#howard ashman

[adaptationsdaily]

Little Shop of Horrors (1986) dir. Frank Oz

#filmedit #little shop of horrors #frank oz #theatre #musicals #alan menken #howard ashman #chewieblog #userbbelcher #dailyflicks #userpavlova #userkraina #userrobin #cinematv #filmgifs #musicalgifs #horroredit #horror tw #ours #by hana

[bestmusicalworldcup]

#league of musicals #musical theater #musical theatre #broadway #musicals #best musical #theater #theatre #polls #great comet #little shop of horrors #dave malloy #alan menken #howard ashman

[nopefer-art-tu]

I havent been in the groove of drawing lately so i decided to do a screenshot redraw of one of my favorite musicals ever <3

#little shop of horrors #little shop of horrors musical #lsoh fanart #little shop of horrors fanart #seymour krelborn #audrey fulquard #lsoh #seymour lsoh #audrey lsoh #rick moranis #ellen greene #howard ashman #alan menken #screenshot redraw #my art

[wisteria-lodge]

Sorting Gaston

Up until now, all the Disney villains in my little project been criminals, loners, weirdos, or some combination of all three. Gaston is notable for being none of those things. He is a popular community leader, extremely Establishment, always surrounded by people. He’s also our first explicitly sexist villain (“It’s not right for a woman to read. Soon she’ll start getting ideas and… thinking.”) Belle is, of course, disgusted by this. And that’s the problem. The question here is why has Belle specifically gotten under Gaston’s skin so badly that he has to marry her… when he probably could’ve married all three of his blonde groupies at the same time. Like... Belle isn’t THAT much more beautiful. 

At first I thought it could be an insecurity thing… but... Gaston isn’t insecure. So I think it’s more ideological than that. Belle is a rebel who mocks and rejects Gaston's idea of an ideal community, and that is incredibly disturbing, and threatening to him. In kind of a twisted way, the best way to deal with this is to marry Belle and you know - slot her into the established system. Bring her in line. Gaston handles “crazy old Maurice” the same way, by getting corrupt authority to throw him in the insane asylum. 

I separated this out from my other, goofier Disney villain sorting, because when talking about Gaston I really wanted to bring up Howard Ashman, the creative force behind the film, who died of AIDS before it was finished. And it’s easy to see some of his experience in the ‘monstrous,’ ‘unlovable,’ shunned Beast, and the rule-breaking “peculiar” Belle who just wants out. Ashman drops lyrics like “We don't like / What we don't understand / In fact it scares us” during Gaston’s villain song, and that’s some pretty real stuff. Andreas Deja, who designed and animated Gaston, is also gay, and I think it’s so interesting that Gaston’s design went from REALLY queer coded at the beginning of production.

To the much *straighter* macho outdoorsman we have today. 

(also I want to throw in this amazing drawing I found on Andreas Deja’s website, where he’s shipping Gaston with another character he designed/animated.) 

But I’m still slotting Gaston into my system here, and for all those reasons - the community, the Establishment - I want to say that he is a Badger primary villain, and goes hard with Badger primary dehumanization in the way he interacts with Maurice and the Beast. He’s also a Lion secondary. Round up the troops, give them a rousing speech, charge in at the head of the forces. “Surprise Wedding” is also a comically Lion secondary beat. It’s actually kind of fun that he is a Badger Lion, since that is typically the Hero sorting. That’s the point of Gaston. He looks good. He looks like the hero at first… and then you think about him for five seconds.  

#gaston #beauty and the beast #disney stuff #howard ashman #andreas deja #shc #sortinghatchats

[80smovies]

#Little Shop of Horrors #Rick Moranis #Ellen Greene #Steve Martin #Frank Oz #Roger Corman #Charles B. Griffith #Howard Ashman #80s

[28ratsinatrenchcoat]

I cannot stop thinking about “The Meek Shall Inherit” from the fords theatre production of little shop.

DURING SEYMOUR’S SOLILOQUY MUSHNIK COMES OUT DRENCHED IN BLOOD HOLDING ORINS HEAD, AND HE JUST WALKS TOWARD HIM. THE GHOSTS OF HIS CONSCIENCE REPREMANDING HIM, WARNING HIM, REMINDING HIM OF WHAT HES DONE.

#I am not well #i think about it way too much #If you are in the area and have the chance to see it it’s amazing and you should #So many great moments like this #The cast is also phenomenal #Fords theatre #little shop of horrors #seymour krelborn #audrey ii #Alan menken #howard ashman

[doyouknowthismusical]

#musical theater #do you know this musical #little shop of horrors #alan menken #howard ashman #poll #language: english

[drdavidhuxley]

Pat Carroll on Howard Ashman and her performance as Ursula

(Bonus John Waters and Nora Ephron)

#I used to watch this special feature on my platinum edition dvd #john waters also talks about divine in it #pat carroll #howard ashman #the little mermaid

[d-criss-news]

Darren Criss Comes to Little Shop of Horrors with Disney Fandom and a Yen for an American Crime Story

“Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors is, of course, one of the great musical ballads. Beginning with feather-light piano and words of reassurance that are nearly sung-spoken, it grows and grows and grows—much like the plant the story revolves around—ending with a finale so rousing it could probably be heard in outer space.

