#agentskully

dont do it DONT DO IT

There are few things about Little Shop that make it special to me.

the writing, the show's uniqueness

the sarcastic, satirical tone

the lyrics

the music

the humor

the ~feel of the show

the story/characters/performances

Howard is a genius basically and he created this masterpiece (not his only masterpiece mind you) that was completely unlike anything else on a New York stage. It was the only large project that he had complete control over. It was his baby. He came up with the idea of the show (when he was only a wee teenager omg), he wrote the lyrics, AND the book, and he also directed it. Howard pls.

SO BASICALLY Little Shop is Howard's love letter to everything that inspired him, from shitty B-grade horrors to 60s Doo-Wop music, to classical narrative forms, to the musical theatre genre itself. But it was a satirical loveletter. He could write with such pure sincerity, yet the satirical layer adds something extra to his work. The way he crafted his words to satirise and create a rich, alternate world filled with believable characters, is really unique in my opinion. you care about the characters but the characters are satirisations yet u don't care because it's all so goddamn perf so omg idek waht i'm fuckign saying halp

HOWARD'S LYRICS oh my god his lyrics ok i'm gonna get rly emotional rn omg ok but yeah HIS LYRICS MAN HIS FUCKING L Y R IC S . u g hhh Academy-award winner howard Ashman. Drama Desk award winner howard ashman. i jsut i cANS "T. irghtfjnvgfdws OK i'm gonna try and be coherent rn. His lyrics are so wonderfully rich. There are dozens upon dozens of references in all of his lyrics. Like, I wonder if you've ever noticed the Shakespearean references in Beauty and the Beast? there are like a million 60s doo-wop references in his Little Shop lyrics ("he's a dentist and he'll never ever be any good" etc) BUT HERE'S THE THING: if you don't get the reference, YOU STILL ENJOY THE LYRICS ANYWAY because they are always so perfectly in tune with what's being communicated directly to the audience in terms of story, character, or feeling. like they rhyme so fucking beautifully, lie fucking poetry man. like rly. I would use an example rn but literally every lyric is basically flaw-free so

THE MUSIC ok i'm gonna stop talking about Howard for like 5 seconds to talk about the music cos RLY. Alan Menken and Howard worked together so perfectly (whoops i mentioned howard again w h o o p s) omg well Alan gets a lot of cred because, well he writes amazing music in so many styles and yeah he's getting a lot of attention rn because of Newsies (yay he finally got a TONY omg yay c: ) but yeh Howard discovered him and they'd still be working 2gether now if howard wasn't dead :'( oh my god i am literally so emotional over howard today w o w this is a howard suicide pact rn who wants in?? omg well THE MUSIC IS JUST REALLY FUCKING GOOD and it takes inspiration from the music of the early 60s and applies it to the musical theatre context so flawlessly omg i cry. the songs r catchy and really capture you right in your soul they get u right there and it burns in my soul omfg ide k

THE HUMOUR in little shop is literally the most perf thing ever like omfg howard's voice is so unique and his dark sarcastic wordy humour S P E A KS. T O. M E. so hard. like "it'll be bigger than hoola hoops! hoola hoops hoola hoops hoola hoops hoola hoops" i think im dyin omg if u don't find that shit funny don't even talk 2 me :) the comedy is the most important element to Little Shop and if u don't agree then i can't even help u rn omg

The feel of the show is really unique and i think that's something they really maganed to capture in the film like they changed a lot of things but the most important thing in translating a work of theatre to film is capturing the ~feel~ and yeah the feel is basically what you see in the film. it's that hyper-reality. it's other-worldly, yet reminds us of somewhere close just out of sync with the now. Also the sarcastic feel of it and the just strange fucking W E IR D feel of it like omg it's literally the weirdest shit andi love it like omg

The story and characters and the way they are performed in the original show and even the film like.. r u srs i am obsessed omg i just.. jf ccccc i can't even. like ok the story is fucking weird like it speaks to me because it's so dark and so ridiculous and so stupid and i just love it omg. the characters are like characatures of themselves but are performed so well you care about the characters and u don't even give a shit that it is supposed to be so over-the-top and I JUST. ok this is getting so incoherent wow i should like stop right now omfg