What happens in little shop of horrors?

Answer 1

(This is the general explanation of all three versions)

This is pretty much about a guy down on his luck, working at a florist shop that is about to go out of business, from lack of customers, he finds a "Unique plant" and puts it on display and instantly the shop thrives and Seymour and Audrey II (the plant) become famous. But Audrey II needs to be fed blood to survive so Seymour feeds it blood from his fingers until he is too weak from the loss of blood. As Audrey II grows larger and larger it finally begins to demand for more blood, and Seymour asks "What do you want me to do; kill people?!" and Audrey II, after a little persuasion, it finally convinces Seymour to kill people for it to feed on, after a while Mushnik finds out and is eventually eaten. Then Seymour realizes that this is going too far and that he needs to destroy it. He tries many ways, and to find out how it ends, you need to watch it! ;P

(From here is the long explanation of the Musical/Movie; not the original 1960 B&W movie and THERE ARE SPOILERS) The story starts in a small downtown city called Skid Row about 1962, I figure this because they talk about "President Kennedy" on the radio, but it is about a orphan guy named Seymour Krelbourn who has always had a rough life, his boss gives him bread crust for food and is always made fun of (explained in the number "Down on Skid Row"), the girl he loves (Audrey) is dating a sadist dentist, and everyone craps on him. He works at a flower shop (Mushnik's Floral shop) that is on the verge of going out of business, his boss Mr. Mushnik is about to close the shop then Audrey suggests that Seymour brings up the "Strange and Unusual" plant Seymour has been working on. He brings it up and Mr. Mushnik exasperated makes fun of it, asking what it's called to humor Seymour, and he replies "Audrey II" of course Audrey I is flattered by this and tells Seymour to put the Audrey II in the window saying it will bring more people in. Mushnik skeptical says "Just because you put a 'Strange and unusual' plant in the window doesn't mean anyone will come" and immediately after that a man comes in asking Seymour where he got it and he explains that when he was shopping at a plant shop, he was about to leave when there was a total eclipse of the sun and it just appeared. He bought it for $1.95. After he explains his story, the man asks for $50 worth of flowers and asks if they can break $100, saying they cannot he then settles on buying twice as many. Then one after another people pile in buying flowers and asking about Audrey II. After a while Seymour gets on the radio and booms into an over-night sensation. ("Ya Never Know") Then the plant withers and is threatening to die so Seymour is sent to the basement to figure out what to do to make the plant healthy again; frustrated he then cleans he accidentally grips a bunch of rose stems too hard and one of the thorns draws blood, he shows "Towey" what happened and the plant perks up to try and suck the blood off of his finger. Seymour figures out the plant needs to be fed blood and lets it suck on his bleeding finger. ("Grow for Me") (This next part happens in only the musical not the movie) Mushnik realizes that if he adopts Seymour, he will get part of the fame since he will be Seymour's 'father' Seymour, oblivious to Mushnik's real intentions, agrees; happy to finally have a father. ("Mushnik and Son") Then Audrey comes in with her arm in a cast. This they show her sadistic boyfriend (Orivn Scrivello DDS.) riding on a motorcycle explaining that he has had these sadistic tendencies since he was a child and his mother told him to be a dentist so he could get paid to be sadistic; it also shows he is addicted to laughing gas. (This is all explained in "Dentist!") Later we follow Audrey home and she explains how she actually loves Seymour and wishes she and him could start family together in a suburb far from Skid Row (Explained in "Somewhere That's Green) later Then after that, Seymour sees how cruel he treats Audrey and is broken hearted that she 'loves' Orivn instead of him. He goes is about to leave to get something to eat after venting to Audrey II that Audrey I doesn't deserve a "sadistic creep". Then he is about to leave when Audrey II demands that he is fed more blood. Seymour tells it that he can't give it any more of his blood or he'll die. So the plant tries to persuade him to kill people for it to feed on. Of course at first Seymour is horrified at the idea then, as he is beginning to agree the plant slips up and says "A lot of folks deserve to die" and Seymour becomes horrified again and states "I don't know anyone who deserves to be chopped up and fed to a hungry plant" the plants turns him so he can look at Audrey's apartment and see Orivn abusing Audrey, physically and mentally, then Seymour is convinced to do it. He schedules an appointment with Orivn so he can shoot him there. Then he gets there, and Orvin tells Seymour that he'll be right back, getting some laughing gas for himself, so he can really enjoy it he uses his new "special" gas mask. Seymour is about to shoot him but then he can't bring himself to murder him, despite how cruel he was to Audrey. Then the mask gets stuck on Orivn's face and he is unable to turn off the gas because the knob broke off. Orivn begs Seymour to help him get it off, but as he is about to he realizes this will kill him and he can then be free of blame and feed his body to the plant; so he lets him die in front of him. ["Now (It's Just the Gas)"] Then he drags the body to the plant and it yells at him for not chopping it up into bite sized pieces, so he drags it BACK outside to chop it up and Mushnik happens to be going into the shop for an unknown reason and sees Seymour chopping him up, and runs out, unnoticed by Seymour. When Seymour goes to console Audrey for her loss, she admits that she never liked him but she thought she only deserved creeps like him and not a good person like Seymour. Seymour consoles her saying she deserves someone great that will love her, and how he'll be there for her. ("Suddenly Seymour") Then they kiss. While Seymour is laying on his bed, in the basement of the shop, Mushnik corners Seymour and tells him that he knows what he did and will go to the cops unless he runs away, which meant giving up Audrey, the plant, and the fame which was growing larger everyday. The plant tells Seymour that he has to get rid of Mushnik because he'll ruin everything. Seymour agrees, and then eventually persuades Mushnik that he will do it and before they left to get the day's receipts, which he said were in Audrey II for safe keeping. So Mushnik climbed in; once in Audrey II's mouth he realized, too late, that he was tricked and he is eaten. Audrey asks where Mushnik is and Seymour says he's visiting his "sick sister" so as he gets more popular people are asking for him to sign contracts to make him rich beyond his dreams, he realizes the plant he should kill it, then thinks Audrey will no longer love him without it so he signs the papers. ("The Meek Shall Inherit") Then after he finds out that Audrey would love him with or without the plant he tells her to pack, they will get married that night then run far far away from skid row, but scares her by saying "somewhere with no plants" and she worries about him. (from this point on, this is what happens in the musical NOT the movie! and this is a SUPER spoiler!) Still worried, she goes to the shop to see if he's alright and Audrey II shuts and locks the door behind her, convincing her that he needs watered. Unaware of the danger she begins to water him and he tries to eat her. Seymour come in the back and horrified that Audrey's being eaten he pulls her out too late, she is mortally wounded and tells him to feed her to the plant when she dies saying that they'll always be together. ("Somewhere That's Green Reprise") Grudgingly after she dies he obliges to her last request, much to Audrey II's delight, and when Seymour goes to sleep Audrey II grows little red flower buds all over. Then the next morning botanical seller named Patrick Matrin asks Seymour for a clipping from Audrey II Seymour finally realizes Audrey II's plan was to concur the planet. So he tries to kill it by poisoning it, shooting it and cutting it; to no avail. So finally out of desperation he jumps into Audrey II's mouth, machete in hand, and tries to destroy it from the inside, only to get eaten. Then Patrick returns and not seeing Seymour around, he takes the cuttings and sells them. Then the Audrey II's begin to concur the planet. After that people start buying Audrey II's all over the world and eventually the Audrey II's take over the world and the cast sings the finale warning the audience not to feed the plants no matter what they offer you. ("Don't Feed the Plants")