NEW YORK -- "Don't Feed the Plants!" the actors sing, mock-ominously, in the finale of "Little Shop of Horrors," the mischievous 1982 musical about a flytrap with a flesh addiction. This being the omnivorous Broadway of 2003, of course, the admonition has been completely ignored by the producers of the slickly mechanized revival that opened last night at the Virginia Theatre.

They've fed the plants, all right, and one in particular: the legendary Audrey II, born 21 years ago in the humble precincts of off-Broadway. Now, for her Broadway debut, the bulked-up Audrey II -- ministered to by no less a puppet master than the Jim Henson Co. -- looks as if she should have her own installation at Disney World.

Skylight builds own horror for 'Little Shop'

By TOM STRINI
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Talented, accomplished casts are the rule at the Skylight Opera Theatre, but the star of the upcoming "Little Shop of Horrors" likely will be an animated inanimate object with a big appetite.
'The Little Shop of Horrors'
Audrey II, a murderous talking plant, took 2,000 hours for the Skylight Opera Theatre team to make. The operator concealed in Audrey cannot see outside of her. "It's all timing, cues and feel," said Peter Bruce, the puppeteer.
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Review: Horrors, laughs abound in this little shop

That would be Audrey II, the murderous, carnivorous plant that puts the horror in the little shop.

Skylight builds own horror for 'Little Shop'

By TOM STRINI
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Most companies that stage this 1982 Alan Menken / Howard Ashman musical comedy rent their Audreys II from theatrical supply houses. It's simpler and cheaper than building the monster. But the Skylight, being the Skylight and wanting everything just so, built its own

Horrors and laughs abound in this little shop

By ELAINE SCHMIDT
special to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The show, written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken and based on a 1960 film by Roger Corman, is a loopy mix of low-budget, horror film effects, foot-tapping songs and references to pop music, film and theater. It opened Friday evening at the Skylight Opera Theatre under the direction of Pam Kriger.

Audrey II feeds on 'Little Shop' fame
by JACKIE DEMALINE for the Cincinnati Enquirer

The first two stages are hand-held puppets. The first Audrey II lives in a pot, which sits on a counter. A puppeteer is inside the small cabinet underneath and stays there for the entire first half of the show.

...

The next Audrey II is a full body puppet. The puppeteer is tucked into the flowerpot while the plant is fitted over his torso, shoulders, arms and head.

published: April 7, 2005

Little Shop of Horrors
by BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE for the Times
published: March 14, 2007

Maybe that’s a parody of Marathon Man, in which, you may recall, a Nazi-loving Laurence Olivier had a go at Dustin Hoffman’s molars. But then Little Shop of Horrors is a parody of just about every sci-fi movie and play, starting with The Rocky Horror Show, which was a parody itself. Everyone who saw Matthew White’s Horrors revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory last November seems to have enjoyed it, and, though transfer has clearly deprived it of intimacy, everyone should enjoy it now that it is following the same theatre’s Sunday in the Park with George into the West End.