Rob's Gotta Plant!

Date: 2 Jul 2003 19:03:01 -0700
Newsgroups: alt.fan.don-imus
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Rob Bartlett Offered Role of Mushnik in Broadway Little Shop of
Horrors
By Andrew Gans
01 Jul 2003
Rob Bartlett, a frequent Amos Hart in the Broadway company of Chicago,
has been offered the role of Mr. Mushnik in the upcoming Broadway
production of Little Shop of Horrors.
Bartlett's agent confirmed to Playbill On-Line that the actor-singer
is now in negotiations to star as the grumpy plant-shop owner in the
upcoming Broadway debut of the famed Alan Menken-Howard Ashman
musical. Bartlett was offered the role July 1.
The actor, who is currently taking part in the Sweet Charity workshop
— now starring Jane Krakowski in the title role — will
also return to the cast of Broadway's Chicago Aug. 10. He will play
ten performances as Amos Hart while P.J. Benjamin vacations.
Bartlett would replace Lee Wilkof, the original Off-Broadway Seymour
who starred as Mushnik in the recent pre-Broadway engagement of Little
Shop of Horrors at the Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre in
Coral Gables, FL. That production, which also starred Alice Ripley as
Audrey and Hunter Foster as Seymour, had been scheduled to arrive at
Broadway’s Virginia Theatre July 16 prior to an Aug. 14 opening.
During the out-of-town run, however, those dates were canceled, and a
new director — Jerry Zaks — was hired to replace Connie
Grappo, Wilkof's wife. In a statement, producer Marc Routh said at the
time, “We feel an obligation to everyone involved with Little
Shop, and to the ticket-buying public, to insure that the work we
present on Broadway represents the best work we can do. In spite of
the great number of talented people involved, the elements of this
production did not come together in the way we would have
liked.”
As of press time, there has been no official casting announcement for
the Menken-Ashman musical. The musical will officially open Oct. 9 at
the Virginia Theatre.
A writer/performer/song parodist on the radio program "Imus in the
Morning," Rob Bartlett made his Broadway debut as author and star of
the short-lived comedy More to Love. He received a Drama Desk Award
for his work in Tabletop and also appeared in the City Center Encores!
production of Golden Boy. Bartlett's screen credits include "Rob
Bartlett's Not for Profit Television Special," which won an Emmy
Award; and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."
*
The original production of Little Shop of Horrors opened at the old
WPA Theatre in Chelsea and then transferred to the Orpheum Theatre in
1982, where it stayed for 2,209 performances. Ashman, who died on
March 14, 1991, directed the piece. Edie Cowan was choreographer. The
musical, which boasts such tunes as "Suddenly Seymour," "Downtown" and
"Somewhere That's Green," was made into a 1986 film starring Ellen
Greene as Audrey, Rick Moranis as Seymour, Vincent Gardenia as Mushnik
and Steve Martin as Orin, the dentist.