Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
bwayondabrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/05
#0Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:00amI just got the revival CD for Little Shop of Horrors, and I love it, it is one of my fave CD's! The cast is talented, and the songs are fun, and the sets and everything look great-why did it only last like a year or so? Was it not very well recieved, or was it not a very good show?
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#1re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:02amtoo big a theater for too small a show.
bwayondabrain
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/05
#2re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:06am
o...it doesnt seem that the virginia is that big of a theater, but maybe...hmmmm
bare_nakedlady
Broadway Star Joined: 5/9/05
#3re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:10am
Could be too, that the new orchestrations killed it!
Little Shop has a HUGE following that could have filled the Virginia, but IMHO this prodution was not well executed. It started in Florida where they fired half the production team, Director and cast and started fresh. Sometimes this works e.g. AIDA but most of the time your show is in a lot of trouble, as in this case.
The orchestrations and new arrangements are so terrible, there are random Trumpet flourishes and flutes and the like. This is supposed to be a GARAGE BAND Musical like ROCKY HORROR and what did they do?? I can't even stand to listen to the new recording it makes me so mad!
And sometimes when something is done so well the first time, Like old movies, It is a mistake to remake them because, if you're not faithful, all of your original fans end up hating the new product!
"It's like children's theatre for 40-year old gay people!" - XANADU THE MUSICAL
Updated On: 9/5/05 at 10:10 AM
theaterlover45
Broadway Star Joined: 8/21/05
#5re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:17am
The Virginia Theatre is HUGE. It's hard for any show to fill it.
The revival was poorly executed. It had bad buzz from the Florida fiasco, and the cast-except for Hunter-wasn't very good.
sabrelady
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
#6re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:17amHunter Foster talked about this in "Making it on Broadway". Basically he felt it was a small intimate show(O.B.) & was expanded beyond its ability to sustain in the larger venue.( They kept saying make it bigger!)Also There was a lot of recasting to that purpose b4 they finally arrived in B'way so there may have been some unevenness originally too.
Dollypop
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#7re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:19amIt was a crappy production.
"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)
bare_nakedlady
Broadway Star Joined: 5/9/05
#8re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:21amYes the VIRGINIA THEATRE is huge and a lot of shows can't fill it, but SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE (nothing more than a musical revue) Filled it for 5 years and 2036 performances! It can be done!
"It's like children's theatre for 40-year old gay people!" - XANADU THE MUSICAL
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#9re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:25am
I've seen better productions of Little Shop in college and amateur theatre. The direction was awful and didn't understand the tone needed to make the show work. The actors were "winking" at the audience and selling the jokes (you have to play it straight in order for the laughs to emerge) which KILLED much of the humor of it. They probably lost 40% of the laughs in the show. And then expanding it into a $10 million show was ludicrous. It's charms are intimate (it was perfect downtown at the Orpheum in the 80s) and most of them were lost in the Virginia.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 9/5/05 at 10:25 AM
#10re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 10:49am
The revival was an amazing production! It didn't get any negative reviews from the press (maybe at Florida I dunno), but on Broadway it got mixed to positive reviews. And most weeks it was in the 70s-80s, but then dropped to the 60s because of JOEY FAT ONE
I loved that production.. especially Trisha Jeffrey, DeQuina Moore and Carla J. Hargrove which all had their Broadway debuts. (They are now in Hairspray, All Shook Up and Princesses) Hunter was the perfect geek and Kerry was a great comedian.
Ahh I miss Audrey II!
Updated On: 9/5/05 at 10:49 AM
BwayTheatre11
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/25/03
#11re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:11amI feel the tour is in great shape. Many say that it is much better than the Broadway production.
CCM '10!
#12re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:15amI agree with bare_nakedlady and Margo. Too big, poorly executed and over produced. I wish they would have just got Ellen Greene to do it again too!
"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds."
~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns
#13re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:15amI loved it.
And the other thing about the Phantom Lady was, Bert, she realized, in the city that never sleeps...
What did she realize, Kitten?
That all the songs she'd listened to, all the love songs, that they were only songs.
What's wrong with that?
Nothing, if you don't believe in them. But she did, you see. She believed in enchanted evenings, and she believed that a small cloud passed overhead and cried down on a flower bed, and she even believed there was breakfast to be had...
Where?
On Pluto. The mysterious, icy wastes of Pluto.
#14re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:16amCrappy direction and a few odd casting choices was Little Shop's downfall.
tmz814
Broadway Star Joined: 8/21/03
#15re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:23amI agree that they made it too big. I don't know. I love Little Shop but this production really did nothing for me. I think it would've done better in a smaller house with some different directing choices.
We've all got our junk and my junk is you!
theaterlover45
Broadway Star Joined: 8/21/05
#16re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:24amI really didn't like Ellen Greene, her voice got so annoying. I loved Kerry and Hunter.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#17re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:28am
Greene owns that role, now and forever, managing to convey poignance, vulnerability, chutzpah along with razor sharp comedic timing. She truly could make you laugh and cry at the same time. Butler was clueless.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 9/5/05 at 11:28 AM
#18re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:29amRipley would have been much better.
#19re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:39amLittle Shop is our Holiday show here in Denver at the Buell Theatre. It seats over 2800 people! I will see it just because we always go to whatever show is in around Christmas. Think I will use my comps for this one though!
Just give the world Love.
#20re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:39amtheaterlover45, you are obvioulsy clueless. Margo hit the nail on the head about the amazingly versatile and talented Ellen Greene. I agree that Alice Ripley would have been way better than Butler. She was horrid but then again I've yet to see her do anything that I cared for.
"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds."
~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns
#21re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:43am
Ellen Greene WAS Audrey. Just like Merman WAS Mama Rose: Many will try to do the role, nobody will ever do it better.
BWayBoy88
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/23/04
#22re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:52amI thought the only good things about this show were Hunter, the Urchins and Audrey II
#23re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 11:56amI thought the way Zaks treated the Urchins was very careless. I don't think he understood their function.
#24re: Little Shop Revival- why didn't it do well?
Posted: 9/5/05 at 12:41pmI agree Robert darling! I've always thought that The Urchins were a great part and I kinda could care less about them in this production.
"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds."
~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns
