Ellen Greene

The voice that was born in Manhattan's clubs

Ellen Greene began singing in New York City venues where smoke barely let you see the piano. In joints like Brothers and Sisters, she honed a style that blended extreme vulnerability with vocal power strong enough to shatter glass. She wasn't chasing the technical perfection of Broadway divas but a raw emotional connection.

And she made it happen.

By the mid-seventies, she was a regular presence in productions such as In the Boom Boom Room. But her encounter with Howard Ashman was what defined her career forever. Ashman saw in her the mix of innocence and tragedy needed for a risky project based on a B-movie.

The Carnivorous Plant Phenomenon

The release of Little Shop of Horrors in 1982 changed the rules of the game for independent musical theater. Greene played Audrey with a high, airy voice and an enormous heart that contrasted with the grit of New York's Skid Row. Critics were won over by her ability to hold impossible notes while crying convincingly.

When Frank Oz decided to bring the stage show to the big screen in 1986, she was the only member of the original cast to keep her role. The producers wanted a Hollywood star for the lead female part. But Oz held firm because he knew no one else could sing Somewhere That's Green with that mix of hope and defeat.

1986's movie grossed over $38 million at the U.S. box office.

After the success of the carnivorous plant, she moved away from obvious roles to work with cult directors. In 1988, she joined Talk Radio under Oliver Stone, playing Ellen. It was a necessary transition toward characters less caricatured than those of her early stage career.

Standout Supporting Roles and Expected Returns

During the nineties, her work focused on supporting roles with real weight. She appeared in Leon: The Professional in 1994, playing Mathilda's mother in a brief but intense role. Her choices always prioritized the quality of the script over screen time.

Bryan Fuller brought her back to television in 2007 with the series Pushing Daisies. She played Vivian Charles, an agoraphobic aunt and former synchronized swimmer who lived secluded in a brightly colored mansion. This role allowed her to show a comedic and melancholic side that a new generation of viewers didn't know about.

Greene has never stopped being a creature of the stage.

In 2015, she returned to the role of Audrey for a special production of Little Shop of Horrors at New York City Center. She shared the stage with Jake Gyllenhaal and proved that her voice remained intact despite the years. The performance was recorded for the New York Public Library archive under call number NCOV 4056.