The Little shop of horrors

Originally a film directed by Roger Corman and shot in two days in 1960, then a musical play extravaganza on Broadway in 1982, and finally a multimillion dollar allstar film musical in 1986, “Little shop of horrors,” with its quirkiness, comedy and wonderful satire has developed quite a cult following over the decades. This extremely entertaining version by puppeteer and director Frank Oz (The Dark crystal, The Muppets take Manhattan, Dirty rotten scoundrels, The Empire strikes back [voice of Yoda], Return of the Jedi, The Phantom menace) features Rick Moranis as the nerdy Seymour Krelborn who works in the florist shop near Skid Row, Vincent Gardenia as Mushnik his boss, and Ellen Greene as Audrey, the shop assistant and woman Seymour secretly desires. When Seymour buys a small exotic plant which suddenly appeared after an eclipse of the sun, strange things begin to happen. Audrey II (Seymour’s name for the plant) takes on a personality of its own and develops quite a unique appetite, wanting to be continually fed, not with plant food, but with blood, and the more it is fed, the bigger Audrey II becomes. This monster plant has an insatiable appetite and the dilemma for Seymour is what can he do about it. Nominated for many awards (including Academy Awards, Golden Globe, BAFTA) and winner of the Saturn Award for Best Music (Alan Menken) in the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, 1987. Uses great visual and special effects, with book, lyrics and screenplay by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken, music produced by Bob Gaudio, and voice of Audrey II performed by Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops. Cameo roles by Steve Martin (at his brilliant best as the totally demented and sadistic bikie boyfriend of Audrey), James Belushi, Bill Murray, John Candy, Christopher Guest and an excellent support cast including Tichina Arnold, Tisha Campbell and Michelle Weeks.