Characters / Little Shop of Horrors

WARNING: This character sheet includes some unmarked spoilers!

Seymour Krelborn

Played by:

Jonathan Haze (1960 film)

Rick Moranis (1986 film)

Marlow Vella (animated series)

Our main protagonist, a meek and bumbling florist who discovers a strange and interesting plant.

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• Accidental Murder: Audrey Jr.'s first couple victims in the original film are people Seymour inadvertently killed.
• Achievements in Ignorance: In the original he accidentally creates a sentient Man-Eating Plant by crossbreeding a Venus flytrap with a butterwort.
• Adaptational Heroism: While Seymour is mostly the same character he was in the stage version, he is given a much more sympathetic light in the 1986 version by having most of his irredeemable moments cut down or downplayed.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In the film, he has the sense not to blab about his plans to leave Audrey II to starve in the shop in front of the plant. Likewise, he doesn't want to wait until after the photoshoot. Instead, he asks Audrey if she wants to elope with him that night, outside of the shop, and they agree to quickly pack and leave. What's more, he brings out all the big guns to deal with the plant when it tries to eat her.
• Adaptation Name Change: His last name is Krelboyne in the original film.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the original film he was a lazy worker and in the stage musical he was still meek and shy but was sketchy and manipulative when it suited him, especially after Audrey II starts to sweet-talk him into feeding it human blood and flesh with him deliberately getting people killed to achieve his goals; the 1986 film makes him much more passive and unwilling to take a life even if it's one such as Orin's and much more prone to questioning Audrey II's advice.
• Adaptational Wimp: The 1986 version is much more passive than the in play version. Instead of deliberately tricking Mushnik into Audrey II's mouth like in the play, the film's Seymour somewhat backs Mushnik next to Audrey II and it is Mushnik's own fault for looking directly into the plant's open maw and even outside of that he's nowhere near as aggressive or direct in assisting Audrey II or defying him. This passiveness is likely what caused the original ending to gain negative reception from test audiences, as it showcases Audrey II humiliating a cowardly Seymour before eating him rather than Seymour growing a spine and voluntarily jumping into the plant's maw with a machete in his hand to atone for his sins.
• Age Lift: Is 13 years old in the Little Shop cartoon.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Especially in the 1960 film, where everyone bordered on All Jews Are Ashkenazi.
• And I Must Scream: In all versions save the 1986 film, he becomes one of the plant's buds.
• The Atoner: It could be viewed that Seymour deciding to fight Audrey II to stop its plan in both versions of the film could be seen as this.
• Banana Peel: A prostitute makes him slip on one in the original movie.
• Bullet Dancing: Audrey II forces Seymour to do this during the climax.
• Basement-Dweller: Lives at home with his mother in the first movie and in the basement under Mushnik's store in the remake.
• Berserk Button: Don't abuse Audrey or you will get it. Also counts as opposing what he suffers in the 1986 film, where Seymour is an Extreme Doormat.
  Seymour: (enraged singing) You need blood, he's got more than enough!
• Beware the Nice Ones: Just ask Orin. Or, in the revised happy ending, Audrey II himself.
• Catapult Nightmare: Seymour has one in the extended "Meek Shall Inherit" sequence, where he sees Mushnik's painting drip with blood and himself turned into a plant monster.
• Character Catchphrase: "I didn’t mean it" whenever he makes a mistake in the original film.
• Corrupt the Cutie: He agrees to feed people to Audrey II to keep it alive and win Audrey's affections. However, after he feeds it Audrey and realizes what Audrey II is planning, he decides to try destroying it. He fails in the play but succeeds in the theatrical cut of the movie.
• Defeat by Modesty: In both film versions, Audrey II thwarts Seymour's attempt to axe it by pantsing him, prompting Seymour to drop the ax and duck behind a counter.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Focus Group Ending closes "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space".
• Disappeared Dad: In the original film, his father left because of his mother’s terrible cooking.
• Driven to Suicide: In the 1986 film's original ending, after feeding Audrey to the plant, Seymour goes up to the roof so he can jump off the building. Then Paul Dooley shows up and Seymour learns what Audrey II has planned.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: In the original movie, he tells Audrey not to pity him because he's not worth it.
• Endearingly Dorky: Seymour is a nervous, clumsy slob who thinks the only way the beautiful Audrey would love him is if he were wealthy. However, Audrey loves Seymour early in the show, mostly because he's one of the few men who treats her with any sort of kindness; she just doesn't believe she deserves that kindness.
• Expy: Is very similar to Walter Paisley, the protagonist of A Bucket of Blood which Roger Corman and Charles B. Griffith made the previous year. Paisley is a meek waiter who accidentally kills people and covers them in clay to make successful sculptures. Paisley's actor, Dick Miller was even asked to play Seymour.
• Fatal Flaw: Oblivious to Love. Audrey II, of course, plays Seymour's torch for Audrey like a harp.
