NASHVILLE, TENN (January 6, 2005) — After twenty years of the nation singing "Feed Me, Seymour," the play, "Little Shop of Horrors" revamps its sound and chomps down on the next generation.
"Little Shop of Horrors" is a play about love, ambition, greed and murder. "Little Shop" also has catchy songs and a signature sound that leaves the audience humming the tunes. Those songs were recently revamped and the electrical piano or the soul of the music of "Little Shop" has been recast with a Yamaha
MPC3 Grand MIDIPiano.
"I think this instrument in particular allows us a lot of control to create the sound that has become attached to "Little Shop of Horrors" says David Obele, the shows assistant to the music contractor, "It's a rock score, it's not a typical theatre score. People know what it sounds like through the movie, and now that we've got it live, it allows us to recreate that with minimum headaches."
"Little Shop of Horrors" has always been an audience favorite. The play has a rich history in both film and theatre that makes a revival tricky because of the immense popularity of the play. The idea for the play began in 1960 as a small film shot in two days. Currently, most people associate "Little Shop of Horrors" with the version shot in 1986 by Frank Oz starring Rick Morales, Steve Martin and Vincent Gardenia.
The toughest part in a revival of a musical as popular as "Little Shop of Horrors," is creating the sound from the orchestra pieces. Award-winning composer, Alan Menken, requested the Yamaha MPC3 Grand MIDIPiano for the new production.
The musical director, Henry Aronson said, "The issue was really the piano sound, primarily. Broadway pits are usually pretty crowded places, and a lot of pits don't use a real piano. But "Little Shop" is a really piano-centered show. The primary concern was getting a really fine instrument, we wanted to have the flexibility to do some MIDI stuff."
The new "Little Shop of Horrors" production is directed by Jerry Zaks, features music from Alan Menken and has puppetry design by The Jim Henson Workshop. The role of Seymour is played by Hunter Foster and Kerry Butler stars as his confused love interest Audrey. Also starring in the production is Rob Bartlett as Mr. Mushnik, Douglas Sills as the psycho dentist Orin Scrivello and Michael-Leon Wooley as the voice of the man-eating plant, Audrey II. "Little Shop of Horrors" has a little horror for everyone. The songs and tunes are something that every audience member can sing along with.
To learn more, write Yamaha Corporation of America at P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622-6600; or telephone (714) 522-9011.
