Line #3 Fridge/LittleShopOfHorrors


1	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
2	* Seymour says "Do I know you?" to Bernstein at the beginning of "The Meek Shall Inherit" in ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors''. Because of AndYouWereThere, Seymour HAS met him before-when he played the first customer, and the dentist.
3	* Little Shop has many of the elements of a Greek tragedy: The Doo-wop girls are a Greek chorus. The reversal (peripiteia) comes after he kills Mushnik. Anagnorisis (moment of recognition) comes when Seymour realizes Audrey II had planned this from the start. Pathos (scene of suffering) is when Audrey is killed by Audrey II. And Seymour fits the bill for a tragic hero: "a great man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake (flaw)."
4	* There's a possible running parallel between Audrey and Seymour in that they allow themselves to be abused and dominated by Orin and Audrey II, respectively. While Audrey is unhealthy because Orin beats her, Seymour is cutting himself and losing blood to keep the plant fed. In one scene ("Ya Never Know"), Seymour walks around holding the plant; the actor who plays Seymour here wears a jacket with a fake hand so that he can stick his real hand up through the pot and operate the plant's stem. This renders him unable to use one of his arms. Two seconds later, Audrey shows up, and she's late because Orin was beating up on her again. Her arm is in a cast.
5	* Orin's an abusive sadist, Mushnik is a greedy, selfish dick, and Seymour is a passive-aggressive turd: they all end up dead by the end, but Audrey is the only one who did absolutely nothing to harm anyone, and right up until her death wanted only what was best for the one she loved. Then we have "Don't Feed The Plants", which tells us right up front that the Earth can stop the invasion... ''if the jerks of the world would just stop fucking it up for everyone else''. And if you go by the main story? The assholes outnumber the good folks three to one. ''We are doomed.''
6	* Why Audrey dies even though Seymour got her out of the plant in the original ending. If you look closely her dress is ripped and covered in blood stains. In the theatrical ending there was no bloodstains shown. It was established in the movie earlier that it feeds on fresh blood to survive. So in the original ending, Audrey II sucked out all her blood until she died of blood loss.
7	* You really ''can't'' get out of Skid Row. "Skid Row" is a song about the futility of the working poor: no matter how much you work, the cost of day to day living means you'll never have enough to actually get ahead and keeping yourself afloat is misery in and of itself because all you can do is live an endless cycle of breaking your back for a pittance while the people you work for draw on your labor to give themselves luxury. And then Seymour comes along, and shows us that even the most successful person ever to come out of that neighborhood ends up literally consumed by his work.
8	* Seymour is the only person Audrey II is able to eat by itself. Why? Because it ate Audrey, and we've seen from the very beginning that it grows instantly after consuming enough blood. Seymour sealed his fate (and the world's) as soon as he fed her to it; Mushnik was gone and he had plenty of money to get out of town with. If he hadn't given her to the plant, locked up the flower shop, and quietly left without telling anyone, he might have saved the world... but she told him that's what she wanted, and like always, Seymour obeyed without question and paid the price.
9	* In the film, look closely when Audrey II sings "When he's gone, ''the world will be yours''!" during ''Suppertime''. He's looking at himself in the mirror. He isn't talking to Seymour at all, he's talking to himself, and the "he" is Seymour!
10	* During the stage show's version of "Feed Me (Git It)", there is a clever use of {{foreshadowing}} based around the term "Git It". When Audrey II sings it, he's using the term in the positive sense (aka, you'll get what you want) but when Ronette, Crystal and Chiffon sing it, it's negative (aka, you're going to get what's coming to you).
11	* What is the significance of Seymour naming the plant after the woman he's secretly in love with? He behaves the way he does because (he justifies) of the chance Audrey would love him if he did, only to focus more on the plant until it destroys them? What else does this echo? That's right, [[DealWithTheDevil the legend of Faust]], made famous by Goethe and Marlowe.
12	* In the musical film during the scene where Seymour is at the radio station, Audrey II tries to bite a woman's butt. Many viewers seem to have written that off as Audrey II just being a pervert for comedic effect... but think about it. Sure, this isn't the most serious movie, but it doesn't make sense for Audrey II to suddenly be interested in a human woman sexually. But what do we know DOES interest Audrey II? Blood. Maybe that woman was having a visit from Aunt Flo.
13	* In the film's opening number, the Greek Chorus stop inside the shop beside Mushnik and sing the lyrics "Best believe it, somethin's come to get ya" toward him. Later on, Mushnik is eaten by the plant who has come from outer space.
14	* Likely unintentional, but in Finale Ultimo, Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon tell the audience that similar events to the ones just witnessed have began to occur all across the nation. Little Shop is a popular musical, and theaters and high schools everywhere often do productions of it, each with their own cast of actors and their own personal twist on the play, while still staying true to the story. Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon were right.
15	* “Feed Me” sees Audrey II promise Seymour that “[his] life will surely rival [[UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}} King Tut’s]]” if he feeds the plant. One would assume Audrey is promising Seymour riches, [[ExactWords but then one remembers the other thing Tut is known for]]: ''dying early'' at age 18 or 19.