• Humiliation Conga: The uncut version of "Mean Green Mother" has the plant gloating about how he has destroyed Seymour's life and will soon do the same to people all over the world, easily thwarting his attempts to kill him, robbing him of his last dignity by stealing his pants, destroying his home by pulling it down over him, and eventually eating him up.
• Karma Houdini: Seymour killed two people (he let Orin die despite making it clear that he could have helped him and he backed Mushnik into the plant) and considered going even further (he signed the contracts in "The Meek Shall Inherit", implicitly agreeing to kill others in the future. This is made clearer in the play where the song is extended, but the actions remain the same in the film.) but in the theatrical cut, he gets away with absolutely no punishment whatsoever-Audrey likely never even learns that he is a murderer.
  • It can be argued that Seymour finally standing up to and destroying the plant thus preventing the destruction of the human race pretty much makes up for the world being less one sadistic dentist (which WASN'T his fault, despite intentions to the contrary) and one greedy, albeit somewhat kind, shopkeeper (which may not have been entirely on purpose whatever the plant said). Both deaths are made a lot more ambiguous in the film than the play, and can be interpreted as due to Seymour's actions or not.
    • The Director's Cut makes it pretty clear that he didn't get away with anything, even if you don't count his death. Orin and Mushnik died only because Seymour doesn't prevent their deaths, and they both would have harmed him (Orin with dental sadism, Mushnik through blackmail) even if he had saved them. Audrey, on the other hand, he consciously fed to the plant, even if it was at her own selfless request. If he hadn't done it, Audrey II might not have been strong enough to tear down the building and eat Seymour whole.
  • In a deleted scene, Seymour during the "The Meek Shall Inherit" scene does grab an axe to destroy Audrey II, but the thought of losing Audrey stays his hand.
• The Klutz: The first thing we see Seymour doing in the 1986 film is breaking a bunch of flower pots. In the 1960 film, he's a Walking Disaster Area.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In the original 1960 film, Seymour is one of the buds when Audrey Jr. blooms, along with the other people he fed to the plant.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Zig-zagged. Mushnik assumes this is the case when he thinks Seymour killed Orin, since Seymour has a huge crush on Audrey. However, while he was responsible for his death, he didn't do it to make a move on her; he did it to feed the plant and rescue her from an abusive relationship. He certainly doesn't mind that Audrey wants to be with him after Orin's gone, but that wasn't his motivation, and he in fact never makes a move on her until she indicates she has feelings for him in "Suddenly Seymour."
• My Beloved Smother: In the original movie, he’s stuck looking after a bedridden, hypochondriac mother who doesn’t want him to marry Audrey.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The film gradually leads Seymour to this. He's horrified that he chopped up Scrivello and he led his boss into Audrey II's jaws. Eventually, he realizes that he's gone too far and doesn't want to continue with what he's been doing. Happens in the stage production too, albeit too late for Seymour to do anything about it.
  Seymour: "You're a monster and so am I!"
• Nice Guy: Once you get past the "grows a giant man-eating plant that needs blood to stay alive" thing.
• Nightmare Sequence: "The Meek Shall Inherit" was going to be this, but the scene was cut down. You can still hear the rest of it on the soundtrack.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Seymour gets a lot of these moments, but the one that takes the cake is when Seymour willingly feeds Audrey to the Audrey II. In the scene just before, the plant had to brace itself (and expend a great deal of effort) just to move its pot a few feet to reach the pay phone. After eating Audrey, it becomes fully mobile and gains enough strength to destroy the shop and devour Seymour.
  • Audrey II also rubs it in Seymour's face that he helped bring his plan to fruition.
    Seymour: We're not talking about one hungry plant here, we talking about world conquest!
    Audrey II: (practically giggling) And I wanna thank YOU!
• Senseless Sacrifice: In all versions save the 1986 film, Seymour tries to kill the plant by letting himself get eaten (or charging into the plants maw) with an axe to hack from the inside. It doesn't work.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Audrey II doesn't eat him in the Focus Group Ending.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: His mother says something along these lines about him at the end of the first movie, prompting his face in one of Audrey Jr's buds to say his catchphrase.
• Walking Disaster Area: Seymour's hat in the 1960 film. Only hinted at in the 1986 film.
• Wife-Basher Basher: His killing of Orin. Need we say more?
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Really the whole story is to Seymour. Being a geeky, down-on-his-luck shlub living in an extremely poor part of town, working for a failing shop with a boss that treats him poorly. Then it seems like things are looking up when he acquires a "strange and interesting plant" bringing some badly-needed success to his workplace and even becoming famous, with the chance at moving out of Skid Row and becoming a bigshot celebrity. If only the plant didn't have such....unusual cravings.

