Sweeney Todd

Spacey's death scene in "LA Confidential" is one of the finest I've ever seen. The revelation of recognizing the significance of the unsuspected assailant after suddenly being shot is priceless.

He's even good in less-than-perfect films, often carrying the weight of making something out of some scripts that fall short of the mark, especially in "The
Shipping News."

I can certainly see the graphic grand guignol horror aspect of "Sweeney Todd" being off-putting to those with squeamish stomachs. On stage, it would have seemed to be over-done, but on film it works.

Watched Sweeny Todd last night.

Dissappointed.

Not because of the preceeding hype on it, just disappointed in general.

Oh-oh. Why?

There was not a copy of it to be had at my neighborhood Blockbuster last night.

Seeing as good old Mr Postman delivered the two disc SE this morning,I'm looking forward to seeing it again tonight,and this time if I feel nauseous,I can have a plastic bucket ready.

Geez...is it that bad?

I like the movie, but don't love it. I love the idea of it..... Depp and the others willing this move into existence, overriding the Corporate classes aversion (and thus refusal to fund), and making something so daring and innovative.

Oh, the violence didn't bother me.

I mean, we all know what the story of Sweeny Todd is about. The musical's been around for ages.

I didn't feel this was Depps best work. He ususally draws out strong emotions in me when he's playing a serious role. In this movie, I couldn't really feel the anger that was supposed to be in him.

Daring and innovative? How?

It's a well known story, been around a long time, nothing new was brought to it.

Both his and Helena's singing was fine, considering that's not their forte, but quite frankly, it was quite shrill. Perhaps they could have adjusted it to a lower key or something.

As far as the blood, well, yeah, again, it's a bloody story, what do you expect?

Ok, on the plus side, there were moments of suspence, when Depp would bring his razor over someones throat, and you're sure he's going to cut. Then, he draws upwards for the shave.

Also, the sequence where Carter sang a version of "by the beautiful sea" Depp really showed dark comedy there.

Making it a musical, almost assuring that it will not find enough audience to fund the expensive high end production values. By everything that Hollywood lives by this movie should have never gotten made as a big budget wide release film. It is unlikely that it would even get made as an art house film.

BTW: The one thing I do love about this film is the score

Hasn't it always been a musical?

I don't think there's enough story line to it to be a full length film without the singing.

The choice of genre seems not to have hurt Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Dreamgirls, or Hairspray.

With the worldwide box office clocked in, Sweeney did over $ 150 million (about 50% better outside of the US) and will likely do over another $ 150 million in DVD sales and rentals, cable and Pay-Per-View. I don't think Burton or Paramount (Dreamworks) will be unhappy.

As far as the history of the piece, here's Wikipedia's article:

Literary history

Sweeney Todd made his first appearance in a tale entitled The String of Pearls: A Romance, published in penny part serial form in Edward Lloyd's The People's Periodical and Family Library, issues 7-24, November 21, 1846 to March 20, 1847. This story was probably written by James Malcolm Rymer though Thomas Peckett Prest has also been credited with it. Other attributions include Edward P. Hingston, George Macfarren and Albert Richard Smith.[6][7]In February/March 1847, before the serial was even completed, The String of Pearls was adapted as a melodrama by George Dibden Pitt for the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton. It was in this alternative version of the tale, rather than the original, that Todd acquired his catchphrase: "I'll polish him off".[7]

Another, lengthier, penny part serial was published by Lloyd from 1847/8, with 92 episodes and published in book form in 1850 as The String of Pearls with the subtitle "The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance". This expanded version of the story was 732 pages in length.[7]A plagiarised version of this appeared in America c. 1852-3 as Sweeney Todd: or the Ruffian Barber. A Tale of Terror of the Seas and the Mysteries of the City by "Captain Merry" (a pseudonym for American author Harry Hazel (1814-89)).[7]

In 1875 Frederick Hazleton's c.1865 dramatic adaption Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet Street: or the String of Pearls (see below) was published as Vol 102 of Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays.[7]

A scholarly, annotated, edition of the original 1846-7 serial was published in volume form in 2007 by the Oxford University Press under the title of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, edited by Robert Mack.

Adaptations

See also: Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film)

* The String of Pearls was adapted as a melodrama in 1847 by George Dibden Pitt and opened at the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton, and billed as 'founded on fact'. It was something of a success, and the story spread by word of mouth and took on the quality of an urban legend. Various versions of the tale were staples of the British theatre for the rest of the century.

* Circa 1865 a dramatic adaption called Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet Street: or the String of Pearls written by Frederick Hazleton premiered at the Old Bower Saloon, Stangate Street, Lambeth.[7]

* In 1936 a film version of the Victorian melodrama was made, called Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, starring Tod Slaughter in the title role.

* "Sweeney Todd, The Barber" is a song that assumes its audience knows the stage version and claims that such a character in real life was even more remarkable, yet it contains most of the story portrayed in the theater and cinema. Stanley Holloway, who recorded it in 1956, attributed it to R. P. Weston, a song writer active from 1906 to 1934.

* An adaptation of the Sweeney Todd story was prominently featured in an episode of the radio drama The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes entitled "The Strange Case of the Demon Barber" on January 8, 1946.