16	** It makes a fun reference for Steve Martin's Orin Scrivello, whose most famous Saturday Night Live sketch is probably ''to this day'' still "Funky Tut".
17	** In the same song, Seymour mentions he wants to cruise around on a motorcycle like Creator/JamesDean, who died in a car accident in his 20s.
18	** Two other specific people mentioned in the scene (Jack Paar and Hedy Lamarr to be specific) also provide more context. It's not clear when the musical is set, but assuming that the show is generally set in 1960 (the year the original film premiered), we get more information. Jack Paar was a television host who was on the waning edge of his popularity and Hedy Lamarr (considered one of the most beautiful women in the world) stopped acting in the late 50's and became an eventual recluse. Twoey is using people that were still relatively prominent but on the verge of fading out completely...what else happens to Seymour?
19	* Fridge Heartwarming: The FocusGroupEnding might be too saccharine and Hollywood to be considered very satisfying compared to the original TearJerker DownerEnding, but Creator/EllenGreene ''is'' Audrey, and she's had to die on stage countless times to bring that sad arc to an end. The happy ending isn't Seymour [[KarmaHoudini escaping karmic justice]] for his role in several murders based on the technical cleanliness of his hands, it's Audrey's [[EarnYourHappyEnding ultimate karmic reward]] for willingly offering herself to the plant for his sake. Yeah, the story sucks, but it's the only timeline in that narrative universe where Audrey's prayer to be "somewhere that's green" to be answered ''not'' in JerkassGenie fashion.
20	* In the movie, during "Somewhere That's Green," in Audrey's fantasy of living in the suburbs as Seymour's wife, she imagines their bedroom with [[SleepingSingle separate beds.]] At first glance, this detail just seems like a spoof of '50s sitcoms where married couples weren't allowed to be shown sharing a bed. But as Audrey's fantasy, it actually makes perfect sense. Audrey has been over-sexualized all her life, by Orin, by other bad boyfriends she might have had, and by the men she used to dance/strip for in The Gutter. She's tired of having to be a sex kitten, so it's no wonder that she dreams of living the wholesome, idealized suburban life she's seen in magazines and on TV, where there's plenty of love, but sex isn't a big deal.
21	* The separate beds can also be explained by the fact that Audrey's father "left early." Depending on how early, it's possible that Audrey has no memories of living with married parents and only has TV and magazines as a reference for how married couples are "supposed to" live.
22	* Howard Ashman wrote that ''Little Shop'' parallels the legend of ''Myth/{{Faust}}'', which many people cite to argue that it needs to end tragically, because the legend traditionally ends with Faust going to hell. But the most famous retelling of the myth, [[Theatre/{{Faust}} Goethe's version]], has an AdaptationalAlternateEnding where Faust is redeemed and goes to heaven instead. So the happy ending of the ''Little Shop'' movie has some precedent!
23	* During "Feed Me (Git It)" Twoey says "You didn't have ''nothing'' until you met me" (aka a double negative). Sounds like a word choice popular in the song style, doesn't it? Not exactly. What does Seymour want more than anything else in the story? The love of Audrey. It's his fear of losing Audrey that causes him to continue siding with Twoey despite knowing the plant's bloodlust is going to get bigger and bigger. But the audience knows that Audrey ''already'' loves Seymour but is too trapped in her abusive relationship to just break up with her jackass of a boyfriend and go with the man who treats her with kindness and love. So the double negative is Ashman and Menkin's way of showing that, yes, Seymour could've had Audrey if he hadn't gone with the plant.
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25	[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
26	* At the end of the film adaptation, a new Audrey II plant is growing and smiling in Seymour and Audrey's yard. In addition to the obvious that Seymour and Audrey's life together will be threatened once more, what if more of them appeared? You also have to ask how it got there. Are the aliens capable of planting as many Audrey [=IIs=] as they want, anywhere? In the play, it's only North America that's destroyed, but if you run with the implications the movie is easily worse.
27	* Audrey took a Sominex before going back to the shop and being eaten by the plant. After Seymour rescues her, she asks to be fed to the plant and dies in his arms. What if that was just the sleeping pill taking effect? [[NiceJobBreakingItHero She wasn't really dead until Audrey II ate her!]] Not to mention, that seems like the intent! Suppertime (Reprise) is alternatively called Sominex, but it only gets a passing mention in the song itself. What if that's why?
28	* In the original ending, Audrey II's are devouring humanity in droves and clearly enjoying it immensely, blowing up factories by blowing into their smokestacks and devouring train cars by letting them run into their open mouths. That's not the fridge horror. The fridge horror is realizing that they have no concept of ''moderation''. They're going to devour the entire human race, and once that happens, they're going to launch their spores ''into space''. At the end of the movie, Audrey II has ''nine'' buds growing out of itself. God only knows how many ''other'' planets were completely stripped of their dominant species before Audrey II landed on Earth.
