Little Shop Of Horrors: Original Cast Album (1982 Off-Broadway Cast)

 (52 customer reviews)

I was lucky enough to see this iteration of "Little Shop of Horrors" in it's original incarnation way Off Broadway back in 1982.

I loved it then, and love it now.

This remastered recording of the original show is cleanly done; this is as good as it's ever gonna sound.

Since now I am more familiar with the film version, there were a few interesting differences.

First, this is more literate - more witty. There is more dexterous wordplay here; you'll find yourself chuckling at lines non-existent in the film. Since the stage version couldn't rely on visuals in the way the film did, this stuff "fills in" a lot around the edges of the story.

Second, the ending is fatalistic...I seem to remember the ceiling covered with Audrey tentacles at the end of the show.

Third, the singing in the film is more over-the-top than this version. Compare Steve Martin's dentist to this one. This one is way more subdued, though no less demented...Read more

The original cast recording of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS does not have a happy ending. The musical ends with the plants taking over the world and eating just about everything in sight. Nevertheless, we do get to hear some good music along the way making this modernized take on a Faustian tale a little easier to swallow. The songs and lyrics in the show were written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman and is just as good, if not better than anything they ever wrote for Disney (maybe Little Shop depressed them too much and that's why they started working for the Mouse). My favorite songs on the album are:

"Skid Row (Downtown"--a tune which embodies the longing of
achievement that every small town nerd or inner-city nobody
has ever felt.

"Somewhere That's Green"--a lovely song that Audrey sings expressing what she really wants out of life.

"Feed Me (Git It)"--the song where Audrey II begins to reveal her true nature.

"Suddenly,...Read more

Of all the incarnations of this story, from Roger Corman's peculiar, delightful B&W quickie, to Disney's lavish adaptation of this musical version, the unadulterated La Mama stage production is the finest. There is an edge to this, a much darker shading, that the cutesified Disney version lacks (even compare Ellen Greene's versions of "Suddenly, Seymour" -- in the movie shy and restrained, here -- she knocks your socks off). And in changing the story to make Seymour more likable, and to give the film a happier ending, they miss the major point: this is, in essence, a retelling of the Faust legend. Seymour sells his soul, and Audrey II is, in fact, Mephistopheles. This ending, complete with Crystal, Chiffon & Ronette's "Subsequent to the Events" Greek chorus and the warning "Don't Feed the Plants" is much more plausible and dramatically satisfying than that in the film; the singing and interpretive performances are uniformly excellent, better...Read more