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"Bigger Than Hula Hoops?"
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MUCH BIGGER! This page may contain MAJOR SPOILERS For the Movie and/or Stage Productions of Little Shop Of Horrors! If you don't want to read/see spoilers then please leave the page.

"I am your dentist! And I enjoy the career that I picked. I'm your dentist! And I get off on the pain I inflict!" -Orin Scrivello, Dentist!

Orin Scrivello, DDS, was the secondary antagonist in the story Little Shop of Horrors. he was played by Steve Martin in the 1986 film. In all versions of the story he was a dentist and the abusive, sadistic boyfriend of Audrey.

1986 Film[]

Orin was first mentioned in the first scene when Audrey comes into work at Mushnik's Flower Shop with a black eye. This scene reveals that Orin is abusive, and that Mr. Mushnik disapproves of Audrey dating him. He is first seen during the song "Dentist!", in which he sings of how his love of inflicting pain has made him a successful dentist. He first crosses paths with our characters when he arrives to take Audrey on a date and meets Seymour to whom he offers a free root canal. Later during the song "Feed Me (Git It)" Seymour watches as he slaps Audrey after she fell off his motorcycle. This causes Seymour to decide that he is the right person to be Audrey II's first victim. Seymour then ventures to Orin's dentist office. Unfortunately for Seymour, Orin has just finished dealing with a patient that actually enjoyed pain. This caused Orin to become greatly angry due to the fact he wasn't able to inflict either fear or pain. He called in Seymour who had brought a revolver to kill him, and decided that he "really wanted to enjoy this". He then put on a gas mask that allowed him to take in large amounts of nitrous oxide. After a while he wanted to take off the mask but realized it was broken, and he began to asphyxiate. Seymour, who couldn't bring himself to shoot Orin, watched as Orin died in front of him. Orin died with the lines: "What did I ever do to you?!" "Nothing. It's what you did to her." "Her who!?...............oh, her." After his death Seymour chopped him up with an axe and fed him to Audrey II.

The plot of Orin is mainly the same in the musical, however in his death song 'Now (It's Just The Gas)' his last words are "Are you dumb or hard of hearing? Or relieved my end is nearing... Are you satisfied' I laughed myself to..." "Death?".

Personality[]

As aforementioned he was abusive and sadistic. He loved making others feel pain and misery. He may also have been somewhat narcissistic as he demanded Audrey call him "Doctor". He is also briefly shown to worship his dead mother in both the stage show and movie, with him briefly kneeling to a shrine of her in the movie's version of the song 'Dentist!'.

Original Script Character Description[]

The original script offers a character description of Orin as follows:

"A tall, dark, handsome dentist with a black leather jacket and sadistic tendencies. He is not, however, a leftover from the movie version of Grease. Think instead of an egotistical pretty-boy-- all got up like a greaser but thinking like an insurance salesman and talking like a radio announcer. (The actor who plays him also plays A Voice not unlike God's, Wino #2, Customer, Radio Announcer, Mr. Bernstein, Mrs. Luce, Skip Snip, and Patrick Martin.)"[1]

Appearance[]

Orin was shown to be somewhat like a stereotypical greaser in appearance wearing leather and driving a motorcycle who acts more like Elvis.

Storyboards[]

Chopping of Orin[]

These storyboards[2] are for the scenes where Seymour chops up the dead body of Orin. The art is by Mike Ploog.

Trivia[]

  • Orin, being a sadist, fits the stereotype that dentists love to deliver pain.
  • Orin's name is "Mervin Goldsmith" in Howard Ashman's first draft of the musical.

References[]

  1. Ashman, Howard (1982). "Little Shop Of Horrors", p. 8. Samuel French, Inc. New York. ISBN 0573681821
  2. Storyboard images are courtesy of Sarah from Propstore.com http://propstore.com/product/little-shop-of-horrors/chopping-of-orin-storyboard-set/
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