'LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS' Puppeteer has bloody good time with show

Martin Robinson made his creations work on a shoestring $2,000 budget.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Puppeteer Martin Robinson distinctly remembers his first meeting to discuss how to bring bloodthirsty plants to life in the "Little Shop of Horrors."
"I got called in with basically every other puppeteer, puppet builder in New York about the project," said Robinson, calling from New York City.
"Back then, I knew just enough to get myself in trouble. Like a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. ["Little Shop" author] Howard Ashman said I was the only one who said, 'Yeah, sure, you can do that.' Everyone else said, 'You're going to have to change this and this is not going to work.' And I was just stupid enough to say, 'Sure.' And then, of course, I had to figure out a way to do it."
Naturally, he did make it work on a $2,000 budget, with the show becoming the off- Broadway hit of 1982 in the Orpheum Theatre, where it ran for an unprecedented 2,209 performances. A 1986 movie followed with most people remembering Rick Moranis and Steve Martin in the lead roles.
Opening other avenues
The success of "Little Shop of Horrors," and specifically his memorable singing plant puppet Audrey II, kick started Robinson's career, leading to his Emmy Award-winning gig on "Sesame Street" performing as Snuffleupagus, Telly Monster, Slimey the Worm and the "Yip-Yip" Martians.
However, it wasn't until a few years ago that Robinson received the opportunity to finish the job he had started more than 20 years before. "Little Shop" was going to Broadway and they needed bloodthirsty plants.
"It was a real dream come true because when I did it back in 1982, it was a showcase production," Robinson said. "You do 24 performances in hopes of getting picked up, but there are hundreds of showcases done every year and very few of them get picked up for transferal to a larger venue. And when we finished our off-off Broadway run, we had like 22 bona fide offers to upgrade it. At that point, I got a little bit more money than the original $2,000 that I used to build the plants. But it was still basically the same show."
Armed with a big budget and the modern technology to bring Audrey II into the New Millennium, Robinson set off to recreate his masterpiece but along the way, he discovered "there were a lot of things with the original production that weren't broke," he said. "We investigated a lot of fancier ways of executing them and kept finding our way back to the original ways of solving the problem."
Still, there are plenty of improvements that enhance the current national touring production of "Little Shop," which comes through Cleveland for a Nov. 8 to 20 run at the Palace Theatre. In many ways, this production is the realization of the initial vision of the show, which details main character Seymour's deal with the devil.
Robinson admits that he owes a lot to the success of "Little Shop of Horrors," which confirmed he could make a living out of being a kid at heart.
"It's the only way to live," Robinson said, laughing. "Anything else is just turning into my dad. No disrespect to my dad, but I don't want to grow up to be a sales manager."