Listen to Ellen Greene's Powerful 'As Long As He Needs Me' | Playbill

Video Listen to Ellen Greene's Powerful 'As Long As He Needs Me' The Little Shop of Horrors star recalls playing Nancy in a production of Oliver! at the North Shore Music Theatre.
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Ellen Greene with her Oliver in the North Shore Music Theatre's Oliver!
Stage and screen star Ellen Greene, who created the role of the lovably ditzy Audrey in the Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors and later preserved her critically acclaimed work in the Frank Oz film, played the role of Nancy in the North Shore Music Theatre's 1997 production of Oliver!

An audio of Greene powerfully and emotionally belting out the show's big anthem, "As Long As He Needs Me," recently surfaced on YouTube and can be heard above.

Playbill contacted Greene, also known for her work in the award-winning TV series Pushing Daisies, who had this to say about her experience in the Lionel Bart musical: "My dearest Jack Hofsiss, who won a Tony for The Elephant Man, directed that production of Oliver!. David Jenkins, who was nominated for a Tony for the same play, built a most exquisite, most extraordinary set for when we played the round. My first entrance was for the song 'It's a Fine Life.' Well, Jackie and David decided that I would enter from below the stage. On a cue the stage would open, and I would come up through the bowels of the theatre through a trap door on an open elevator. I got this silly idea, since I was supposed to be dressing, to enter 'bottoms up!' I was in my undergarments—the undergarments were similar to what I wore for 'The Tango' with Raul Julia in Threepenny Opera. So right before my cue, I bent over to finish tying the ribbons on my shoe, and I held that position as I ascended. I was told it was funny with a little sexy thrown in."



Click here for information about Greene's holiday recording, Songs for a Winter's Night.

 
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