Audrey Fulquard

Played by:

Jackie Joseph (1960 film)

Ellen Greene (1986 film)

Tamar Lee (animated series)

A sweet young woman who works at Mushnik's flower shop with Seymour.

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• Adaptational Wimp: In the original movie, she's sweet and positive, but shows no signs of being a Love Martyr or Extreme Doormat.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: She's given a much harder life in the musical, being the victim of an abusive relationship while trapped in a scummy place like Skid Row.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Her hair is brunette in the 1960 movie, blonde in the musical version, and black in the cartoon series. In the recent off-Broadway revival, she's a redhead.
• Age Lift: Is 13 in the Little Shop cartoon series.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Averted. Even though she dislikes being in a relationship with Orin, she just can't break it off, because she fears his reaction to the breakup. She also states she doesn't deserve a good relationship.
• Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: You can tell when the Focus Group Ending kicks in when the dress becomes a lot less blood stained.
• Death by Adaptation: Didn’t die in the original film but was supposed to die in the remake before the Focus Group Ending.
• Disappeared Dad: She says her father walked out on her and her mother.
• Disney Creatures of the Farce: In the "Somewhere That's Green" Imagine Spot, she's accompanied by animated birds.
• Dissonant Serenity: In the theatrical and Director's Cut versions, she calmly says, "When I die, which should be very soon now...". This line is usually delivered straight to the fourth wall for Black Comedy laughs on stage, whereas the film necessarily plays it more or less straight.
• Dumb Blonde: Subverted. Audrey's not stupid, just too trusting. This is what got her into an abusive relationship with Orin Scrivello, and later into the mouth of the plant.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: She strongly implied herself to be something like this, since she mentions working at a nightclub and wearing "cheap, tasteless outfits".
• Imagine Spot: "Somewhere That's Green" depicts her fantasy of living a humble life outside of Skid Row, with a loving husband (Seymour) and kids of her own.
• "I Want" Song: She sings about her desire for a quaint and humble life in "Somewhere That's Green".
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: This is how she ended up with Orin.
• Love Martyr: Oh, dear God, the woman is a walking ad for codependency.
• The Masochism Tango: Not only is she a walking ad, she's an Olympic-level master. Her Cut Song "The Worse He Treats Me" is a literal example.
• Morality Pet: Audrey for Seymour and Mushnik. Mushnik is genuinely concerned that she's dating a monster, and Seymour thinks of wanting to make her happy.
• Nice Girl: She is completely sweet and innocent, and rather trusts others too much.
• Race Lift: More recent productions, like the 2019 revival, have cast women of color in the role.
• Related in the Adaptation: Is Mushnik's daughter in the cartoon series.
• Viking Funeral: In the original ending, Audrey II gives her a dignified death similar to one, gently closing its jaws and swallowing her body whole instead of the brutal chewing it inflicts on its other victims.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Mushnik tells her this. She doesn't think she deserves anyone good like Seymour.

Mr. Gravis Mushnik

Played by:

Mel Welles (1960 film)

Vincent Gardenia (1986 film)

Harvey Atkin (animated series)

The owner of a small floral shop on Skid Row. He is Seymour and Audrey's employer.

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• Adaptational Name Change: It is relatively minor compared to most others, but the original 1960 film his name is spelled Mushnick
• Adaptational Jerkass: Gets this twice. In the original film, he's a Mean Boss, but in fairness Seymour was a pretty bad employee. In the play, he becomes an abusive Parental Substitute, but he seems to believe Seymour when he says he didn't kill Scrivello and just wants him to come to the police station to make a statement. In the movie musical, he blackmails Seymour at gunpoint so he can have the plant and the profits to himself.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the original film he was at most an unpleasant boss to a rather mediocre employee but was otherwise a harmless guy. The theatre adaptation largely kept him the same way except making him an abusive parental figure but the movie truly ramped up this aspect by making him greedy enough to blackmail Seymour at gunpoint and trying to cut a deal with him so Seymour can hide from the law while he keeps Audrey II and its profits for himself.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Well, in the 1960 film, unambiguously.
