| October 19: The Many Faces of Audrey II |
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Little Shop of Horrors began in 1960 as a low budget comedy horror film best known for its talking, flesh-eating monster plant, Audrey II. The dark story and quirky characters eventually attracted the attention of Broadway for what is now one of the most famous and beloved musicals of all time, inevitably performed by just about every school theater group at some point in time. Bogleech forum poster and excellent artist John Pesando started a great topic back in 2010 on how different productions have tackled the design and performance of Audrey II, a topic still being updated from time to time with dozens and dozens of monstrous plant puppets covered thus far, including video links and a lot of detailed information. You really ought to check it out for yourself at the previous link, but for today's Halloween update I feel like going over what I feel are some of the most imaginative!
A Spanish Audrey II
This Audrey II closely follows the traditional green "pod mouth" design that has become so iconic to monster plants in general, but something about the shaggy body and thick "arms" gives it an even more animal-like, reptilian appearance. Subtle, but quite intimidating.
West End Audrey II
This big-budget Audrey II from the official London show is at least as lifelike as the traditional American prop, but took a much different route with what I find to be a more interesting result, opting more for the look of a pitcher plant than the mutant fly-trap we're accustomed to.
TOADS Audrey II
This comical monster looks the least plant-like of any Audrey II I've seen, but certainly plant-like enough. It's not as if all the world's vegetation is made up of only leaves and vines, after all. As John pointed out, it's not entirely unlike an Otyugh from Dungeons and Dragons with its towering heap of a body and whimsical googly eyeballs. I like the simple roundness of its more plantlike immature stage, and the transition in form is pretty cool. Watch it sing!
John Glenn Drama Audrey II
This unusual Audrey II is one of the few that doesn't actually eat with its mouth. Its central purple flower does the talking and singing, but it feeds through its writhing central mass of vines, pulling and absorbing prey straight into its root system!
Placer High School Audrey II
This design is unusual even for the general trope of predatory plant monsters, a big bushy pile of autumn-colored leaves with lips, overall almost pumpkinlike and very festive right about now. I especially love the squishy way the puppet bounces, making it very lively and interesting to watch as it sings.
A Mysterious Welsh Audrey II My god, this is magnificent. The internet yields little information and no video footage for this beauty, but I've seldom seen a monster plant so memorably disturbing. Its pale coloration, rotten lichen-like texturing and spindly limbs are unearthly enough to leave the pestilent manifestations of Silent Hill brown with envy. One of the few fully mobile Audrey II's, its snake-faced smaller form supposedly even gets up and hops around after each feeding! I'd absolutely love to be able to see this one in action, especially singing.
If you haven't seen enough plant puppets for one day, and you know you haven't, don't forget to visit the ongoing forum thread!
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