Little Shop of Horrors in New York City
For PRG, “good enough” is not an option. We work with our clients to achieve perfection.
The Challenge: Give a human personality to a mechanical — but hungry — green giant.
The Solution: Broadway’s 2003 revival of the cult musical Little Shop of Horrors won rave notices for its talented cast and its engaging book and score. But the biggest kudos went to Audrey II, a people-eating plant with an outsize appetite and an attitude to match.
PRG worked closely with Audrey’s designers to develop several increasingly responsive versions of the carnivorous plant. At first, the creative team envisioned the plant as a relatively simple effect that would operate like a camera boom with a limited range of motion. As the character developed, it became clear that the plant would need a complex range of motion to express all its nuances and remain engaging to the audience.
Ultimately, Broadway’s Audrey was built around a live puppeteer who directs the automated movements from a chair hidden inside Audrey’s mouth. When Audrey smacks her lips, pouts, pivots, twists and even lurches out over the first few rows of seats, her actions seem almost, well, human.
For the hit musical’s national tour, the designers and PRG created a second version of Audrey which is controlled by an operator located outside the automated character. The puppeteer uses a glove-like appliance that sends digital signals to guide the creature through its performance.