• Asshole Victim: In the musical and its film adaptation, he's eaten by Audrey II and in the former he dies after trying to get Seymour to confess to his crimes willingly so he won't get an extremely harsh sentence; in the film, however, it's hard to feel too bad when he's been verbally abusive to Seymour for the entire story and when he found out about Seymour's involvement in Orin's disappearance and death was completely willing to sweep (what he thought was) the deed under the rug to let Seymour get away and hide while he kept Audrey II and its profits for himself.
• Composite Character: In the stage musical, Mushnik is fooled into Audrey II’s mouth by being told that’s where the receipts are hidden. The same thing happened to a thief from the 1960 version. Ironically, Mushnik was the one doing the fooling in the original.
• Death by Adaptation: He is eaten by Audrey II in both the musical and its film adaptation, but avoided this fate in the original 1960 movie.
• Death by Materialism: In the stage musical Seymour tricks him into getting close to Audrey II's maw by telling him that its maw had the receipts of the money inside.
• Dramatic Irony: After the flower shop's first successful day of business, Mushnik tells the leaving customers to come again to see the Audrey II as it was going to get bigger and more amazing. He didn't know how right he was.
• Everyone Has Standards: He treats Seymour like dirt but draws the line at physical abuse, and is appalled when Audrey's boyfriend gives her a black eye.
• Funny Foreigner: In the play. He's implied to be Czechoslovakian, Seymour says he's visiting his sister there to cover up his death.
• Greedy Jew: His main concern is making money out of the plant though at least he has the justification of the shop not being too popular to make enough money until Audrey II drew customers. The film takes it even further by making him greedy enough to try and cut a deal with Seymour to profit off the plant in exchange for remaining silent about Seymour's crimes while sending him away to hide.
• He Knows Too Much: He saw Seymour chopping up Scrivello's body and was about to learn what Audrey II eats when he was Killed Off for Real.
  Mushnik: Little red spots all over the linoleum! Little red spots all over the floor!
• I Need a Freaking Drink: More than a singular freaking drink in this case. In the original, after witnessing Seymour feeding a human foot to the plant, he goes back to the restaurant and orders every alcoholic drink he can think of.
• Ironic Name: Applicable to the actor, Vincent Gardenia in the 1986 film, who plays flower shop owner Mr. Mushnik, and a flower shop is a good place to find gardenias...
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his gruff attitude, he still cares for Audrey and is genuinely concerned for her welfare.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He still treats Seymour like crap and admits he never liked him to begin with in the play-only "Mushnik and Son," even after Seymour is solely responsible for saving the flower shop, and tries to get rid of Seymour so he can feed Audrey II himself. He does, but not in the way he thought. At least in the movie — in the play, Mushnik has good reason to believe Seymour killed Orin and is simply doing his duty as a citizen by telling the police what he knows after they question him, and he gives Seymour the opportunity to come with him and defend himself, in case it really isn't what it looks like. Seymour tricks him into getting too close to the plant, purely to save his own ass.
• Nervous Wreck: The main source of his sour attitude and outbursts is stress over his unsuccessful business and fear of poverty.
• Parental Substitute: For Seymour. He even asks to adopt him in the musical.
  • Declares himself this on and off in the first film depending on whether or not Seymour is making him money.
• Pet the Dog: In a Fair-Weather Friend way; but his immediate response to Audrey II attracting a customer is to selflessly offer to buy Seymour and Audrey dinner.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In the play, he has every reason to believe Seymour murdered a man and tries to peacefully take him to the police station, where he can defend himself if he (Mushnik) is wrong.
• Related in the Adaptation: Is Audrey's father in the cartoon series.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: He figures out that Seymour is connected to Orin's death and that he was motivated by his love for Audrey. However, he assumes Seymour murdered him in cold blood to get with his girlfriend (and, to be fair, the evidence does seem to point that way). He doesn't realize Seymour was more motivated by the fact that Orin was abusive towards her... or that there's a carnivourous plant who needed fed.
• Spell My Name With An S: His surname is spelled Mushnick in the original 1960 film.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the musical he somehow believes it when Seymour tells him he hid the receipts in Audrey II and goes inside to get them.

