Theater: When Trash Is a Treasure

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

Book and Lyrics by Howard Ashman; Music by Alan Menken

In the popular arts, these are the glory days of trash. The entertainment industry is staying alive by marketing the guilty secrets of its past. Summer movies have taken for their inspiration cult comic books, old TV shows, old horror and boxing movies, even old Walt Disney cartoons. Nonfiction bestsellers discreetly exploit the misery of movie stars, while Stephen King's novels borrow from E.G. comics and AIP movies. Even Broadway, long thought immune to adolescent fancies, has jumped on the trash...

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