If there’s one guy who knows his way around “Suddenly Seymour,” it’s Darren Criss. Among his countless performances of the song, he has sung it with Lea Michelle on Glee, on Carpool Karaoke and, most recently, on stage at Carnegie Hall. “There's never a point where I roll my eyes at it or go, ‘Oh god, I can't. I have to play this again,” he told Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek on The Broadway Show. The song is “bulletproof."

The number hits a little different lately. In January, Criss stepped into the role of the downtrodden flower shop assistant Seymour Krelborn in Little Shop of Horrors off-Broadway, with Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld, Across the Universe) in the role of the similarly put-upon Audrey. “‘Suddenly Seymour’ suddenly has a narrative context. It's not you and me at a piano bar having a couple beers singing our favorite song. It comes from a real narrative place. It's nice when you are doing the show in context, telling the story.”

Despite a deep love of the musical, Criss never thought he’d play the role of Seymour. “I can't say I ever sat around going, ‘Oh, one day I'll play Seymour'—I just never saw that,” he said. “But here we are and I'm doing my damnedest.”

Criss is especially delighted to be sharing the stage with Wood, a close personal friend. As Criss reveals, he personally asked Wood to join him in the show. "I can't take full credit for it, but yes, I may have nudged it," he said. A couple of weeks into their run, audiences are buzzing about the pair. “Listen, come for me. Stay for Evan Rachel Wood. She's the chef's kiss. I'm just the amuse-bouche that you forget about by the end.”

"'Suddenly Seymour’ suddenly has a narrative context. It's not you and me at a piano bar having a couple beers singing our favorite song." –Darren Criss

Not that long ago, Criss played Andrew Cunanan, the handsome and tormented real-life killer in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. Weirdly, Cunanan’s story is not worlds away from that of Seymour Krelborn—another killer feeding insatiable appetites (albeit those of a monstrous plant). “I seem to have a thing—I don't know what it says about me—about playing men that will go to extraordinary lengths to accomplish greatness,” said Criss. The stories of Cunanan and Krelborn “have the same sort of parable to them, of the consequences and cost of obsession. There's only so far you can go before really bad things happen to the people around you and to yourself.” Seymour Krelborn: American Crime Story, anyone?

The crucial difference is that Little Shop of Horrors is enormous fun and packed with catchy doo-wop tunes. A lifelong Disney fan, Criss is also enjoying reveling in his love for the late Howard Ashman who, as well as writing and directing the original off-off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, was a central figure in the Disney Renaissance of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Before his death in 1991 due to HIV/AIDS, and in partnership with musical chameleon Alan Menken, Ashman brought tremendous heart and intelligence—and a Broadway sensibility—to The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.

“As the kids say, he’s like my Roman Empire,” said Criss. (Chatting before the formal part of the interview, Criss suggests that “Mushnik & Son,” with its minor-key Klezmer vamp, is a prequel to “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid, while the fizzy frolic of “Closed for Renovation” anticipates “Something There” from Beauty and the Beast.) “I spend a lot of time thinking about Howard Ashman. My whole life, he has been such a North Star in the way that I think about creating things as an actor, as a writer, as a songwriter, as a lyricist—anything. I never had the pleasure of meeting him. But anytime people ask me: ‘Dead or alive, who'd you have dinner with?’ I always say Howard Ashman. I pretend he's in the audience every night—sort of as a barometer of what I think he would like or not like."

"'Being in this is my own little contribution to the altar of Howard Ashman."  –Darren Criss

As an example of Ashman's exquisite dramatic instincts, Criss points to the well known video of Ashman directing Jodi Benson's vocal performance of "Part of Your World" for The Little Mermaid. "If this show [Little Shop] is like proto-Disney Renaissance—if this show is the beginning of Little Mermaid and Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, which had such a profound influence on my life—then there are so many pieces of those things in the show that I'm tipping my hat to that it's hard not to feel connected to him in some way every night. It's an extraordinary legacy that I've been so obsessed with my whole life. Being in this is my own little contribution to the altar of Howard Ashman.”

Criss is already looking forward to sharing his love of Disney (and all things Howard Ashman) with his daughter, who turns two in April. “I'm praying she likes them. I'm pretty sure she will,” he said. “I mean, listen, you don't have to give me a reason to rewatch anything that I love, but now it's an even more elevated reason, to share it with somebody.”

With a second child on the way with his wife Mia, Criss also shared his thoughts on fatherhood more generally. Child-rearing, he explained, is kind of like creating a storytelling franchise: “Look, if you're a fan of storytelling—which, most of us that love Broadway are—the inevitable, most natural, logical sequel is having kids. Right? Because you now get to experience the same characters and themes with a brand-new character that isn't familiar with the prequel. In that person’s movie, it’s the first one.”