Audrey Jr. / Audrey II

It's Suppertime.

Played By:

Charles B. Griffith (1960 film)

Levi Stubbs (1986 film)

Buddy Lewis (animated series)

The monster of this horror story, a sentient plant with a voracious appetite for human blood.

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• Adaptational Badass: Mostly played straight with a slight zigzag. In the 1960 movie it can't move at all and needs food to be placed directly into its mouth, it can't reproduce, and after a few days it reaches the natural end of its lifespan and dies. If it wasn't for its ability to hypnotize Seymour, it would have been a completely Harmless Villain. In the 1986 movie it has prehensile vines, limited (and eventually unlimited) range of motion, and no apparent limitations on its growth or reproduction; it still has mind control powers, however, of the enchantment kind.
• Adaptational Heroism: Is mostly benevolent in the cartoon aside from eating Seymour's piano teacher.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Still pretty intelligent in the musical but also observant. Audrey II finds out Seymour wants to leave it in the musical after Seymour blabs in front of it and Audrey. In the movie, it cottons on rather quickly to Seymour's plan to pack, take the money and run, leaving it to starve despite Seymour having the sense to tell Audrey well outside the plant's earshot. Audrey II pretends to agree to Seymour's offer of rare meat from the butcher, and uses the distraction to "borrow" change from the cash register. Then Audrey II calls Audrey, so she'll be lured to the shop to view the spectacle. Not bad for a vegetable!
• Adaptational Karma: In the stage musical, the original 1986 ending and most adaptations it gets away with all its crimes and successfully takes over the world and even in the original 1960 film it only withered away after eating Seymour and everyone else prior as part of its lifecycle. In the theatrical ending of the 1986 film, however, he gets fried and blown up by Seymour at the last second (though at least one of his buds manages to survive).
• Adaptation Name Change: Called Audrey Jr. in the original movie and Audrey II in the musical, and back to Audrey Jr in the cartoon.
• Adaptational Sexuality: In the original, Audrey Jr./II being a hermaphrodite carnivorous plant (alien in Audrey II's case) is completely uninterested in the concept of romance in general, due to the fact that many plants have both male and female parts, the 1986 film shows that Audrey II can create more plants without him coming into contact with another of its species. In the cartoon, Junior being a male carnivorous plant falls madly in love with a venus flytrap which he calls "DeMila".
• Adaptation Species Change: Is always a Man-Eating Plant but in the original, it’s a hybrid plant created by Seymour, in the play and movie an alien, and a prehistoric Earth plant in the cartoon series. Some stage productions have additionally changed its plant species from flytrap to pitcher plant or lily.
  • Goes along with Adaptational Villainy / Adaptational Heroism. As a hybrid the plant eats people but has no larger agenda, as an alien it plans to take over the world, and as a prehistoric plant it isn't evil at all.
• Alien Kudzu: Rare talking version. The original ending and Word of God say he came to Earth to multiply and wipe out humanity.
• Ambiguous Gender: Audrey II is named after a woman and calls itself a "mean green mother" in the film^note Though it's the derogatory slang "mother", as in "motherfucker". Yet in most productions Audrey II is played by a man. Some versions have a woman playing the plant, which further muddy the issue.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In the original ending, Audrey II and his clones grow huge and rampage throughout the city.
• Award-Bait Song: "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" is not present in the stage version, although it has been added in some revivals. It was added to the screenplay so the film could receive an Oscar nomination for "Best Original Song." It lost, sadly. (It should be noted that "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" is definitely not your typical Award Bait Song. It was based on a song for the original stage version, "Bad", that got dropped.)
• The Bad Guy Wins: In the play and original ending for the 1986 film, Audrey II succeeds in spreading plants all over the globe and taking over the world. Averted in the theatrical cut of the film, where Seymour kills the plant, though the surviving bulb implies that things aren't over yet.
• Big Bad Friend: Obviously to Seymour.
• Bishōnen Line: Downplayed. Audrey II as it gets larger, gains teeth, lips, and gradually facial mannerism akin to a human on a plant.
• Botanical Abomination: Audrey II can only be called a plant in the loosest sense of the word. It consumes nutrients from the soil with its roots and can photosynthesize, but it also requires fresh meat for sustenance, displays humanlike cunning and intelligence, and is able to talk. It also appears to possess more far-reaching abilities that allow it to influence people into doing what it wants, but what the nature of those abilities are or if it even has them in the first place are left ambiguous.
• The Bully: He takes great pleasure in deriding and mocking Seymour for turning his life into a living hell. He also laughs cruelly at Audrey for gullibly believing his pleas for water thus allowing him to capture her as prey.
• Card-Carrying Villain: It's right there in his Villain Song.
  "I'm just a mean green mother from outer space and I'm bad! (Mean, green, bad!)"
• Charm Person: Can hypnotize people into coming to the shop and making Seymour successful.
• The Chessmaster: Plans his entire takeover of the planet from the beginning, and especially in the stage musical, knows enough to manipulate Seymour slowly. To its credit, though, Seymour himself admits he is ultimately as much to blame for all the murders as Audrey II is.
• Cluster F-Bomb: From the moment Audrey II drops the benevolent act, he's this.
  Audrey II: Tough titty.
• Curse Cut Short: "OH SHI—" It should be noted, though, that elsewhere Audrey II is allowed to curse quite freely.
• Deal with the Devil: How he seduces Seymour into feeding him blood, starting with "Feed Me (Git It)."
• Death by Adaptation: Seymour blows him up in the Focus Group Ending.
• Eat the Evidence: In the 1960 film, Seymour uses Audrey Junior's hunger for blood to dispose of the corpses he accidentally killed. Unfortunately, the buds growing on him open up to reveal all the victims' faces.
• Evil Is Hammy: It’s ironic as hell that the one character who isn't made of actual meat is the hammiest character in the film/musical.
• Evil Laugh: And not a particularly jolly one, too. It's a sarcastic, taunting laugh.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He has a very baritonal voice.
• Eyeless Face: Despite not having discernable eyes, he behaves as if he was sighted in the 1986 movie (for instance, turning upwards and "looking" at Seymour at the radio station).
• Forgot About His Powers: Doesn’t seem to be able to hypnotize Seymour in the musical or even outright charm him as he does to the people that come into the store. Has to offer him success or threaten Audrey in order to get fed.
