Little Shop of Horrors In Concert
MEDIA GALLERY
A newly created symphonic concert production of Alan Menken & Howard Ashman beloved award-winning musical comedy.
Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman’s hilarious mad cap sci fi musical comedy Little Shop of Horrors takes the concert hall stage in a newly created symphonic production featuring a notable cast performing the much-adored fan favorite songs from this classic Tony and Oscar nominated musical comedy. AMP Worldwide collaborates with Alan Menken’s creative team to reimagine Little Shop In Concert performed with full symphony orchestras.
Major Awards for the Original Run
Drama Desk Award: Outstanding Lyrics (Howard Ashman) and Outstanding Musical
New York Drama Critics' Circle Award: Best Musical.
Outer Critics Circle Awards: Best Lyrics and Best Off-Broadway Musical
London Evening Standard Award: 1983 Award for Best Musical.
Grammy Nomination: 1983 for Best Cast Album
Critical Acclaim for the Current Off-Broadway Run:
Ben Brantley, New York Times: "Yet against expectation, Mayer's interpretation, staged in a 270-seat theater, summons the shivery elation I felt seeing "Shop" at the East Village's Orpheum nearly four decades earlier. It restores the show to its original scale and sensibility, reminding us of the special potency of grisly things that come in small, impeccably wrapped packages. It's not an exact facsimile of the 1982 production, which was directed by Ashman. Working with an ace design team, Mayer heightens the show's classic pulp elements, its aura of low-rent noir splashed with flecks of blood-red."
Greg Evans, Deadline: "In a staging that feels garden-fresh while honoring everything that made the musical such an invigorating blast nearly 40 years ago, this Little Shop sold out its limited run at the Westside Theatre (Upstairs) before performances began in September, prompting an eight-week extension through Jan. 19 that offers audiences a rare opportunity to see the show on the turf and in the manner that Ashman & Menken must surely have envisioned."
Alan Menken (biography)
Alan Menken
Alan Menken’s music and lyrics have become an integral part of the fabric of our lives since his first works were produced nearly 40 years ago. His stage musicals include God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy, Real Life Funnies, Little Shop of Horrors, Kicks, The Dream on Royal Street, Beauty and The Beast, A Christmas Carol, Weird Romance, King David, The Little Mermaid, Sister Act, Leap of Faith, Newsies, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and A Bronx Tale. Song and score credits for film musicals include The Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast (Animated), Newsies, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, The Shaggy Dog, Home on the Range, Enchanted, Tangled, Mirror Mirror and Beauty and the Beast (Live Action). Individual songs for film include Rocky V – “The Measure of a Man”, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – “My Christmas Tree”, Life With Mikey – “Cold Enough to Snow”, Noel – “Winter Light”, Captain America: First Avenger – “Star Spangled Man” and Sausage Party – “The Great Beyond”. Television credits include writing songs for Sesame Street, the ABC mini-series Lincoln, a musical episode of The Neighbors, the ABC series Galavant and the Disney Channel’s Tangled: The Series. His chart topping songs have included “Beauty and the Beast”, “A Whole New World”, “Colors of the Wind” and “Go the Distance”.
Winner of the 2012 Tony and Drama Desk awards for his score for Newsies, he has won more Academy Awards than any other living individual, including eight Oscars® with 4 for Best Score and 4 for Best Song; 11 Grammy® Awards (including Song of the Year for “A Whole New World”); 7 Golden Globes; London’s Evening Standard Award; the Olivier Award; the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award. Other notable achievements include induction as a Member (2008) in the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame followed by receiving the lifetime achievement acknowledgement of the Johnny Mercer Award (2017); Billboard’s number one single (“A Whole New World”) and number one album (Pocahontas).
In July 2020, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for best original song for “Waiting in the Wings” from Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, which officially put him in the category of only 16 people to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony (EGOT).
In 2001, he received the distinction of being named a Disney Legend. He was awarded two doctorates in Fine Arts from New York University and the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2010, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Recent live concert appearances include the Hollywood Bowl, Segerstrom Center and the Royal Albert Hall.
Howard Ashman (biography)
Howard Ashman
A Native of Baltimore, Howard was Born in 1950. He found his passion early on, joining Baltimore’s Children’s Theater Association while in grade school, and never wavering from his first love.
in 1974, after graduating from Goddard College in Vermont and receiving his MFA from Indiana University, Ashman moved to New York. In 1976, his play, The Confirmation, was produced at Princeton’s McCarter Theater and the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia.
Howard was a founder and Artistic Director of the iconic off Broadway Theater, the WPA, where he conceived, wrote and directed a musical adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater with music by Alan Menken. After its WPA production, the show moved for a short run to the Intermedia Theater.
In 1982 Howard conceived, wrote and directed Little Shop of Horrors, again with music by Mr. Menken. The musical, based upon Roger Corman’s 1960s-era horror flick was immediately successful. Indeed, it soon became a New York “must see,” playing for five years off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theater in lower Manhattan. The show played LA and London’s West End, Japan, Scandinavia, and Europe, and continues to be produced to great acclaim around the world. In 2003, Little Shop was revived on Broadway, and in 2007 it was revived on London’s West End. It is currently one of the most-produced shows in American high schools.
In 1986, Howard wrote and directed the Broadway musical, Smile, which featured music by Marvin Hamlisch. Little appreciated at the time, Smile is now considered a lost gem of musical theater and is performed by high schools and amateur groups around the US.
Turning his talents toward film, Ashman was pivotal in the renaissance of Disney animated musicals and in the development of The Little Mermaid (Producer and Lyrics), Beauty and the Beast (Executive Producer and Lyrics) and Aladdin (Lyrics), all with music by Alan Menken.
During production of The Little Mermaid, Howard discovered he was infected with HIV. Despite his illness, he continued to work, helping to give life to Beauty and the Beast, a film that defined the childhood of generations.
Ashman’s contributions to the revival of classic Disney animated musicals have been acknowledged by many but were perhaps best expressed by his colleagues, who dedicated the film Beauty and the Beast to his memory: “To our friend Howard, who gave a mermaid her voice and a beast his soul. He will be forever missed.”
Howard died of AIDS in 1991, shortly before the release of Beauty and the Beast.
Janet Maslin, reviewing the animated film Beauty and the Beast in the New York Times, quoting from “Be Our Guest,” wrote:
“‘Soup du jour, hot hors d’ouevres
Why, we only live to serve
Try the gray stuff, it’s delicious
Don’t believe me? Ask the dishes!”
This demonstrates Mr. Ashman’s gifts as an outstandingly nimble lyricist. His death from AIDS in March at age 40 cut short a brilliant career, but the jubilant energy of his work will long live on.”
Ashman’s numerous awards include two Oscars, two Golden Globes, four Grammys, a Drama Desk and a London Evening Standard.
SOCIAL MEDIA