Little Shop Closing; Little Women Books Virginia

Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors is closing its doors on August 22, a production spokesperson confirmed to Broadway.com. At the time it shutters, the musical will have played 40 previews and 372 regular performances at the Virginia Theatre. The next tenant at the theater will be Little Women, starring Sutton Foster. The new musical, directed by Susan H. Schulman, will start previews on December 2 a change from the original start date of December 10 and open on January 20.

Little Shop features music by Alan Menken and book and lyrics by the late Howard Ashman. It tells the story of Seymour Krelbourn, a meek Skid Row florist who makes a Faustian pact with a tiny plant in order to win the heart of Audrey, the girl he loves. While Audrey doesn't notice the romance blooming between them, she does recognize the money-making potential of the exotic little plant. Soon money pours in and Seymour becomes a celebrity, but behind the glamour and fame lies a secret Seymour can't reveal--this strange and unusual plant's favorite food is… blood. As the plant grows, its demands for food grow too, and Seymour starts to suspect that the plant might have an agenda larger than light and soil.

After a troubled tryout in Coral Gables,Florida, Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Jerry Zaks and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, opened on Broadway on October 2, 2003 to mixed reviews. In his Broadway.com Review of the show, Ken Mandelbaum wrote: "In transferring the little show to a relatively big uptown venue, Little Shop has also lost much of its charm… the Orpheum Theatre on Second Avenue was the ideal ramshackle venue. At the Virginia, everything is necessarily bigger, and everyone is pushing harder. As he did with Guys and Dolls, director Jerry Zaks has gone for hard-edged, spoofy comedy rather than sentiment… Zaks hasn't provided much beyond a batch of new sight gags and some other broad, sometimes labored business."

Little Shop of Horrors stars Joey Fatone and Jessica-Snow Wilson who replaced original leads Hunter Foster and Kerry Butler Rob Bartlett, Robert Evan, Michael-Leon Wooley, Trisha Jeffrey, Carla J. Hargrove and DeQuina Moore. The first national tour will begin on August 10 at the Music Hall in Fair Park in Dallas, Texas.