In these days of more and more weird weather events, we need to be more mindful to never. ever. feed the plants.
Little Shop of Horrors May 2024 Off-Broadway Revival -$9.50
Cast: Jinkx Monsoon (Audrey), Johnny Newcomb (u/s Seymour), James Carpinello (Orin & Others), Stephen DeRosa (Mushnik), Major Attaway (The Voice of Audrey II), Melissa Victor (u/s Ronnette), Morgan Ashley Bryant (Crystal), Khadija Sankoh (Chiffon), Teddy Yudain (Derelict)
Notes: MP4 format. Filmed from mid center orchestra. Mix of wide shots and zooms. Some obstruction caused by head directly in front of me, but I was able to shoot around it fairly well. Disappointed by Corbin being out, but Johnny was a very pleasant surprise of becoming my favorite as Seymour specifically. NFT and NFS forever due to leaks.
It is recommended that you check the other parts before reading this for context
Previous Part -- Next Part -- Masterlist
Heather C: “You ask if you can be red, knowing that I’m always red!” (sends Duke’s ball behind the fountain) “it’s your turn Heather”
Heather Chandler often targets Heather Duke in their croquet games. Hitting Duke’s ball during her turn, Chandler eyes off Duke trying to get a reaction from her. When Duke asks “Why?” Chandler responds with a simple “why not?” this can be seen as a joke, but the seriousness of her tone tells the audience otherwise. Duke wants to claim dominance from Chandler since the start, wanting red, the colour of power.
When Chandler’s death is announced to the students the first we see of Duke is her eating chicken drumsticks in the locker rooms while talking with Veronica and Mcnamara. Veronica points out that she’s “digesting food there” to which Duke responds “fuck it” while throwing the bone over her shoulder. This is a significant scene in the movie as it shows that Duke’s eating disorder could have been because of Chandler’s ridicule.
After some dialogue from Mcnamara, Veronica trudges to the shower slowly. Everybody is talking about Chandler’s death and suddenly Duke doesn’t have the urge to purge – but Veronica does – her guilt is weighing down on her. Veronica stands in the shower turning on the tap to shock her system awake. It’s a representation of baptism or “purity”, something Veronica wishes she could go back to after her night and morning with J. D. It’s a way of her washing away her sins.
In the next scene audiences see Duke in, it’s on a television interview. Duke has rushed to as many news stations as possible to talk about Chandler, almost as if she’s capitalising on her “friend’s” death. The movie depicts Duke as a shy girl but slowly reveals her to be as cruel as Chandler. It’s a way to show how society will always say something good about people when they’re gone, no matter how mean they were or how disliked they were. Society, and Duke, are putting on an act to try and make themselves feel better about how they could have “mistreated” Chandler. The students going to the networks is their way of seeming like good people, to cleanse their minds of guilt that their actions could have somehow played a part in Heather Chandler’s sudden “suicide”.
At Heather’s funeral what everybody was saying on the networks for Heather, performative, is all erased when the characters begin to pray beside her corpse in the coffin. Duke, who claimed that she loved Heather Chandler admits that she prayed for her death “many times”. This shows how performative society can be and shows the subtle and slow change in Duke’s character from envious and quiet to power prone.
The next time we see Duke is when J. D is blackmailing her with pictures of her and Martha Dunnstock as kids. J. D directly targets Duke’s past shame with a bribe of “strength” something that she already wanted since the start of the movie. She’s been itching to get her hands on the red scrunchie, and now J. D has literally handed it to her for the “cost” of her to become a leader of the school. J. D is pushing the society agenda, moving Duke to Chandler’s past place.
In the original script there’s an extended scene where Duke scowls and smiles in a “Heather Chandler-like fashion”, J. D has given Duke everything she wanted and just like him she has unknowingly become everything that she’s hated. She claimed to love Chandler, then said she prayed for the death of Chandler, and now she acts exactly like her when inheriting the power from her.
Interestingly, now J. D has become alike to the people he’s hated. In giving Duke Chandler’s power he’s become like Heather Chandler. J. D controls and manipulates and stops at nothing to get his way, he manipulates and uses women like Ram, trying to make unwanted advances on Veronica to win her back.
J. D is a firm believer in revenge, if he wasn’t he wouldn’t be killing people, Kurt also wanted to “get back” at various characters throughout the movie. Now that he’s handed Duke the torch of power from Chandler’s dead hands, he’s becoming the leader himself. Duke is a follower, she believes she has power but, in the film, she always lets other people stand on top of her. Every interaction she has with other characters, she lets their actions slide. From Chandler at the beginning of the movie to Veronica right at the end when she takes her red scrunchie from her. She believes that she has power, but even now in the science lab she’s relied on J. D to guide her, she even goes as far as to call him “coach”. Chandler later admits to Veronica that a petition she’s made people sign “was J. D’s idea.”, showing that even if she has the burden of the red scrunchie, she’s still just taking orders from somebody else.
When we next see Heather Duke, she’s waltzing into Veronica’s yard followed by a quiet Heather Mcnamara. She’s wearing red outside of a white coat and makes a loud point to claim “I’m red”.
At Veronica’s house Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer make a note of showing Veronica the TV screen, pointing out Heather Duke in the crowd. Moments later Duke arrives at Veronica’s house and asks if she’s heard what’s happened. She says that Martha Dunnstock has tried to kill herself, laughing as if it’s a funny joke. She plays it off cooly as “just another geek trying to imitate the popular” showing how performative her participation in the publication stunt was. Her hypocrisy earns her a sharp slap in the cheek from Veronica, who has humanity. Like Heather Chandler was, Heather Duke is appearing to care less about others and more about herself.
J. D’s beliefs seem to have rubbed off even onto Duke, as she states that “Just think what a better place the world would be better if every nimrod followed her cue”. She’s not even trying to hide her blatant performative togetherness anymore. What Mrs. Flemming was trying to advocate for has been heard by Heather Mcnamara, who has admitted to her misery and shown her weaknesses. Instead of being accepted with open arms, Duke’s first reaction is to laugh at her and make her unpopular. This is directly mirroring what Chandler threatened to do to Veronica.
Another scene that parallels Heather Chandler is when Veronica attempts to slap her in the stairwell. She screams “Heather, why can’t you just be a friend?! Why are you such a mega-bitch?!” to which Duke responds, “Because I can be.”. This is exactly how Chandler responds to Duke at the start of the movie. “Why?” “Why not?”. This shows how alike Duke and Chandler are, and how the death of Chandler resulted in nothing but publicity for Westerburg.
God has cursed me I think. The last guy I had sex with killed himself the next day. I’m failing math. My whole life is a mess. I was supposed to be captain of the cheerleading team!
If Chandler didn't die & instead went to senior prom and have her very gay happy ending with Duke :)
I know I’m late but honestly when have I not been on time with due dates? lmao
Kinda abandoned this Chanduke art after posting the Wip sketch a while ago but today I finally decided to work on it again! :D (I kinda rushed this one so sorryy)
izzy806
ellievsbear
dailybridgerton
turnnoffyourmind
2087