29	* Some productions start out with plenty of extras playing hobos on Skid Row. After "Feed Me (Git It)", the number slowly dwindles until the Finale where the few leads are left. [[NightmareFuel Where else do you think they went in a musical about a man eating plant that slowly grows in size the more it eats? Maybe Audrey II isn't as dependent on Seymour to feed it as it pretends to be.]]
30	** Plenty of the puppets (especially Stage II) have leaves, tendrils and blossoms that are manipulated by people offstage. Who are these people? The actors who aren't onstage.
31	* Orin's escalating abuse of Audrey is hinted at during the beginning of the show (she shows up with her arm in a cast and a black eye). However, we don't actually ''see'' him abusing Audrey until ''Feed Me (Git It)'' when he slaps Audrey ''right in front of Seymour''. Abusers generally don't abuse their victims in front of others for the specific reason that there's witnesses who can intervene. If he didn't care enough about that little tidbit, it's a pretty sure sign that Audrey was most likely going to end up dead at his hands sooner rather than later.
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33	[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
34	* In the end, we see the plants taking over the world, and the chorus warns us "don't feed the plants," saying that people all over the country were taken in by their plants' promises. Except- what could the new plants promise their owners? Audrey II was able to promise Seymour fame and fortune because he had a one-of-a-kind plant that people all over would pay to see. However, the new plants can't make that promise if everyone in the country had one. So why would all these other people be willing to kill other humans just to have yet another giant plant?
35	** Because the point isn't in the fact that it's giant plant. Audrey II is a type of flytrap, and somehow has a way of rendering itself extremely attractive to humans, appropriate in that it's a metaphor for temptation. Consider that thousands of people are buying these things, but in the climax, there's really only a handful of them destroying New York (not that there needs to be very many). Each of the Audrey II's needs to find someone who not only will figure out that they need blood to grow before it dies of starvation as a sapling, but be willing to kill to feed it once it becomes able to talk and make Faustian promises. What that means is you have a fad plant that only ''very particular'' sorts of jerks are going to be able to grow to the amazing heights, and so anyone who's able to do it, is probably going to at least have something of an increased social status among other Audrey II growers.
36	** They don't even have to be jerks. Picture an extremely lonely person buying a fancy new plant to brighten their apartment. To this person's delight, the plant is visibly responsive to their voice! They start talking to it, really bonding with the plant. Then it starts wilting, and the lonely person will go the extra mile to save their precious plant. Once the plant gains the ability to speak and to reach out and touch them, they feel even closer to it. It tells them it loves them. Before long the human is willing to do ''anything'' in order to help their friend.
37	* The new ending for the movie musical introduces a plot hole. In the original, each feeding makes Audrey II more powerful: drinking Seymour's blood gives it the power to talk, and to eat solid food; eating Orin makes him big enough to eat someone whole; eating Mr. Mushnik gives him the strength to catch a person without Seymour's help; and, lastly, eating Audrey lets him turn into a wall-smashing badass capable of the level of destruction seen in "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space." Without Audrey's death, it is unclear how Audrey II became so powerful, and why he didn't demonstrate this strength when Seymour was prying him open and literally taking food out of his mouth.
38	** It's not actually that weird, since without Audrey's death, Audrey II isn't powerful enough to do anything but manipulate small or lightweight objects like the phone, the gun, and Seymour's pants. It starts rattling the building because its roots have grown into the floor and it's uprooting itself as it aims to break free, but Seymour is able to kill it at that point because it's not as powerful as it would have been, if it had eaten Audrey: it wasn't strong enough to pull him out of the rubble and eat him.
39	** In this troper's interpretation, the reason is that in the original ending, you hear a nasty ''CRUNCH'' sound as the shot switches to Seymour, and in the alternate ending, the sound is changed to something less harmful like Audrey II trapping Audrey on its mouth. Both aftermaths are similar, you have Audrey with bite-marks all over her body and she faints. The big difference in the alternate ending is that Audrey II didn't manage to eat Audrey, but consumed enough blood to grow and attack Seymour, thus making it vulnerable to be destroyed. Also, in the alternate ending, they removed the shots Seymour fired at Audrey II, so it can be assumed that's what they were intending to imply when they remade the ending. As for why doesn't Audrey II stop Seymour from saving Audrey, it can fall under ForTheEvulz territory.
40	*** Considering it's the loudest Audrey II laughs, it's a case of "Too late, sucker! ''I win!''"
41	*** There's also the part where that scene is functionally the same in either ending. Audrey II thinks the same thing either way: Audrey is as good as dead and Seymour is going to feed her corpse to it, because the other option is leaving it on the street to rot. In the happy ending, he's just wrong. And why not? It's never had to deal with an ''injured'' human before, it has no idea what kind of injury a person could survive.
42	* The reveal that there is an Audrey II bud living in Seymour and Audrey's garden in the FocusGroupEnding is hardly a cause for concern, despite the [[TheEndOrIsIt implications]]: they know from experience not to listen to anything it will say, and it's too small and weak to stop them from destroying it.
43	** Goes right back to FridgeHorror when you realize, if there's one bud, there could be more.

Context Fridge / LittleShopOfHorrors