I know this show can have a big range in the number of cast members. So how many do you guys suggest?

I'm thinking 15...

For this show...I think that any more than is neccissary...is excessive. It wasn't meant to have a big chorus of people. It's an ensemble show, just like Into the Woods. Keep it that way.

The revival production had 12. That's what I like to see.

Twelve? When the show (a tour or something) came to Reno, there was eight people, minus the puppeteers....

My community theatre's production (which I'm currently crew for) has Seymour, Audrey, Mushnik, Orin, Ronette, Crystal, Chiffon, and one guy who plays a bunch of smaller roles (which makes for a gag when he has to dress in drag at one point). And then there's also the voice of Audrey II and the puppeteering... we have two puppeteers, one for the final stage of Audrey II and one for the hand one and medium-large stage. So all together we have 11

I am just planning a production of this for next year and will plan to do it with 9 people. Orin will play all the other small roles and The Voice and The Body will play the down and outs in the opening Skid Row. I have done this show before and used a much bigger company but I do like the smaller intimate casting better. If you have a good group it really works well as it becomes a real team show. The main thing doing it this way is The Ronnettes must be very good because they do become your Greek Chorus.

When I did the show we had 10 people in the cast including the plant voice and puppetear, i think this show works really well with a small cast, and it's much more fun to work with a smaller cast too

Strictly speaking, it should be exactly 8, if you go by how Howard Ashman wrote it and intended the show to be performed. The eight parts should be:

Seymour, Audrey, Audrey II (who is also a wino in Skid Row), Mushnik, Ronnette, Chiffon, Chrystal, and Orin (who plays EVERYONE else, including/especially Mrs Luce).

If you're doing this at your High School, you're going to have about 548574 million more people than needed. When I saw the show, there was a huge ensemble. Looked a little strange, but overall good.

Which makes 9 when you include the pupeteer. I always like to think they are just as important as anyone else. A good pupeteer makes the show.

Definitely.... you don't realize how important they are until they show up 40 minutes into the show and by that time they had to pull in a crew member to fill in last minute.

Well yes, I agree 9 if you include the pupeteer. You definitely need someone who knows what they're doing for that job! Does the pupeteer count as cast or crew though?

for school's it's not really fair not to have a chorus so with about 10 chorussy types and about 8 leads (3 urchins, audrey, seymour, mushnik etc) plus 2 keyboard players - that sounds like a good size!