% with everything he mentioned about the show in it and so on. It had its flaws, yes, probably more in the directorial category than anywhere else but as far as a bad cast, I thought it was one of the best casts on Broadway at the time. Hunter was amazing as always, Rob Bartlett was a wonderfully annoying yet lovable Mushnick, the urchins were in a word, unbelievable, and Kerry Butler, while never quite becoming the type of performer that the originator of the role was, Ellen Greene, still managed to bring down the house and totally would have deserved a Tony nod in any other year (the female performances that year were beyond stellar). The puppetry was clever and incredibly impressive and the sets were cartoonish and somewhat "comic book"-like which made the show all the more enjoyable, fun, and thrilling. I absolutley LOVED this production and don't understand why it didn't get a Tony nod for Best Revival. And to think Jerry Zaks went from directing this to TERRIBLY directing the mediocre-at-best revival of La Cage...

Anyway, I'd give it either 3 or 3 1/2 stars out of a possible four.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/1/05 at 6:40pm

Does anyone else think Brittany Murphy would be great as Audrey?

[Piazzaslight]

Posted: 11/1/05 at 6:47pm

I loved the revival! I sat in the third row, though, so maybe that had something to do with it...