LIttle Shop of Horrors to Close Up Shop on August 22

The Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors will close on August 22, having failed to recoup its $10 million investment. The Alan Menken-Howard Ashman musical comedy about a man-eating plant and its victims will have played 40 previews and 372 regular performances.

The original production of Little Shop had a lengthy Off-Broadway run beginning in 1992 and spawned a film version in 1986. The Broadway revival made news last summer when, after a Florida tryout, most of the cast and creative team — including original director Connie Grappo — were dismissed. The show opened on Broadway last October with direction by Jerry Zaks, choreography by Kathleen Marshall, and musical direction by Henry Aronson. It currently stars Joey Fatone, Jessica-Snow Wilson, Robert Evan, and Rob Bartlett. Michael-Leon Wooley, Carla J. Hargrove, DeQuina Moore, Trisha Jeffrey, Martin P. Robinson, Anthony Asbury, Bill Remington, and Matt Vogel are also in the cast.

In his review of the show for TheaterMania, David Finkle wrote: “Just about everyone involved with this staging of the Howard Ashman-Alan Menken tuner, which was a dark little delight when it opened at the WPA in 1982 and then transferred to the Orpheum, has done his or her utmost to make the show as cute and cunning as possible.”