Feed Me, Seymour!

One of my coworkers saw the picture of poor sick Lily and said it reminded him of "that plant thing in that movie." He's talking about Audrey II, of course! I didn't try to give Lily any blood, but some nice fertilizer might make him happy.

Incidentally, Little Shop of Horrors was the first musical I was ever in. It's actually quite a fun show. I was only in the chorus, but I got to do some rather funny things. The chorus members were, of course, the urchins of Skid Row, and so had many rather disgusting habits when they appeared. At one point, I mimed picking my nose and offering my prize to one of the other urchins, who didn't want it. So, I offered it to the one on the other side of me, who mimed taking it and eating it, and gave me a big thumbs-up. We got a gratifying "ewwww" from the front rows of people who noticed the little exchange.

An actor named Rod was the puppeteer of Audrey II, which was mostly plywood in our budget. Rod had to wear a full green body suit with some rather ridiculous looking gauzy things sticking out all over. He also was Audrey II's foliage, you see, and in such a costume it wasn't bad to see him moving behind the prop. I remember Rod telling me how utterly scared he was to have to take his curtain call in that suit. He knew he looked silly in it, and wished there was time to change before coming out. There wasn't, and I told him no one would know what he did if he completely changed clothes anyway. In the end, Mr. Wadas, our director, insisted Rod and the person who did Audrey II's voice bow together, and no, there was no time for Rod to change. At the end of opening night, Rod stepped out in his unbelievably green get-up next to the voice actor, and the two of them received the absolute loudest cheer and applause of the whole company. That was a "you really love me" moment!

It was a rather morbid show for a Catholic high school to perform. I'm so glad we were able to get away with things like that!