* In 1947, CBC Stage Series broadcast an over-the-top radio adaptation of the George Dibden Pitt play starring Mavor Moore as "Sweeney Todd", Jane Mallett as "Mrs. Lovett", John Drainie as "Tobias", Lloyd Bochner as "Mark Ingesterie" and Arden Kaye as "Johanna Oakley". The production was adapted by Ronald Hamilton and directed by Andrew Allan, with original music composed by Lucio Agostini.

* On the 10th December 1959 the Royal Ballet premiered a ballet based on the story with music by Malcolm Arnold. Choreography was by John Cranko.

* A version of Sweeney Todd's story is told in the 1970 horror film Bloodthirsty Butchers, directed by Andy Milligan.

* In 1970, Freddie Jones starred as the title character in the episode "Sweeney Todd" on the ITV series Mystery and Imagination, an adaptation by Vincent Tilsey from the George Dibden Pitt play that changed the character of Sweeney Todd from a fiendish and gleeful murderer to a deluded madman; the production was directed by Reginald Collin. Heather Canning played "Mrs. Lovett", Lewis Fiander played "Mark Ingesterie", Mel Martin played the heroine "Charlotte" and Len Jones played "Tobias".

* The 1973 CBC TV Series "The Purple Playhouse" featured a production of Sweeney Todd, with Barry Morse (Lt. Gerard from The Fugitive) as Mr. Todd. This was George Dibdin Pitt's version of the play.

* The British playwright Christopher Bond wrote a 1973 play titled Sweeney Todd. This version of the story was the first to give Todd a motive other than pure greed: he is a wrongfully imprisoned barber named Benjamin Barker who returns under the name Sweeney Todd to London after fifteen years in Australia to find that the judge responsible for his imprisonment has raped his young wife and caused her to commit suicide. He swears revenge, but when his plans face obstacles, he begins to slash the throats of his customers. This new element of Sweeney Todd being motivated by vengeance was Bond's way of grafting dramatic themes from The Revenger's Tragedy onto George Dibden Pitt's stage plot.

* In 1979, Christopher Bond's version was adapted by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler into a hit Broadway musical under the title Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, originally starring Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. In 1982, the musical was televised on The Entertainment Channel, starring Lansbury and George Hearn and directed by Terry Hughes and Harold Prince.

* In 1992 the first episode of a planned comic adaption titled "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" was published in issue #6 of Stephen R. Bissette's horror comics anthology Taboo. The adaption was written by Neil Gaiman and the artwork was by Michael Zulli. The adaption was published as a pamphlet insert which came with the perfect bound book. Only the first episode was completed before the project was abandoned.

* In 1998, Ben Kingsley and Joanna Lumley starred in the John Schlesinger-directed The Tale of Sweeney Todd, a television movie commissioned by Sky for which Kingsley received a Screen Actors Guild Best Actor nomination.

* In 2005, the Broadway Revival Cast made their recording of the show by Sondheim. It was a special redoing of the musical, rescored specifically for a small orchestra to be played by the actors themselves. The cast consisted of John Arbo (Jonas Fogg, bass player), Donna Lynne Champlin (Pirelli, piano, accordion, flute), Alexander Gemignani (The Beadle, piano, trumpet), Mark Jacoby (Judge Turpin, trumpet, percussion), Diana DiMarzio (Beggar Woman/Lucy Barker, clarinet), Benjamin Magnuson (Anthony Hope, cello, piano), Lauren Molina (Johanna Barker, cello), Manoel Felciano (Tobias, violin, clarinet, piano)), Patti LuPone (Mrs. Lovett, tuba, percussion), and Michael Cerveris (Sweeney Todd, guitar). Awards include: Cerveris, LuPone, and Felciano were all nominated for Tonys; the show itself was nominated at the Tonys for Best Revival and won Best Direction and Best Orchestration.

* A BBC television drama version with a screenplay written by Joshua St Johnston and starring Ray Winstone and Essie Davis was broadcast on BBC One on January 3, 2006.

* Tim Burton directed a film adaptation of Sondheim's musical starring Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, and Ed Sanders as Tobias. The cast also included Sacha Baron Cohen and Timothy Spall. It opened in U.S. theaters on December 21, 2007 and in the UK on January 25, 2008. The film received two Golden Globe awards - one for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical (Johnny Depp), and one for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical. The film was also nominated for three Academy Awards, winning for art direction.

It's a musical.

Yeah, I've since seen it. I wasn't sold on some of their song cuts (I don't think anything would have been lost by leaving in the opening "Ballad"), but overall I enjoyed it.

Yes, the cuts were odd. They left in the song "God That's Good" but took out the chorus part which contained the repeated title line.

eitherway the movie is great!

A close friend of mine is super obsessed with Sweeney Todd, any version of him or Mrs Lovett, Toby, the whole story, him as a person or as a character, or her as a person or as a character, or Toby as a person or as a character.... If I ever go to her house for a movie night..... That's the #1 choice.... It's funny! She knows all of the songs. And wants to buy the real house on Fleet Street.

My friend and her fiancé do it as a date night movie along with various other "need a strong stomach to watch" type of movies. They are horror fiends and love violence. And romance movies......

There are other movie versions out there that are not musicals. I only know this because of my friend who is obsessed with Sweeney Todd. Ben Kingsley plays Sweeney Todd in one version.