Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Broadway)...

Buy This Item Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Broadway)... by Turner Home Ent  Available from Amazon  $22.99  on 9-21-2008     Times are hard in 1846 London and one must make do. So Nellie Lovett adds something extra to the meat pies she peddles on Fleet Street. The secret ingredient: freshly murdered victims of her partner in crime, barber Sweeney Todd. Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim refashions a macabre tale into a musical masterwork in this dazzling performance of the 1979 Broadway hit originally staged by Harold Prince. In her Tony-winning role (one of eight the show earned, including Best Musical), Angela Lansbury plays Nellie. George Hearn turns his stage role of twisted Sweeney into an Emmy-winning triumph. The score coils around itself in ever-tightening spirals. The lines ripple with black humor and madness. Enter Sweeney's tonsorial parlor. Attend the tale. Reader Reviews When I first saw this production, I was not prepared for the dark savagery behind the story. The "chorus" was distracting, and I found absolutely no hummable tunes to carry me away. Fast forward much longer than I care to mention, and I saw the 2007 Theatrical version with my daughter, and the "power" of Sweeney Todd rested firmly on a much more mature individual. The tragedy of the story was almost too intense to bear, and the light hearted breaks, such as "A Little Priest" and "By The Sea" seem to save the audience from immediately walking into the Bake Oven on their own volition. And then the "twist". The one I had forgotten about. It was just almost too much to bear. With this in mind, I decided to re-watch this production with new eyes. I now had an appreciation of the music, and therfore was prepared to be Wowed all over again. After all, movie musicals can NEVER capture the magic of the stage. Right???? Wrong. I felt the additional light heartedness displayed by Lansbury and Hearn were just disturbingly out of place. Johanna, was particularly disturbing to me in this production and almost cringe-worthy compared to the wistful perfection of the screen version. And the mentally deficient Tobias orignally written does not compare to the street wise urchin that inhabits the movie. In fact, after watching the movie, I was even more underwhelmed by this production than when I first watched it. The only thing I can say that was really outstanding about this version, is that the vocals are much clearer so you can more easily understand the various "puns" thrown out during the musical numbers. I also appreciated the additional scenes between Anthony and Johanna, which shows a true affection between the two. But for emotional impact, the stage version still pales. And Tobias' insane blathering at the end about making sure to grind them three times is anti climatic compared to the closing scene of the movie where we fade out on the two souls, forever embraced in death. This is indeed a rare occasion where I nearly love everything about the movie better than the stage show. And while the singing is more spot on in this version, the characterizations, I feel, in the film are much better. For a musical lover, this is a fine production, and any "techie" will appreciate just how grandly this show was staged. However, beyond that, for pure emotional impact, the movie blows this version away, hands down.

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Broadway)... Available from Amazon Price: $22.99 Updated on 9-21-2008.

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