• Gender-Blender Name: Audrey Jr./II, named after Seymour's girlfriend and voiced by male actors Charles Griffith (1960 film), and Four Tops singer Levi Stubbs (1986 film).
• Green and Mean: Has a song devoted to calling himself this.
• Groin Attack
  I got killer buds, a power stem, nasty thorns, and I'm using them!
  So better move 'em out, Nature calls! You got the point?
  I'm gonna bust your balls!
• High-Voltage Death: Audrey II in the Focus Group Ending gets fried by a wire that Seymour pulls from the wreckage while the plant is too distracted laughing and gloating about his apparent victory to notice, the attack completely obliterates Audrey II, though one of his buds survive.
• "I Am" Song: "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" sang at the climax of the play/film has Audrey II boasting about his incoming victory and fully telling the audience and Seymour just what he thinks of himself and his origins.
• The Juggernaut: The Audrey II's are so powerful, not even the military can stop them. It ends up subverted in the Focus Group Ending where Seymour fries Audrey II at the end of the film with a wire, albeit before he can eat more and grow to kaiju size like his spawn.
• Kaiju: In the original, unreleased ending, swarms of 50-foot plant-monsters rampage throughout New York in what may have been a Shout-Out to Godzilla. (And King Kong). Implicitly brought about by the people buying Audrey II buds feeding them enough to grow even larger than the original Audrey II.
• Karma Houdini: He doesn't get any comeuppance for the murders in the Director's Cut and gets away with destroying humanity and spreading his kind across the world, but that is treated as a Downer Ending rather than a Happily Ever After, so that would be a case of Intended Audience Reaction.
• Karmic Death: In the Focus Group Ending after bringing the house down on Seymour and gloating as he thinks he's defeated Seymour, he gets fried by Seymour using a loose wire on one of his vines.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: In the Focus Group Ending he gives one last Oh, Crap! before his defeat that ends cut short at the last letter.
  Oh, shit!
• Kill It Through Its Stomach: Seymour attempts this in the play but just gets eaten.
• Knight of Cerebus: From the very beginning he's cemented as this by the narrator, who describes him as a "terrifying enemy" who poses a "deadly threat to [mankind's] very existence." He more than lives up to this, as all of the most dead-serious and frightening scenes are directly connected to him.
• Large Ham: Very large by the end. This is especially evident in the film version. Levi Stubbs sounds like he was having an absolute blast.
• Laughably Evil: A man-eater with a corrupting influence and plans for global domination, and a wise-cracking over-the top ham to boot.
• Man-Eating Plant: He devours so many humans, especially in the Director's Cut, that he currently provides the page image.
• Manipulative Bastard: He plays on Seymour's inner desires in order to convince him to obey him. It's very effective actually.
• More than Mind Control: Audrey II's ability to attract people hints at this.
• Multiple Head Case: In the 1960 film and the musical, he has flowers with the faces of the people he's eaten; in the latter they advise people not to feed him and his kind.
• Naughty Tentacles: His tentacles get frisky during the "Suppertime" reprise.
• Near-Villain Victory: The theatrical version turns Audrey II's plan into this thanks to Seymour frying the plant with an electric wire before he could eat him and spread across the world as he'd planned. Even after Seymour defeats him for good, an Audrey II bud is shown to have survived, implicitly setting the stage for Audrey II to succeed posthumously.
• Not So Invincible After All: In both the theatrical and Director's Cut version of the 1986 film he's as invincible as it gets against a lone human armed with all kinds of weapons, with bullets bouncing off him and Seymour's attempt to hack him away failing thanks to his quick thinking, but whereas in the Director's Cut he wins the final battle the theatrical ending has him fried by a loose wire that Seymour pulls out while he's too distracted which completely obliterates him.
• Oh, Crap!: Has a very loud "Oh, shit" prior to its death in the Focus Group Ending.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Plans to bring about The End of the World as We Know It by reproducing and devouring all of mankind with the aid of his offspring.
• Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Is an alien plant with a woman’s name and a masculine voice.
• Pheromones: Sprays them into Seymour's face in the original movie to control him into finding more victims. It implies it's able to control people in the musical, probably by this method.
• Plant Alien: In the musical and 1986 second film he's not a plant from an experiment but rather an alien organism.
  Audrey II: Now I don't come from no Black Lagoon. I'm from past the stars and beyond the Moon!
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: In most versions:
  Audrey II: And I... am... BAD!
• Scary Black Man: Or rather, scary green plant voiced by a black man (complete with the unmistakable accent). It even employs some slang.
• Single Specimen Species: In the original, he is the only one of his kind in existence as he was a crossbreed between a butterwort and a Venus flytrap. In the musical, he’s an alien so there are probably more of them in space but the only other one we see is in Seymour’s flower bed after the original Audrey II is killed.
  • The play and the original ending have them breeding and taking over America.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: When Audrey II drops the act, he enjoys being a potty-mouth.
• Sissy Villain: While he speaks in a very masculine voice, he's also a shining bright green plant and he appears at some point to wear lipstick.
• To Serve Man: Its main goal is to eat humans.
• Villain Has a Point: Its only interest is food, but few would disagree with its assessment that Orin deserves to die because of how he treats Audrey. Even Seymour, who was balking at the idea of killing someone, admits that if anyone ought to get killed and dismembered to become plant food, it's him.
• Villain Song: Audrey II sings "Feed Me" (where it demands Seymour kill people to feed it and persuades him to make Orin his first victim), "Suppertime!" (while persuading Seymour to feed it Mushnik to save his own skin and a reprise having it attempt to make Audrey its next victim) and "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" (a song exclusive to the 1986 film adaptation where it boasts about how futile it is for Seymour to stop it).
• Villain with Good Publicity: She is adored and glamorized by both the press and public for her unique appearance that they all consider magnificent in addition to her rapid and fast growth within a matter of only a few days.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Seymour names him after Audrey. Luckily she takes this as a compliment.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In the movie to Seymour. In the theatrical ending, he brings down the building and it almost crushes him. In the Director's Cut, he grabs Seymour and devours him as now that he's eaten enough humans to grow big enough to stand on its own and produce offspring.

