Remarks:
What a beautiful love song! If it sounds like a Broadway song, that is because it is – almost. It is from the Off-Broadway musical “Little Shop of Horrors” (1982), which was experiencing a revival in New York till it was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic on March 11th.
The video above is from October 1st 2019 on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” when Rodriguez and Salazar were then playing Audrey and Seymour on the West Coast at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.
Rodriguez has since tweeted this song with an online duet with Salazar, saying:
“Donate to #LGBTQ youth that have been displaced and individuals who do not have the means to be safe from@this virus. All of us around the worlf need love and our community is one them.”
See also:
Lyrics:
[Seymour:]
Lift up your head, wash off your mascara
Here, take my Kleenex, wipe that lipstick away
Show me your face clean as the morning
I know things were bad but now they’re okay
Suddenly, Seymour is standing beside you
You don’t need no make-up, don’t have to pretend
Suddenly, Seymour is here to provide you
Sweet understanding. Seymour’s your friend
[Audrey:]
Nobody ever treated me kindly
Daddy left early, Mama was poor
I’d meet a man and I’d follow him blindly
He’d snap his fingers, me, I’d say “Sure”
Suddenly, Seymour is standing beside me
He don’t give me orders, he don’t condescend
Suddenly, Seymour is here to provide me
With sweet understanding. Seymour’s my friend
[Seymour:]
Tell me this feeling will last till forever
Tell me the bad times are clean washed away
[Audrey:]
Please understand that it’s still strange and frightening
For losers like I’ve been it’s so hard to say
[Audrey (Seymour):]
Suddenly, Seymour (Suddenly, Seymour)
He purified me (He purified me)
Suddenly, Seymour (Suddenly, Seymour)
He showed me I can (Showed me, I can)
[Audrey with Seymour:]
Learn how to be more
The girl that’s inside me (you)
[Seymour (Audrey):]
With sweet understanding (With sweet understanding)
With sweet understanding (With sweet understanding)
[Seymour and Audrey:]
With sweet understanding
Seymour’s your man.
So beautiful… I teared up…
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I was just a 13 year old boy, when i first watched this at a theater with my mom and three siblings and a guy my mother was dating at the time.
It’s the perfect family movie as it was rated PG-13
It’s one of my favorite movies as its very nostalgic for me. The movie was really funny to a 13 year old child.
The singing was ok as i don’t remember hating it, one of my favorites songs was sung by steve martin, during his introduction.
Then my 2nd favorite song is “Green mean mother” sung by the killer plant.
At the time, me being just a 13 year old, i didn’t understand the significance of the lead protagonist’s voice of the plant being a black man.
As usual with racist white people, they downplayed his talents by never nominating him for any awards for giving his voice to the “Audrey II” plant.
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Wonderful response. I also enjoyed the movie as a youth. As I am an adult now with more knowledge about many different things, I am glad that my children can see the background singers and the “plant” which provide the heart with the respect that the media at that time didn’t allow. The SNL cast respected the soul of us, along with the “Sesame Street crew”. People of color are the backbone of entertaining more than we have been acknowledged to be. I see this changing. It makes me happy.
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Beautiful indeed!
Good choice and refreshing, Abagond.
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I love Little Shop of Horrors. Love MJ Rodriguez from Pose. This was a beautiful musical number. Thank you for sharing this Abagond.
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