“Little Shop of Horrors” (1986) -which ending do you prefer?

Why wasn’t Seymour the serial killer in jail? He goes around killing people and hacking them to bits to feed his plant and he is supposed to be the hero with a happy ending and white picket fence?

He kills bully's.

I love, love, love this movie. When it came out in 1986, I must have seen it in the theatres a dozen times. I kept dragging friends to it, insisting they would love it. And they did. Have the soundtrack. Still play it often.

A few years back, they released the director's cut with the original ending in theaters. I anxiously went to see it, delighted to see it on the big screen again.

The directors cut ending where Audrey II takes over the world was interesting. I'm very glad to have seen it. But I also understood why they reshot the ending.

The ending was one where evil won. I left the theater feeling downbeat, somewhat depressed I have no desire to ever see that ending again.

If they had released the film in 1986 with this director's ending with Audrey II winning, I would never have gone to see the film a second time, much less 12 times.

The theatrical ending where Seymour defeats Audrey II, where Seymour and Audrey go on to live happily ever after (with a possibility of a baby Audrey II resurfacing later) left me feeling upbeat and hopeful about the world -- good does triumph over evil. It was a great ride, one I wanted to experience over and over again. That's why I went to see it a dozen times in the theaters.

I do not think Little Shop would have been a success if they had released it in 1986 with the director's original ending with Audrey II winning. Yes, I know that's how the play ends, but plays and movies are different entities.

I'm very glad they reshot the ending to have Seymour defeat Audrey II and let good win over evil.

The original gives him the ending you would want for him, R1.

The changes were so last minute that they didn’t dwell on justice.

Tichina Arnold and Tisha Campbell were quite young when they made this. And they say it took a year of being in London. But right after, Arnold was on “Ryan’s Hope” and Campbell got “Rags to Riches” so they did ok.

R3..

Sorry, I meant to say to R3 that I agree. It just doesn’t work as well on screen than the darker ending did onstage. Onstage, all the victims are blooming on Audrey II and singing “Don’t Feed the Plants”. But the original ending of the movie isn’t even funny. It’s just 8 minutes of people running and things exploding.

So did the version Camryn Manheim’s son did have the happy or sad ending? Or what about the one Kneel Patty Harris did at the Hollywood Bowl?

[quote]Camryn Manheim’s son

I thought Camryn Manheim was a lady lover.

R8, most stage interpretations (or all) stick with the original ending because it works just fine live.

R9, yes, she had a son with her gay best friend.

More than one cabaret queen has sung a medley of “Somewhere That’s Green” and “Part of Your World” as they are essentially the same song.

[quote]More than one cabaret queen has sung

I quit going to cabarets because all of them sang "Suddenly Seymour."

That intro tho! I still quote, "do i look inanimate, punk!?"

I love this film, but neither ending quite works. The theatrical ending is a cop-out: Seymour shouldn't get his happy-ever-after so easily after what he did. But the alternate ending doesn't mesh with the tone of the film, either. Seymour is more passive and sympathetic in the film than on stage, and killing him off feels overly harsh. If Howard Ashman had been given more time, he probably could have come up with an effective ending that landed between the two extremes.

Doesn’t Seymour kill more people in the original Corman film? In the 1986 film, Scrivello dies from his own laughing gas so the only death Seymour is sort of responsible for is Mushnik’s. Maybe had they shown him sacrificing some more Skid Row people … I mean, Audrey II did get pretty big.

Even if he didn’t kill directly, he used a chainsaw to hack their bodies to bite sized pieces for Audrey. What kind of sick psychopath would do that. Is he Seymour or suddenly Ed Geins?

Don't you get it? Audrey II was a mean green Mother from Outer Space and had Seymour under his control.

I like “Mushnik and Son” but can see how it would have stopped the movie dead.

I don’t understand why they changed “You Never Know” into “Some Fun Now”. The differences were negligible.

[quote] Once Ellen Greene dies, the film runs out of gas.

Wait, what? Ellen dies? I don’t remember that.

R20, in the Director’s Cut.

I can see why they ditched the Director’s Cut ending. We’re invited to care about Audrey (played to perfection by Ellen Greene), and to root for her. Then the plant chomps her up and then we have to sit there for 30 more minutes and watch Seymour get eaten too, and then a bunch of giant villainous Audrey II replicants destroys the world, repetitively making loud “MWAA HAA HAA!” laughs over and over and over and over…

The pat and sweet ending they went with can be criticized as a copout, but it was a better choice than the above. I agree with Kit at R15 that something more interesting and ambiguous could have been developed between these two choices.

Feed me, Krelborn. Feed me now!

Why is the downer ending okay for the musical? It would have ruined my night if I went to see that and everyone on stage died.

