Somewhere That's Green, is a song written for the musical Little Shop of Horrors.
About[]
Audrey tells of her dream to leave Orin Scrivello, D.D.S, marry Seymour and live on "a little street in a little suburb," with luxuries she has never known on Skid Row, like a washer, a toaster, a "big, enormous" twelve inch television, and a kind, loving family.
It is sung only once in the theatrical cut of the 1986 film, but at the end of both the stage musical and in the Director's Cut of the movie, the song has a final reprise.
The movie's soundtrack album omits the 30-some-second orchestral interlude which plays while Audrey cavorts with an animated bird, hosts a Tupperware party and waters the flowers.
Lyrics[]
On desktop devices, click the tabs to navigate the variations of the lyrics.
The is the version from the 1982 Off-Broadway album.
Audrey | Crystal |
---|---|
I know Seymour's the greatest | |
But I'm dating a semi-sadist. | |
So I've got a black eye and my arm's in a cast. | |
Still, that Seymour's a cutie. | |
Well, if not, he's got inner beauty, | |
And I dream of a place where we could be together at last. | |
What kind of a place is that? An emergency room? | |
Oh no. It's just a day dream of mine. A little development I dream of. Just off the Interstate. Not fancy like Levittown. Just a little street in a little suburb, far far from urban Skid Row. The sweetest, greenist place -- where everybody has the same little lawn out front and the same little flagstone patio out back. All the houses are so neat and pretty... 'cause they all look just alike. Oh, I dream about it all the time. Just me and the toaster and a sweet little guy like Seymour... | |
A matchbox of our own, | |
A fence, of real chain link, | |
A grill out on the patio, | |
Disposal in the sink, | |
A washer and a dryer | |
And an ironing machine | |
In a tract house that we share | |
Somewhere that's green. | |
He rakes and trims the grass, | |
He loves to mow and weed. | |
I cook like Betty Crocker | |
And I look like Donna Reed. | |
There's plastic on the furniture | |
To keep it neat and clean | |
In the Pine-sol scented air | |
Somewhere that's green. | |
Between our frozen dinners | |
And our bedtime, nine-fifteen, | |
We snuggle watching Lucy | |
On our big, enormous 12-inch screen | |
I'm his December Bride. | |
He's father, he knows best. | |
Our kids watch Howdy Doody | |
As the sun sets in the West. | |
A picture out of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. | |
Far from Skid Row | |
I dream we'll go | |
Somewhere that's green. |
This is the version from the 1986 movie.
Audrey |
---|
I know Seymour's the greatest |
But I'm dating a semi-sadist. |
So I've got a black eye and my arm's in a cast. |
Still, that Seymour's a cutie. |
Well, if not, he's got inner beauty, |
And I dream of a place where we could be together at last. |
A matchbox of our own, |
A fence, of real chain link, |
A grill out on the patio, |
Disposal in the sink, |
A washer and a dryer |
And an ironing machine |
In a tract house that we share |
Somewhere that's green. |
He rakes and trims the grass, |
He loves to mow and weed. |
I cook like Betty Crocker |
And I look like Donna Reed. |
There's plastic on the furniture |
To keep it neat and clean |
In the Pine-sol scented air |
Somewhere that's green. |
Between our frozen dinners |
And our bedtime, nine-fifteen, |
We snuggle watching Lucy |
On our big, enormous 12-inch screen |
I'm his December Bride. |
He's father, he knows best. |
The kids play Howdy Doody |
As the sun sets in the West. |
A picture out of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. |
Far from Skid Row |
I dream we'll go |
Somewhere that's green. |
The Following Information is non-Canon. Demos and deleted songs are not considered canon to the Little Shop of Horrors musical, as they were not included in the final version of the musical, instead think of them as part of the history of making LSOH.
This early draft of the song as a duet between Seymour and Audrey has a slightly different structure and is on record as part of The Howard Ashman papers at The Library of Congress. Ashman did not denote which character sang what lines (see image below), so the following transcription is an approximation.