Dr. Phoebus Farb / Dr. Orin Scrivello, DDS

Played by:

John Shaner (1960 film)

Steve Martin (1986 film)

A sadistic dentist who delights in torturing his patients. In the musical, he is Audrey's abusive boyfriend.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Hair goes from black to ginger in the Comic-Book Adaptation.
• Adaptation Name Change: He has two different names between the 1960 movie and the musical. In the cartoon, he is called Paine Driller.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • While he was not exactly a pleasant person in the 1960 film, he was nowhere near as awful as he is in the musical and film.
  • A minor version between the musical, where he hits Audrey for forgetting her sweater at the flower shop, and the movie, where he hits her for being out of Vitalis.
• Alas, Poor Villain: It's hard to feel too bad for him, but his death (especially in the stage version of the musical) can be played as pretty horrific, and it ultimately leads to something much, much worse when Audrey II takes over the planet.
• Ascended Extra: He has many more scenes in the musical, and is dating Audrey.
• Asshole Victim: Considering he's both a Depraved Dentist and an abusive boyfriend towards Audrey, it's hard to feel sorry for him when Seymour feeds him to Audrey II.
• Ax-Crazy: To the point that you wonder if his mama told him to be a dentist as a means of keeping him from becoming a Serial Killer.
• Badass Biker: When he first meets Seymour, his bike lands in the alley implying he’s just completed a massive jump.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: He mentions in the song "Dentist" that acts of animal cruelty he committed as a child (in particular, shooting puppies, poisoning guppies and bashing in a cat's head) caused his mother to think he’d make a perfect dentist.
• Bondage Is Bad: He handcuffs Audrey as part of his abuse.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Openly talks and sings about how much he enjoys hurting others.
• Composite Character: Like with the Railroad Cop from the 1960 film, Mushnik catches Seymour cutting Orin’s body up in order to feed him to Audrey II.
• Cow Tools: Orin's medieval-looking dental appliances.
  Seymour: It's rusty!
  Orin: It's an antique.
  • They later become the OB/GYN tools from Dead Ringers. Eeesh.
  • Later, they'll be used to perform semi-successful plastic surgery on the Joker.
• Decomposite Character: The cartoon splits him into Depraved Dentist, Dr. Driller and his bully son, Paine.
• Depraved Bisexual: Gets off to "causing folks pain", regardless of gender.
• Depraved Dentist: He's a dentist who really enjoys that his job enables him to hurt people, with the song "Dentist" having him spell it out how much he revels in being a sadistic dentist.
• Die Laughing: Almost played straight, courtesy of the nitrous oxide he was inhaling.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Dr. Farb in the 1960 film was the second victim to be fed to the plant and was killed when Seymour stabbed him. The musical adaptation and its 1986 film change it so Orin is the first victim fed to Audrey II and Seymour kills him by letting him suffocate on nitrous oxide.
• Domestic Abuse: He has a habit of beating Audrey, making others close to her concerned about her refusal to dump him.
• Enfant Terrible: "When I was young and just a bad little kid, my Momma noticed funny things I did, like shooting puppies with a BB gun, I'd poison guppies and when I was done, I'd find a pussy cat and bash its head, that's when my Momma said..."
• Establishing Character Moment: Orin's song "Dentist!" is all about making it clear what a sadistic monster he is.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Orin became a Depraved Dentist on his late mother's advice, and has a shrine dedicated to her in an office cabinet.
• Even Evil Has Standards: A variation: the gleefully sadistic, completely heartless Orin Scrivello is so disgusted by his encounter with the masochist that he ends up kicking him out of doors. Being a sadist, though, at least half of Orin's disgust comes from frustration, since he can't get off on inflicting pain if the recipient is clearly enjoying it.
  Orin: Get out of here! Go on, get out of here!...Goddamn sicko!
• Evil Is Hammy: His nitrous oxide machine actually gives him a pig-like snout too, with the pumps on the sides resembling a pig's ears.
• Evil Laugh: He has a great one.
• Expy: Steve Martin's role in this film has been compared to his feature film debut as Dr Maxwell Edison in 1978's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• Give Me Back My Wallet: Takes back a dental tool out of Denton's pocket when he's throwing him out of the office.
• Heel Realization: Orin seems to experience one as he lays dying. When told he's being murdered because of "What you did to her", he first asks, confused, "Her who?" After a moment to dwell, he remarks in a sad voice, "Oh.... Her" before his breathing stops.
• Kick the Dog: It’s implied that he literally did this as a child but he twists the head off a baby doll that a little girl is holding as he walks into his practice.
• Laughably Evil: A truly terrible person, but also truly hilarious.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Paine Driller.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Orin is basically Elvis Presley as a sadistic dentist.
• Pet the Dog: When he first meets Seymour, he bullies him a bit, however in two instances he was nice to him in his own depraved way. Before knowing who he is, he offers him some Nitrous Oxide, something he doesn't even give his patients. When he does know him he acts starstruck and is genuinely amazed that Seymour was able to have a plant as big as Audrey 2. He even advises him that he's wasting his potential at Mushnik's and Audrey 2 could be his ticket to great success.
• Promoted to Love Interest: He and Audrey never even meet in the first movie.
• Red-Flag Recreation Material: A cut song, "I Found a Hobby", had Orin Scrivello sing about how he grew up using torture scenes from horror films and lithographs of torture devices to turn himself on from the time he was ten years old, until finally, he grew up to be a dentist and enact torture as part of his job (as well as domestically abuse his girlfriend Audrey).
• Shrine to the Fallen: Played for Laughs—Orin has a closet shrine to his dearly departed mom.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He's only really around for three scenes in the musical (most productions usually give the actor playing him several bit parts in addition to him), but its his abusive treatment of Audrey that finally convinces Seymour to feed the plant
• Starter Villain: For Act I of the musical, he's the biggest threat to Seymour and Audrey's romance.
• Villain Has a Point: He's right on the money about Audrey II being Seymour's ticket to success, and his advice to get the hell out of Skid Row and use his newfound fame to get a better-paying job or even a partnership somewhere nicer is pretty sound. Certainly, Mushnik realizes he's right, and panics when Seymour says he'll think about it.
• Villain Song: "Dentist!", where he brings up how he demonstrated sadistic tendencies as a child and his mother curbed him into becoming the Depraved Dentist he is today, a career choice he very much relishes due to it enabling him to hurt people.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He has this attitude towards Seymour in the musical. Rather than help him get the mask off, Seymour decides to let Orin suffocate from the gas. This line of dialogue certainly warrants this trope:
  Orin: Hey, Seymour, give me a hand, will ya?
  Seymour: Well...
  Orin: ...Well? He says, "well"?
• Would Hit a Girl: Aside from beating Audrey, he casually punches a dental nurse on his way into work.
• Would Hurt a Child: Not even adolescent patients are safe from the doctor's clutches. He tortures not one, but two kids in the movie!