#darren criss #paul wontorek #broadway.com #evan rachel wood #howard ashman #acs versace #mia swier #bb criss #little shop of horrors bway #little shop of horrors #press #video #feb 2024

[princesssarisa]

Still thinking about Disney's Beauty and the Beast and the age of the Prince when he was transformed.

Out of all the creative team, it was Howard Ashman who really wanted the Prince to have been a child when it happened. He was allegedly very angry when the directors insisted the Prince be portrayed as a young adult instead, because the tragic childhood curse was essential to his vision of the Beast's character.

But one of the main arguments that people always make against the idea of the Prince having been a child is that it's unfair. That it would have been too cruel of the Enchantress to punish a young boy that way; that only if he was a man does it really feel just.

Yet maybe Howard Ashman had a reason for wanting that element of injustice in the spell.

Many writers have discussed the impact of Ashman's gayness and his AIDS diagnosis on Beauty and the Beast. I don't need to spell out the ways that the Beast's curse and resulting status as an outcast parallels the life of a gay man with AIDS in the early '90s. Other writers have eloquently done so already. And is AIDS fair? Is AIDS something that its victims deserve? Even if it is their "own fault" that they contract it, does that make them deserve to die of a slow, painful, debilitating illness, which also makes them even more hated and feared by society than they already were for their sexuality?

Of course the Beast doesn't have AIDS. He's under a spell, which is a punishment for having been cruel and unfeeling. Maybe, for the sake of the story being told, it is better for his punishment to feel fully just and deserved. But it also makes sense that Howard Ashman should have wanted an element of unfairness and tragedy to it.

There's a tension in the Beast's character, which I've written about before: on one level, he's portrayed as an unseemly brute who needs to be tamed and transformed, yet on another level, he's a suffering outcast who needs to be understood and accepted. These two different sides of his character make him complex and compelling, but they don't always sit comfortably together. I think this is an area where the tension between those two sides can especially be felt.

#beauty and the beast #disney #the beast #howard ashman #tw: aids #tw: homophobia #tw: death

[bestmusicalworldcup]

#best snubbed musical world cup #best snubbed musical world cup finals #best musical world cup #best musical #musical theater #musical theatre #broadway #musicals #theater #theatre #polls #great comet #little shop of horrors #dave malloy #alan menken #howard ashman

[bpdjennamaroney]

disney heard howard ashman call disneyland creepy, tacky and artificial and said “he gets us. we must have him. and the girl, too.”

#smile musical #howard ashman #jodi benson

[lestatslestits]

It’s Pride Month and I can’t stop wondering what Howard Ashman was feeling and thinking when he was dying of AIDS and writing about a mob that says that killing a creature they don’t understand is the only way to protect their children from its “monstrous appetite.”

And today we have drag bans and bans on gender affirming care and kink at Pride discourse and J.K. Rowling’s influence and moral panics and corporate responses to boycotts…

And I can’t stop thinking that the arguments never change. And I can’t stop thinking that it’s been 32 years. And I can’t stop thinking that he never got to see the finished project—the culmination of his final work. And I can’t stop thinking maybe some things never lead to a finish line. And I can’t stop thinking about how missed he is. And I can’t stop thinking that I’m tired.

#pride month #howard ashman #beauty and the beast #queer #lgbt #pride #idk if this makes sense #just #thoughts

[dearest-alexander]

At this point, I don't want to be kissed unless I am on a boat, floating in a blue lagoon with a handsome man with dimples while a group of land/air/sea creatures are singing in the background.

So zero chances now, huh?

#kiss the girl #the little mermaid #tlm 2023 #the little mermaid 2023 #jodi benson #halle bailey #howard ashman #alan menken #lin manuel miranda #little mermaid 2023

[the-sky-the-stars-the-sea]

How many times can the same documentary make me emotional?

As many times as I watch it, apparently.

Since 2021, I have watched the documentary Howard on Disney+ every pride month. I just finished watching it again.

And it’s funny, that even though I’m watching the same amount of footage each time I watch it, I feel like I get to know Howard Ashman just a little bit more.

He put his whole heart and soul into everything he did. He understood the art of theatre. He understood how to tell an outstanding story. He knew the power of intimate moments. He knew the power of songs. He began the Disney Renaissance.

There is an upsetting amount of people who know absolutely nothing about him.

Howard Ashman deserved the world. He wanted to do so much. He lost everything he cared about. He revived an industry, yet he faced tribulations as a gay man in the late 20th century.

He should not be forgotten.

Please, do what you can to educate people about this man. He is responsible for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin (although he didn’t live to see it all the way through), and so much more.

Here’s to Howard Ashman, who deserved the world—who the world didn’t deserve, and yet we were blessed by his brief presence anyway.

#howard ashman #little shop of horrors #lsoh #the little mermaid #aladdin #beauty and the beast #queer history #queer #queer community #gay history #gay #never forget

[80smovies]

Little Shop of Horrors

#Little Shop of Horrors #Frank Oz #Howard Ashman #Charles B. Griffith #Roger Corman #80s