Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979 Original Broadway Cast)
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Free Music Notes for Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979 Original Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: Contains some of the best musical moments ever
Hit: 5 Stars
Has there ever been such a bizarre subject for a musical that has worked so spectacularly well? This musical is one of Sondheim's masterpieces (along with Follies and Merrily We Roll Along). The story is captivating and intriguing, and is set to music flawlessly. Is there any more to say? Sweeney Todd is perhaps the best musical ever and contains some of the best musical moments ever (the exquisite counterpoint in "Kiss Me" and the latter part of "Ladies and Their Sensitivities" is unequalled in all of musical history).Now, a note on the performances. This soundtrack is definitely the one to buy; almost all of the performances here are spectacular, particularly the four leads. However, one of Sondheim's best ballads ever (which serves an unusual purpose in this show's narrative), Not While I'm Around, is not performed very well by Ken Jennings. He has a distracting and ugly wavering quality to his voice that is very noticeable on the high notes. Since this song is one of the highlights of this show, you might want to get a good performance of it, so I suggest the recent National Philharmonic recording. The Philharmonic recording has Neil Patrick Harris in the part of Tobias, and he has a great tenor voice perfect for the song. (note: Patti Lupone, who is Mrs. Lovett on the Philharmonic recording, has some speaking lines in "Not While I'm Around", which are done with a laughable english accent which really sounds awful, but Harris' voice is still worth it).
Alas, such a situation exists. The performances on the original broadway cast are overall significantly better than on the Philharmonic recording (Lupone has an awful accent and Gaines (Anthony) sounds to old), so if you only want to buy one recording, buy this one.
Free Music Review: The Best Musical Ever!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
This show is an absolute masterpiece. Out of all of Sondheim's scores, this is the most complex, dark, and beautiful of all of them. Not only is the music amazing, but the cast is aswell. Angela Lansbury was in her prime at this time. She had won a Tony for basically every show she'd been in, and she was stronger vocally then she had been. Her Mrs. Lovett is one of the most amazing performances on Broadway EVER! I find her character more interesting then Sweeney. We know about Benjamin Barker, A.K.A, Sweeney Todd's past, but Mrs. Lovett is sort of a mystery. She has so many dimensions. Sweeney Todd is sort of a 1 dimensional character. He's all about revenge, while Mrs. Lovett is manipulative, flirty, and very immoral. Angela Lansbury's Worst Pies in London is flawless, and By The Sea and Wait are sung with amazing energy and warmth.
Len Cariou is probably my favorite Sweeney. Even though he is not as vocally gifted as George Hearn, his interpretation and acting of the character is better. I also find him scarier, and I have seen tapes of both of them performing live. I love Epiphany and he sings his songs with such inner pain. It's wonderful.
Johanna and Anthony are very good. Sarah Rice protrays Johanna with the nievity that Johanna should have. Her voice is VERY pretty and she has good technique. Victor Garber is surprisingly good and is version of Johanna is probably my favorite, next to Bernadette Peter's version. Kiss Me is wonderful and they are both so young and vibrant and they really add a lot to the roles.
The rest of the cast is amazing and they make this CD flawless. I reccomend this musical to anyone. It's so beautiful!
Free Music Review: Best Music Theatre Work of the Twentieth Century
Hit: 5 Stars
Although Sondheim is said to be an acquired taste, I think it becomes so because people don't want to read into this music. The complexity of such an operatic work is absolutely due to Sondheim's genius. Althouse "Sweeney Todd" is undeniably the best musical theatre work to come out of the twentieth century; the music is pure, intense and relentless. Sondheim's breathtaking underscoring and orchestration allow for this masterpiece to often be cast aside, as "too operatic". Having played the title role myself, in an Australian production, I know the intoxicating strength of Sondheim's music in performance. This is unquestionably the greatest music theatre work of our time.Free Music Review: Epic in its scope, with an incomparable score
Hit: 5 Stars
This review is by CrosleyStephen Sondheim is my favorite composer and lyricist, and he is incredibly good at both. Sweeney Todd is the best of his works, and 50 years from now, Sondheim will be the Mozart to Andrew Lloyd Webber's Salieri. Once day, the muddled masses will lose the perception that show tunes have to be repetitive enough to get stuck in your head and trivially escapist, and will recognize Sondheim and his phenomenal talent for what it is: genius.