Audrey | Seymour |
---|---|
A matchbox of our own | |
A fence of real chain-link | |
A grill out on the patio, | |
Dispose-all in the sink | |
A washer and a dryer and | |
An ironing machine | |
In a tract house that we share | |
Somewhere that's green | |
I'll rake and trim the grass | |
I'll mulch and mow the weed | |
You'll cook like Betty Crocker | |
But you'll look like Donna Reed. | |
And plastic on the furniture | |
Will keep it neat and clean, | |
In the Pine-Sol scented air, | |
Somewhere that's green. | |
Somewhere that's green -- | Somewhere that's green -- |
A yard of clover, daffodils and mums | |
Somewhere that's green -- | Somewhere that's green -- |
We won't trip over derelicts and bums | |
To fill our leisure time, | |
Which we'll have plenty of, | |
We'll tune in our TV set | |
To see Lucy, who we love. | |
We'll snuggle as she clowns on our | |
Enormous twelve inch screen | |
Til it's late, but we don't care | |
Somewhere that's green. | |
Somewhere that's green-- | Somewhere that's green-- |
I'll bag your lunch to take to work each day | |
Somewhere that's green-- | Somewhere that's green-- |
We'll actively support the scouts and P.T.A. | |
You're my December Bride. | |
I'm father. I know best. | |
You'll fix a frozen dinner as | |
The sun sets in the west. | |
A picture out of Better Homes | |
And Gardens magazine -- | |
Oh Seymour, take me there | |
Somewhere that's green. | |
A life like we have never known, Audrey -- | |
A quarter acre of our own, Audrey -- | |
I picture dawn breaking over lawn | |
Making such a sweetly suburban scene | |
Far from Skid Row | |
Trust me we'll go | |
Somewhere | Somewhere |
That's | That's |
Green. | Green. |
Trivia[]
- In the stage musical, Audrey sings the lyrics, "The kids watch Howdy Doody / As the sun sets in the West." In the first draft of the film's screenplay (dated December 1983), she instead sings the lyrics "The kids' room, next to our room / And a third room for a guest." This change would remain through most of the screenplay's development, before being changed to a slight variation of the original in the September 27, 1985 draft -- "The kids play Howdy Doody / As the sun sets in the West" -- with the children seen in their room, playing with a Howdy Doody marionette. The exact reasons for this change is not known.
- One possible explanation is that it was an attempt to curb an anachronism, as the Howdy Doody show had ended on September 24, 1960,[1] a year or two before "Little Shop" was set.
- Another possibility is that the lyrics would have seemed redundant, as earlier in the sequence. Audrey would be seen bringing "a smiling pitcher of Kool-Aid" to her children as they watch Saturday morning television. This vignette would be rewritten in the September 27 draft of the screenplay to remove the children, with Audrey now setting the pitcher down on the TV before leaving to bring Seymour some cake and milk, and removed altogether by the time of the film's shooting.
- Though cut from most drafts of the screenplay and the final film, an edited version of Audrey's "little dream of mine" monologue was included in the final draft of the screenplay (dated September 27, 1985) in which Audrey delivers it to her stuffed cocker-spaniel and "her goldfish which is swimming in a small bowl." The monologue was shot (sans the goldfish) and included in an early workprint, and in a later workprint of the original cut of the film (dated August 22, 1985).
- While working on the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid," their follow-up to Little Shop, composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman noticed various structural and rhythmic similarities between Little Shop's "Somewhere That's Green" and The Little Mermaid's "Part of Your World," both the "I Want" song's for their respective works. As such, the two nicknamed "Part of Your World" "Somewhere That's Wet."[2]
- In Kerry Butler's recording of "Part of Your World," recorded in February 2003 as a demo for the stage adaptation to Mermaid which was still in early development, the idea was taken one step further, possibly by Menken himself. As Butler sings the final few lines ("Out of the sea / Wish I could be / Part of your [sic] world"), the pianist accompanying her begins playing the outro to "Somewhere That's Green."[3] Butler would be cast as Audrey for Little Shop's original Broadway production later that year.