By Seth Rudetsky
17 Mar 2008

Oh yeah, I've mentioned this before, but in case you forgot, Faith Prince was originally cast as Audrey…but couldn't get out of an industrial she was doing, so the role went to Ellen Greene who was, of course, brilliant Off-Broadway and in the film. And, Lee Wilkof was cast as Seymour…and edged out the second choice based on his amazingly flexible voice (he can sound nerdy/legit/rock 'n roll). The second choice was…Nathan Lane! And, more trivia, the first Mr. Mushnik was the guy who played Sam Breakstone. I love finding out that these classic commercial actors also did theatre. I'd love to see a production of I Love My Wife with Sam Breakstone, Mr. Whipple, Madge "you're soaking in it" and the "Where's the Beef" lady. Wait. Those commercials are so crazily old I have no idea who's still living. How about one couple made up of those kids (now middle-agers) from the Underoos or Grr-Animals commercial paired with the two brats from "You sank my battleship." Are they all still in the biz? Can they belt? Anybody else still living in the past?

Alan said he had so many shows before Little Shop that didn't do very well that when he was offered a full-time job writing jingles in an office, he almost took it. As a matter of fact, he told them that he just wanted to open up Little Shop and if it went the way of the other shows (aka, bomb), he would take the office job. He credits Howard Ashman with changing his whole life. Howard thought up the idea of musicalizing the movie, wrote the book and lyrics and directed the show. Brava!

Alan said he remembers seeing the screening of the film "Little Shop of Horrors" out in some town in California. The lights came up, and Alan said to David Geffen, "Wow! It's great!" His comment was greeted with silence. Alan may have thought it was great, but the audience was devastated that the film ended like the stage show…with all the leads being eaten and the plant taking over the world. Howard was the book writer and was able to change the ending of the film without having to do much extra filming! If you go to bluegobo.com, you can see the original ending of the film…it's devastating! After Little Shop, Howard got a deal with Disney, and they gave him a choice of films to do: Tina Turner's autobiography (which became "What's Love Got to Do With It"), the thief of Baghdad (which later morphed into "Aladdin") and Howard chose the third: "The Little Mermaid." Howard had just worked with Marvin Hamlisch on Smile but came back to Alan to write the film. I thought "The Little Mermaid" was the return to animated musicals but Alan reminded me that there was one right before it…"Oliver & Company." Does anybody remember it I remember the 60's musical Oliver!, the 70's musical Company and the Chorus Line song "And…," but I don't remember all three of the twain meeting in one giant box-office flop."

After "Little Mermaid," they started work on "Beauty and the Beast," and this time Alan was told to write a song that could cross over to the pop charts. He recorded himself singing a pop version of "Beauty and the Beast" with his best Top 40 voice and various sassy riffs. Howard then recorded a version of the song using his best old lady voice and sent it to Angela Lansbury, asking her if she'd play Mrs. Potts. She said a prompt and immediate "No." She felt there was no way she could sing it. Alan and Howard were in shock and couldn't understand why she'd think that…until they figured out that someone sent her the pop version by mistake! Angela must have listened to it and thought, "That's not how young I feel." She thought that they wanted her to Celine Dion-it and panicked that the only riff she knew was Mickey Calin (original West Side Story. Anybody?). She accepted the part, and they went into the studio to record the title song. She did it once all the way through…and they kept it! The version we all know from the movie was done in one take! Go "old-school Lansbury"!

The terrible part of the Howard and Alan story is that Howard started acting very hostile during the writing of the movie. Alan couldn't understand why Howard was so difficult to be around. Finally, after they won two Oscars for "The Little Mermaid," Howard told Alan the news...he had AIDS. Alan realized that was why Howard had been so upset and angry and hard to work with. Howard didn't want anyone to know because he was afraid he'd be discriminated against (have projects taken away from him, be blackballed, etc…) so Alan kept it mum and they continued to work on "Beauty and the Beast." It was hard to keep it secret, though. Alan remembers going to rehearse with a singer for the film with Howard and David Friedman (the conductor, now brilliant composer/lyricist). Alan got to the singers apartment and started walking up the five-flight walk-up. He suddenly realized how difficult this would be for Howard, and when he looked downstairs he saw Howard slowly making his way up. But Howard did it, and Alan didn't tell anyone what was going on.

One of my favorite stories Alan told me was that Howard wanted to write a big song for all the objects in the castle, so Alan said he'd record a silly little melody in the style of what the song should be, Howard could write the lyrics and then Alan would write the real song. Howard wrote the lyrics, and Alan started writing the real song. Well, cut to, they both finally realized that the dummy melody worked the best, and thus was born "Be Our Guest"! Howard finally told some people at Disney that he was sick, and they brought all the creative people to a place near Howard's house called "The Residence" where they would work on the film together. Sadly, Howard died six months before the movie came out. Alan is so appreciative to Howard for many reasons…one is because Howard told Alan to score "The Little Mermaid." That means to write all the underscoring throughout the film. Howard told Alan to do it because he knew how upsetting it was during "Little Shop of Horrors" because, as Alan related, Miles Goodman wrote around nine minutes of underscoring for the film, which really just consisted of adaptations of Alan's songs. When the Golden Globes came out, the "Best Score" nominee for "Little Shop" went to Miles Goodman!

Howard and Alan wrote a lot of songs for "Aladdin," but Disney changed the story (cutting characters, like Aladdin's mother), and suddenly all the songs didn't fit except for one. So the rest were written with Tim Rice. When Alan first wrote the song he wanted to become the pop hit from the movie, he wrote the lyrics for the hook "the world at my feet." Actually, the way it was sung was "the world at my Fe-e-e-e-e-e-e-t!" Feet is the word he decided should be held? Showstopper! No, literally, the show has to stop because the audience is gone. Thankfully, Tim Rice changed it to "a whole New wo-o-o-o-o-o-o-orld."

Alan has written so many great things that I barely had time to cover his other work: "Pocahontas," "Hunchback of Notre Dame," "A Christmas Carol" and the new musical "Sister Act."

I mentioned last week that Raul Esparza can't do my Broadway 101 show for the Actors Fund, so I got cutie Jonathan Groff to replace him (go to Actorsfund.org for tix). Raul wouldn't tell me what show he was doing that conflicted with Broadway 101…but Alan did! It's the musical version of the Steve Martin film "Faith Healer" called Leap of Faith, and it will star Raul in the upcoming reading! Also, for you fans of that early 90's musical film, there may soon be a stage version of Newsies! How cool would that be!

All right, the next time I write you will be after my half-cruise and after I film the final episode of the Legally Blonde reality show. One event I will give you tons of details about…the other I will continue to honor my "cease and desist" order from MTV. All will be revealed when the episodes start airing. As to the exact date of when that will be…I must cease and desist. Bon voyage!

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(Seth Rudetsky is the host of "Seth's Big Fat Broadway" on SIRIUS Satellite Radio and the author of "The Q Guide to Broadway." He has played piano in the orchestras of 15 Broadway musicals, and he can be contacted by visiting www.sethsbroadwaychatterbox.com. His first novel is titled "Broadway Nights.")