"Little Shop of Horrors" by Charles Griffith [Theater program]

Abstract

About the play: The time: the early sixties. The place: Mushnik's Skid Row Florists, where Seymour Krelboum - orphan and schlemiel - longs both for a better life and the love of his beat-up blonde co-worker, Audrey. Seymour's prospects are dim and getting dimmer . . . until he encounters a strange and interesting plant ("it looks like some kind of flytrap"), names it Audrey II, and accidentally discovers that the peculiar vegetable thrives exclusively on human blood. Before long, Seymour's fingers are covered with Bandaids, but the plant is attracting media attention. Radio interviews! Customers! A contract to supply the flowers for next year's Rose Bowl! The shop is booming and its owner, Mr. Mushnik, even offers to the hapless Seymour. Sounds good, right? Sure. But not for long. •Audrey II, now big as a Shetland pony and much hungrier, is no longer content with the meager plasma Seymour has to spare. It starts demanding a full-course human meal! Now, it just so happens that a certain sadistic dentist named Orin has been dating, brutalizing. and generally doing-dirt-by Seymour's beloved blonde Audrey. Who better to satisfy the plant's weird appetites? And when Mushnik gets wise to the dentist's disappearance, what can Seymour do but make him Victim Number Two? Well, the success just keeps rolling in. The cover of a magazine! A contract with the William Morris Agency! And - last but not least - a multi-million dollar contract with World Botanical Enterprises, an international horticultural conglomerate. Their scheme is to take leaf cuttings from the now humongous Audrey II and to distribute the leafy little clones to florist shops across the nation. Sound suspicious? Indeed. Soon it’s clear (even to Seymour) that Audrey II has more on its mind than merely the idle midnight snack. Yes, this plant is bent on nothing short of World Conquest! Can it be stopped? Will it be stopped? Will nothing save Planet Earth from the jaws of this chlorofilled menace? Looks like we’ll just have to wait and see. (p. 6 Program)