What makes Sweeney so good is the sheer complexity of the score, plot, characters, and message. The show, on one level, is about murder and cannibalism. Deeper, it's about vengeance. Still deeper, it's about the breakdown of an ordered society. Even deeper than that, it's about the nature of good, evil, justice, the terrible dark side to the Industrial Revolution, and the corruption of innocence. The show's wealth of topics and moral questions is infinite, and I personally have had many a debate with myself and others about this show and the questions proposed. Told in such an unconventional, uncompromising, and graphic manner, the messages are that much more powerful.
The score may not be the most "hummable" (whatever that means) score you come across, but it is unbelievably deeper, stronger, and more intelligent than "hummable" shows, like The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Jekyll and Hyde, etc. I notice something new every time I listen. Sondheim never writes songs just so they can be pop hits (*cough* Webber). He always writes the song perfectly in context with what's happening in the plot. Thus, very few of his songs can be taken out of context, but in context (which is how they're supposed to be) they are phenomenal. His use of melody, harmony, subtle key changes, and time signatures are staggering, breaking down all barriers of conventional musical theater. For example, near the end of the show (I won't specify the context so I don't spoil the plot), Sweeney is singing a near funeral dirge in big, 8/4 bars, while Mrs. Lovett is frantically singing in 3/4. Yes, this is going on at the same time, and the result is nothing short of perfection. Along those lines, the music always suits the character. Consider the differences between Mrs. Lovett's songs to Sweeney's. Mrs. Lovett (who I consider to be far more evil than Sweeney) always sings quickly paced, oftentimes cheerful numbers (The Worst Pies in London, By the Sea), or she sings complacently and laid back (Wait). Sweeney, on the other hand, is either brooding (Johanna, The Barber and his Wife, My Friends), or disturbingly intense and enraged (Epiphany). Again, the music is used to enhance the characters and plot, not the other way around.
Speaking of which, the characters are wonderfully multidimensional. Nearly all of them have several sides to them that makes very few characters only good or only evil. The second song in the show called "Johanna" (the one sung by the Judge) offers several dimensions to Judge Turpin within three and a half minutes that are otherwise missing. With the song, we see the Judge's struggle between his faith, his lust for Johanna, and his S&M fettish. The song is often cut because of its bizarre and disturbing nature, but when left intact, the Judge becomes a much deeper character. All of the music is used to further the plot and establish/add dimensions to characters, rather than a traditional musical where the action stops dead for a song, then resumes after the applause. "Epiphany" is absolutely breathtaking, and listening (or watching, I have the recording) to Sweeney go mad right then and there is always exhilerating and frightening.
I recommend this CD to everyone, especially those looking for a kind of intelligent and cerebral theater not seen on Broadway since the curtain closed on Passion. The show and score is superior to all of today's major hits like Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Jekyll and Hyde, The Scarlett Pimpernell, The Producers (funny as it is), The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Mama Mia, etc. Do musical theater a favor and discover this phenomenal show. If the Amercian Musical is to survive the next decade or so, it will need people to have a knowledge and appreciation for great musical theater.
Free Music Review: Sweeney heard music that nobody heard...
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the first Broadway musical I ever saw. I hadn't heard the score in more than ten years. When I listened to it again just recently I thought: "It couldn't be as good as I remembered it." It was better. This is the highpoint of Sondheim's career and is on the shortlist of greatest musicals ever. It was part of the last harrah of Broadway: the serious, operatic musicals of the seventies and eighties as evidenced by Claude Michel Shonberg and Andrew Lloyd Weber. The music and lyrics are incredibly sophisticated. Violins rush like the madness in Sweeney's mind. The words come so fast and furiously they are almost rapped. It is sad, thoughtful, frightening, and funny all at the same time. In all the years since I first saw the show in the seventies, all the tunes have remained in my mind. It is an immortal classic.