A Surprisingly Violent Musical

Last night I went to the Muny again with my mom and we saw Little Shop of Horrors.  This musical, as you may or may not remember from the best documentary ever, was written and originally directed by Howard Ashman.  But let me tell you, this ain't no Little Mermaid.

The premise is itself kind of violent and unconventional:  Seymour (our hero... ?) works at a florist shop on poor Skid Row and has an interest in unusual plants.  One he can't find in his botany books and names it Audrey II (after the lovely but battered Audrey who works in the shop with him).  He puts Audrey II in the window and business immediately picks up.  But the plant is still wilting.  Seymour has tried everything to revive the plant, but the solution comes when he accidentally cuts his finger, and a drop of his blood slips into the plant.  The plant licks its lips (it resembles a venus fly trap), clearly wanting more blood.  How much more?  As the plant grows, the body count grows as well to make for a surprisingly violent musical.

I had never seen the play before or the movie, so  I had no idea what to expect.  It was certainly enjoyable, and the lyrics were clever as Ashman's always are, but the story was taken to a surprising level of grittiness.  Audrey has an abusive and sadistic boyfriend, who calls her a slut and even hits her onstage.  I was definitely not expecting that.  Oh, and the boyfriend's song (about how he loves causing pain) starts with him saying how as a kid he liked shooting dogs with his bb gun.  Wow.  It ends up being a funny song, about how his mom saw this behavior and said, hey I know what you can become with that clearly sociopathic issue.... a dentist!  Anyway, it sounds pretty awful, but it was kinda funny.

The other songs were pretty good.  My favorite was the first one they sang, "The Little Shop of Horrors".  For some of the songs, there was this barbershop trio of women who spiced up the numbers. Although their parts were relatively small, I really liked the three of them.  

I have to say I was not expecting the ending.  I won't spoil it, but it was also rather dark for a musical.  I will say this: don't feed the plants.