Too much of everything

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I am not a fan of Broadway musicals but I can say without a doubt that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street is certainly my personal favourite. Why? Well I think the story is pretty good and some of the music is the best I've heard in the genre. I saw the Tim Burton blockbuster made a couple of years ago and I thought it was okay but then I discovered this version which is considered by many to be the definitive version to watch and... I agree.The plot in case you don't know is that a barber named Benjamin Barker, alias Sweeney Todd returns after 15 years of being shipped away wrongly because a courtroom judge wanted his wife. He goes to where his establishment was but finds it an unsuccessful pie shop and the owner named Mrs Lovetts tells him that his wife took poison and Judge Turpin raised Sweeney's daughter isolated from the rest of the world. Determined to get his revenge Sweeney establishes himself as a good barber to the rest of London. However, after a rival Barber who recognizes him threatens to blackmail him Sweeney kills him. This sets the idea in motion that, because meat is apparently expensive that if anyone comes in alone to Sweeney's barber shop that he should kill them and Lovetts serves them as pie to the public and they shall set their business going (or... whatever you want to call that!) until the Judge enters looking for a shave.The acting is amazing. I have never heard of George Hearn but he was the highlight of the show with his performance as Todd. I mean he plays the role coming off as downright psychotic in some scenes but in others he could come off as downright normal. His singing voice is also really really good. I could also say all the cast members are very very good. I would only bring up three exceptions - Judge Turpin (I mean he DID come across as a creepy old bastard but I just think his singing voice strikes me the wrong way), Tobias (I know they couldn't get a little kid to do it especially in a story this dark and twisted but even then I didn't really like the performance, mainly for the same reason as the Judge, something about their performance strikes me the wrong way) and Joanna but that maybe because she's my least favourite character in the entire musical.As far as the production goes I think the orchestra did a really good job and I also liked that it wasn't just the rotating set that was on the stage when I saw it live. I mean if you know what I'm talking about then I know that thing wouldn't be easy to make but I did prefer people rushing out and bringing the stuff in and out that's necessary to that part of the story. Just call it personal preference - either way for a stage production this is really good production design.I really don't think I can say anything else because I've covered almost everything. I would say if you're a slight fan of the Tim Burton movie or like the Broadway musical and haven't seen this I suggest that you check it out. I haven't seen many adaptations of Sweeney Todd but I think after this I won't be able to top it... still, I'm going to check them out anyway.

The genius that is Stephen Sondheim was never more prominently displayed as it was in his 1979 "Musical Thriller" SWEENEY TODD, a Gothic, gory, grisly, yet delicious musical concoction about a demented barber who returns to London to exact revenge on the evil Judge who not only had him permanently exiled from London, but who is also raising his daughter as his own and plans to marry her to "shield her from all the evils of the world." The barber finds love,sympathy, and assistance from a lonely pie shop owner who has her own agenda where Todd is concerned. This musical rocked Broadway and won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical (Angela Lansbury). The production was filmed in its entirety in 1982 with Angela Lansbury recreating her Broadway role as Mrs. Lovett, the daffy pie shop owner who finds a practical use for the heads that Todd makes mincemeat out of. George Hearn, who replaced Len Cariou on Broadway, is electrifying in the title role, so much so that you have to wonder why he wasn't originally cast in the role. Lansbury and Hearn are riveting from start to finish and commit 100% to their ghoulish characters aided, by a first rate Sondaheim score, probably the closest thing Sondheim has written to an opera. Lansbury shines on "The Worst Pies in London" and "By the Sea". George Hearn stops the show with "Epiphany" and is also compelling during "Pretty Women", a duet he sings with Judge Turpin, the man he has sworn revenge on. Cris Groendahl is vocally impressive as Antony, the young sailer who rescues Todd and falls for his daughter Johanna. Betsy Joselyn is a little over the top as Johanna and really pushes vocally to the point that during "Green Funch and Linnet Bird" she actually drives her voice off-pitch during a couple of moments. The rest of the cast is first rate, especially Edmund Lyndeck as Judge Turpin who gets to perform "Johanna" in this production, which was cut from the original production and Ken Jennings as Toby, whose gorgeous tenor fills the auditorium on "Not While I'm Around." But it is breathtaking musical score by Stephen Sondheim and the mesmerizing performance by Lansbury an especially George Hearn that makes this night of Gothic musical theater an experience that stays with you long after curtain call. Not for all tastes, but if you're game and have strong heart, SWEENEY TODD is a joy for all music theater lovers and a must for fans of Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury.

I can't get over the quality of the score, the book, and the performances. This is the first production I've ever seen of Sweeney Todd so I have no others to compare it to. But the impact is so strong, I just can't imagine anything better.First, there's the music -- take "Johanna" (Act II), during which Sweeney, Anthony and Johanna sing an interwoven vocal line incorporating the melodies from three songs. It's like a Bach chorale in that sense -- just a masterpiece of composition. And the underlying chord structure and voicings are so perfect -- a little bit of melancholy, a little bit of contentment, a little bit of yearning, all expressing these three singers' points of view.Then -- the lyrics. The rhymes are so clever. The rhyme schemes sometimes seem random but they always add up at the end. (The DVD, which I watched, has Closed Captions, and these are indispensable for appreciating the dialog and the lyrics.) Sondheim deserves a literary award for his poetry alone.Finally, the performances. I can't imagine anyone better than George Hearn. Why haven't I heard of him before? His singing, alone, is masterful, but the range of his acting is simply amazing. Angela Lansbury totally surprised me. The song about "you and me down by the seaside" -- who could do it any better? Her timing is flawless, pitch is perfect, every beat of the score is accounted for; and overlaying this achievement in musicianship is her utterly delightful comic delivery.It's a dark tale but I found it to be sweet at times; and the tune to "Johanna" continues to play in my head.

I viewed my videotape last night, for the first time in at least ten years. I found the work itself and the performances just as gripping as they were in my memory. George Hearn, of course,was the master of the role of Sweeney; there is never a touch of softness in his determination to wreak vengeance on those he believes caused his wife's death and his daughter's disappearance; at least not until the end, when he discovers that his thirst for revenge has led him to murder his wife. Angela Lansbury, on the other hand, creates a more complex portrayal, as Mrs. Lovett. She understood that Sondheim wanted that role to be something of a "comic" counterpart to Sweeney; and even brings some tenderness into her courtship of Sweeney and her nurture of the boy Tobias. For those with long memories, this performance takes one back to her debut performances in The Picture of Dorian Grey and Gaslight; long before Murder, She Wrote. Only a year ago I saw the musical at Lyric Opera of Chicago. with current opera superstar Brynn Terfel as Sweeney. Others have commented on the operatic quality of the score. My conclusion is that "Sweeney" works better with actors who can at least handle the vocal lines, than with opera performers who have limited acting skills. As a final note, I commend the performer who portrayed Tobias. with his mixed loyalties and confusion about what is going on around him. It seemed appropriate that he had virtually the last word.