Tag Archives: Stephen Sondheim

Sweeney Todd – Musical Theatre West

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Phenomenal!!! I walked out of the theatre like. giddy fan boy!

This musical is almost tied with Urinetown as the show I’ve seen the most (I’ve seen 5 different productions of Urinetown and now 4 of Sweeney – once with Norman Large (EEEE) at Riverside Community Theatre; once with John Massey Jr directing, musical directing and starring as Sweeney at STAGEStheatre; and once at the Ahmanson with it’s Tony-award winning “artistic” rendition). Does the movie count as the fifth time? ;-D

This was hands-down one of the best large stage productions of Sweeney Todd I’ve ever seen. The set design, the lighting, the dancing, the singing, the acting – it’s all absolutely phenomenal. It’s no small wonder that the director (who has been in several productions of Sweeney as The Beadle – including the first National Tour) was able to pull this off, but even today it’s still a masterful stroke of Sondheim’s brush that this show is as rich and vibrant as it was almost 30 years ago (as evidenced on the DVD recording). The stars of the show are definitely Norman Large as Sweeney and Debbie Prutsman as Mrs. Lovett, but equal applause goes to the rest of the cast who function as Greek Chorus, assorted people of London-town, and stage hands – moving set pieces while the leads strut about giving us the play. Their vocal power and gaunt stares only enhance the dark, brooding melancholy that is Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Jekyll and Hyde and Why I’m Pathetic

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Jekyll and Hyde is a fascinating musical adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson novel featuring the schizophrenic, “chemical”-addicted Victorian doctor trying to destroy the “Duality of Man”.  I don’t remember ever reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but somehow the concept has always been present in popular culture.  Anyone know why?  I mean it can’t just be The Pagemaster (featuring Leonard Nimoy as Jekyll and Hyde), can it?  Anyways.  T. Eric Hart did a fascinating job as the aforementioned Doctor, but the real star of the show is the music.  Frank Wildhorn is an incredible composer.  His music has this indelible movie-soundtrack quality that makes it so much fun to listen to.

Yesterday at my singing lesson, I briefly talked with my vocal coach about the upcoming Sweeney Todd adaptation and I voiced my opinion how in the beginning of the trailer, Johnny Depp sounds a LOT like Jack Sparrow, and how I hoped that that was just his generic English accent.  But then today I’m watching the trailer again and it hits me why I think that.  Something my coach had mentioned was that they started out with generic trailer music (before transitioning to Stephen Sondheim’s delicious treatment of Stephen Sondheim’s music), and guess what?  It’s the music from the Black Pearl trailer.  Therefore I conclude that by tying the two together, they are not only saturating our conscious mind (as if all the Pirate lovers aren’t already going to see Sweeney JUST because of Johnny), but also our sub-conscious mind with the thought that if you loved Pirates, you’ll love Sweeney Todd.  Which reminds me of how after Wicked became popular, when Rent the movie came out, all the teeny-boppers who loved Wicked became Rent-heads because of Idina Menzel, despite the fact that they had NO CLUE what being a Rent-head is about (then again, neither do I since I’ll never be a true artist working in New York…I just hit puberty while singing along to the soundtrack).  I guess I don’t mind since it’s a sound marketing strategy…maybe I’ll just have to make sure that I either catch a midnight showing of Sweeney or at a time when I won’t be surrounded by swooning girls who don’t get it or think it’s too violent.

Assassins

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This was my first time seeing the show, but I was far from unfamiliar with the material…I’d been listening to the soundtrack for at least 8 years if not longer and absolutely love the show. This production was a well put-together performance that was wonderful to watch. The director decided to put the assassins in a hotel lobby/bar reminiscent of the Hollywood Hotel (of Twilight Zone fame), which makes the fairway references in the opening number a little vague, but none-the-less works really well as the entire cast is onstage all the time, watching the different vignettes occurring with various reactions. My favorite character before seeing the show was Guiteau (whom I now love twice as much thanks to the actor’s fantastic performance), but now my allegiance is divided between him and Sam Bicke, who is dressed in a Santa suit and has two fantastic 5-min monologues where he records tapes for famous people complaining or complimenting on their work. Of course, watching this, I couldn’t help thinking about the Sean Penn movie about Sam Bicke which has to be straight dramatics, because Sean Penn would not degrade himself enough to be in a Santa suit for an hour and a half and be insane…he’d have to make it be all weepy and dramatic and crap and that just doesn’t interest me.

But anyways, back to the cool stuff. Because I don’t want to be a bitch and spoil what I thought was an awesome twist, I’ll put it in spoiler tags.

Spoiler Alert! (place and hold your mouse over the bar to see)

The first person to come on-stage and sign the guest book of the hotel gets drafted to be the Balladeer, the primary narrator, but is later revealed to be Lee Harvey Oswald, which I thought was a fantastic twist.

Ok, now that I’ve got that awesomeness off my chest, there’s the tiny issue of John Wilkes Booth. The actor playing him looked very much the part, but he was huge! Also, he took the final scene with Lee Harvey Oswald rather slowly. Post mortem, the joke is that he was downloading his lines over a modem connection and everybody else was on DSL. Beyond that, he was trying very hard to act well, and while doing a very nice job, was just a little over the top for me. God what I would have given to see Victor Garber do this.

Also can’t talk about the production without crying about the orchestration. Don’t get me wrong they did a fantastic job for what they had…but it was synthesizer and drums! How I Saved Roosevelt was incredibly lacking (it’s a huge John Phillip Sousa march with horns and everything). I was practically depressed! Just kidding…but not too much.