Well for one thing, R24, they all come running back pnto the stage for applause at the end.

[quote]Why is the downer ending okay for the musical? It would have ruined my night if I went to see that and everyone on stage died.

When the musical is done correctly, and it seldom is anymore, it works. The tone is a campy B horror movie and when it’s done in that style you leave the theater as if you’ve just been to a schlocky midnight showing of a 1960s slasher film. And you head to the local all night diner and laugh with your friends about a plant eating people.

The stage play was indeed a play on all those 50s invasion films where the aliens it what have you all stood in for the fear of Communism. Corman’s original film didn’t really have that subtext.

Are people playing the musical more straight nowadays?

[quote]Are people playing the musical more straight nowadays?

It’s often played as cartoonish which doesn’t work. Too many actors play Seymour as a bumbling nerd and miss the innocence of the character. Actresses try to be “anything but Ellen Greene”. In the most recent off-Broadway production, they got the girl chorus completely wrong.

What’s great about Corman’s film is that it’s black and white and has a lot of shadows and looks like it was filmed on a budget of $5.00.

I heard a snippet of the title theme from the new OB production and hated how slow it was. Not everybody can nail it like the film (which was doubtless recorded a few times as is) but add some damn pep to it.

The show would have been perfect for one of those live TV musicals they were doing a decade ago.

Truly one of the greatest American musicals of all time.

[quote]they got the girl chorus completely wrong.

TRANS I wager.

How did they get the girl chorus wrong?

[quote]How did they get the girl chorus wrong?

They tried to give them personalities that weren’t consistent with the dialogue. And they worked too hard for laughs.

For example, there’s the following dialogue which, when said normally, is hilarious. But current productions kill the laugh because they try to reach for the laugh.

When asked why they aren’t in school:

“We’re on a split shift. We went to school til the fifth grade, then we split.”

The line gets a laugh if the actress doesn’t reach for it.

I've seen the show many, many times, professional productions to high school productions. The show always seems to hold up and the audiences always love it. Despite the cartoonish aspects, the music and the story pulls people in. I never thought it would be an evergreen, but its popularity will outlast far bigger titles, IMO. That being said, I think both endings are correct for their projects. Don't Feed the Plants is a fine ending and the Broadway revival finish, where the plant has grown so gigantic and is now threatening the audiences was like a thrill ride. The audiences went home exhilarated. But the movie had to have a happier ending. We so fell in love with Audrey and Seymour that they had to be rewarded and there's that slight touch of menace at the end with Audrey 2 growing in their yard. That little twist was just perfect. The original movie finish just seems like it's out of another movie.

The original theatrical version, hands down. I think the ending they came up with -- a "happy ending," but with a big question mark -- was perfect.

[quote]The line gets a laugh if the actress doesn’t reach for it.

Or does an actual split.

Listening to film soundtrack now, forgot how good it is.

WHET to Rick Moranis, anyway?

He gave up acting to raise his kids after his wife died.

Looks like he’ll be in “Spaceballs 2”.

I don’t even mind Vincent Gardenia in this and I hated him on “All in the Family”.

Did anybody see the original off-off Broadway production? Or Off-Broadway?

How long did it take word of mouth to establish that there was something special playing downtown?

I saw off Broadway at Orpheum.... the buzz was immediate and the transfer happened fast

Little Shop of Horrors premiered off-off-Broadway on May 6, 1982, and closed on June 6, 1982. After this successful limited run, the production moved off-Broadway to the Orpheum Theatre on July 27, 1982, where it ran for five years

Would have loved to have seen Ellen Greene onstage.

Why do people love Ellen Greene so much? I have no opinion of her either way but isn't she just known for this one character? And don't get me started on that baby voice.

OK maybe i do have an opinion of her.

R5 House Party quickly followed. And in a few short years they both were cast as regulars on Martin. It’s amazing to me that back then actors seemed to “grow up” faster. Like in 5 years, actors would go from teenage/college aged characters to completely working professional adult type characters.

Tisha was known in the NYC theater scene prior to her starring in films. She had done all kinds of work for off Broadway.

Here she is in a production of The Me Nobody Knows taped for Showtime.

Was I the only one who found Rick Moranis sexy back in the 80's? He had a quality about him that would make him oddly hot in certain films.

I masturbated to his scenes in Head Office, and he's pretty cute in this and Parenthood.

R48 Yes you’re the only one. I’m not judging but I am sure of it.

Chinless Wonder Moranis

I’m with you, r48. He’s really adorable in Little Shop. I didn’t realize it at the time but the first guy I fell in love with was a ringer for Seymour

Christopher Guest is almost unrecognizable in his cameo.