The Urchins (Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon)

Played by:

Tichina Arnold, Michelle Weeks and Tisha Campbell (1986 film)

A trio of street urchins who serve as the Greek Chorus of the musical.

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• As the Good Book Says...: They sing "They say the meek shall inherit, you know the book doesn't lie".
• Canon Foreigner: They debut in the Broadway version and 1986 film, while the original 1960 film didn't have them at all.
• Demoted to Extra: They're nearly absent from the comic as it omits the songs but appear singing an in-universe song for a TV show about Audrey II. A black dental nurse that Orin throws his helmet at might be one of them.
• Fake Shemp: Tisha Campbell wasn't available to shoot the Focus Group Ending, thus the camera abruptly panning down after Tichina Arnold and Michelle Weeks come into frame.
• The Fashionista: Three of them are constantly decked out in the sumptuous fashions for girl groups of the era and other period-accurate fashions for adult women, even with High-Class Gloves.
• Greek Chorus: An interesting example, going back and forth between standing outside the action and commenting on it to the audience, and interacting with the other cast members using no special out-of-character knowledge. You can keep track by the costumes; when they're characters the girls wear worn-down clothing appropriate to residents of Skid Row, and when they're a Greek Chorus they've changed into sparkly dresses.
• Jerks With Hearts of Gold: Their Skid Row selves (ie, when they're not being the Greek chorus) show signs of this. They're sassy, snarky, pushy, and tease Seymour and Audrey a bit... but they also encourage Audrey to get together with Seymour, tell her she needs to work on her self-image problems and chew Orin out for his abuse towards Audrey when he comes by looking for her.
• Named After Someone Famous: They are named after girl groups from the early sixties. The Crystals, The Chiffons and The Ronettes.
• New Jobs As The Plot Demands: They have been dental nurses and worked for a radio company among other things.
• Pass the Popcorn: In the play they stand in the background eating popcorn as Seymour is deciding whether to let Scrivello die or not.
• Pink Is Feminine: In the movie, they wear pink dresses for the "Skid Row" musical sequence and the Theatrical Ending as bridesmaids, complete with dyed-to-match shoes.
• Sassy Black Woman: Though some productions give them a Race Lift, they really live up to this trope with their quips and commentary and they aren't even 18.
• School Is for Losers: Deconstructed. The urchins' attitude to it, they claim to have left after fifth grade, but that is more due to cynicism due to how hopeless life in Skid Row is.
• Shipper on Deck: They encourage Audrey to dump abusive Orin for Seymour.
• Theme Naming: The Crystals, the Ronettes, and the Chiffons were all Girl Groups from the 1960s.
• True Blue Femininity: They wear blue, polka-dotted dresses in the intro for the movie that showcase their femininity and youth.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: They know how foolish or awful most of the adult characters are and that Orrin isn't good for Audrey.

Wilbur Force / Arthur Denton

Played by:

Jack Nicholson (1960 film)

Bill Murray (1986 film)

A loony masochist who visits the dentist to appease his kink. He appears in both film versions, but not the stage musical.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: Has grey hair in the comic book.
• Adaptation Name Change: Was renamed from Wilbur Force to Arthur Denton.
• Adapted Out: Both are only in the movies but not the play.
• Advertised Extra: Some copies of the original film have Jack Nicholson’s name on the front cover, even though his screentime is less than five minutes.
• Annoying Patient: Arthur, in that he likes painful dental treatment which disappoints his sadistic dentist.
• Camp Gay: Arthur's character has shades of this. Wilbur is just plain goofy.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Wilbur as several teeth missing in the original movie after being worked on by Seymour pretending to be a dentist.
• Freudian Excuse: For Arthur, his masochism may or may not have been caused by his child dentist's habit of giving him candy bars after painful procedures. Wilbur, however, has no excuse — he just loves pain.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: When Orin sees Arthur:
  Orin: Does, uh, that have an appointment?
  Nurse: Ask it. I'm off duty.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Arthur is a masochist, he understands not everyone is as enthusiastic to pain as he is. And since he opted for the most painful procedure on himself, he honestly considers the poor kid with the wired jaw to be considered lucky. Wilbur is just plain strange.
• Meaningful Name: Arthur Denton loves getting painful dental work done, while Wilbur Force enjoys forceful pain.
• Motor Mouth: When he's not being a masochist he can talk up a storm.
• Too Kinky to Torture:
  • From the original:
    (Wilbur screams as Seymour uses a drill. Seymour stops in concern.)
    Wilbur: (annoyed) Don't stop now!
  • From the film musical:
    Arthur: CANDY BAAAAAAR! THAAAANK YOUUUUUU...!

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