T Minus 5 -- Bang! Crash! The Lightning Flashed! And...

...well, that's another story. Nevermind.

Anyway, I have mentioned herein that I recently finished reading Shakespeare's King Richard III, which I had begun after cheshcat and I went to see it performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in January. Good play.

For those of you who are not familiar with the play, here is a brief plot synopsis. Skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid 415 year old spoilers: Richard murders his brother Clarence. King Edward IV dies. Richard murders Lord Rivers (the Queen's brother), Lord Grey (the Queen's son), and Sir Thomas Vaughan. Richard murders Lord Hastings. Richard becomes King. Richard murders the young Edward, Prince of Wales, and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York. Richard murders his former henchman Buckingham. Richard fights Richmond at Bosworth Field. He loses, dies, and Richmond becomes King Henry VII.

This afternoon, I was doing an enormous amount of housework, getting things in shape for cheshcat's return. After all, Skullcrusher Mountain must be kept neat and tidy! While doing this, I had my MP3 player jacked into the stereo and playing in shuffle mode. Eventually, as I was working, the song The Meek Shall Inherit, from Little Shop of Horrors, began to play. Good song. Good play.

For those of you who are not familiar with the song, here is a brief plot synopsis. Seymour is being offered various and sundry contracts to go on TV and on lecturing tours with his new breed of flytrap, known as Audrey II. Knowing that Audrey II eats blood, Seymour has moral qualms about whether to pursue these lucrative offers. Midway through the song, the lyrics that caught my attention go:

I take these offers,
That means more killing.
Who knew success would come
With messy nasty strings.
I sign these contracts,
That means I'm willing
To keep on doing
Bloody, awful, evil things.

Listening to these lyrics, I had a brilliant flash of inspiration! How about....... an adaption of Richard III that involves a total eclipse of the sun. When the light comes back, this weird plant is just sitting there... in the Duke of Gloucester's bedchamber. Unsuspecting jerk that he is, Richard gets sweet-talked into feeding the plant blood. Eventually, the plant works its terrible will, convincing Richard to feed Clarence, Hastings, Edward, Buckingham, and all the others to it!

Sheer genius! Only two questions remain:

#1) Should this work be called Little Shop of Richard or Richard's Shop of Horrors? I tend to favour the latter.

#2) Should it be performed as a musical? Or in iambic pentameter? Or some strange hybrid mixture of both?

T Minus 5 -- Bang! Crash! The Lightning Flashed! And...

...well, that's another story. Nevermind.

Anyway, I have mentioned herein that I recently finished reading Shakespeare's King Richard III, which I had begun after cheshcat and I went to see it performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in January. Good play.

For those of you who are not familiar with the play, here is a brief plot synopsis. Skip to the next paragraph if you want to avoid 415 year old spoilers: Richard murders his brother Clarence. King Edward IV dies. Richard murders Lord Rivers (the Queen's brother), Lord Grey (the Queen's son), and Sir Thomas Vaughan. Richard murders Lord Hastings. Richard becomes King. Richard murders the young Edward, Prince of Wales, and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York. Richard murders his former henchman Buckingham. Richard fights Richmond at Bosworth Field. He loses, dies, and Richmond becomes King Henry VII.

This afternoon, I was doing an enormous amount of housework, getting things in shape for cheshcat's return. After all, Skullcrusher Mountain must be kept neat and tidy! While doing this, I had my MP3 player jacked into the stereo and playing in shuffle mode. Eventually, as I was working, the song The Meek Shall Inherit, from Little Shop of Horrors, began to play. Good song. Good play.

For those of you who are not familiar with the song, here is a brief plot synopsis. Seymour is being offered various and sundry contracts to go on TV and on lecturing tours with his new breed of flytrap, known as Audrey II. Knowing that Audrey II eats blood, Seymour has moral qualms about whether to pursue these lucrative offers. Midway through the song, the lyrics that caught my attention go:

I take these offers,
That means more killing.
Who knew success would come
With messy nasty strings.
I sign these contracts,
That means I'm willing
To keep on doing
Bloody, awful, evil things.

Listening to these lyrics, I had a brilliant flash of inspiration! How about....... an adaption of Richard III that involves a total eclipse of the sun. When the light comes back, this weird plant is just sitting there... in the Duke of Gloucester's bedchamber. Unsuspecting jerk that he is, Richard gets sweet-talked into feeding the plant blood. Eventually, the plant works its terrible will, convincing Richard to feed Clarence, Hastings, Edward, Buckingham, and all the others to it!

Sheer genius! Only two questions remain:

#1) Should this work be called Little Shop of Richard or Richard's Shop of Horrors? I tend to favour the latter.

#2) Should it be performed as a musical? Or in iambic pentameter? Or some strange hybrid mixture of both?