Little Shop of Horrors

1986 - Dir: Frank Oz

Shown at The FeckenOdeon on 26th October, 2002

In gorious Technicolor®, "Little Shop Of Horrors" is aptly described as "the funniest musical every made about a man eating plant". The fact that it is the only musical ever made about a man eating plant shouldn't be allowed to detract from the facts that it is very funny and very musical. Ten stone weakling Seymour (Rick Moranis) takes an unusual plant into the flower shop where he works. Seymour has a crush on the blond dumbshell cashier (Ellen Greene) and seeks to woo her away from her sadistic dentist boyfriend (Steve Martin). The plant? Well... it's hungry. Based on the stage show which ran in London and on Broadway for several years, the film has a lively musical score with truly inventive comic lyrics by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman who were later to be responsible for the Oscar winning scores to "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid" (you can't win `em all!). There are visually amusing touches throughout - not surprising considering that the director was responsible for much of the Muppet phenomenon and provided the voice of Miss Piggy.