Customer Reviews

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979 Original Broadway Cast)

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"Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is closer to the operatic world of Verdi and Donezetti than it is to Rogers & Hammerstein or Lerner & Lowe, and there have been times when it has been performed in opera houses as well it should. This show is replete with arias and quintets, duets and chorus numbers. More than any other American "musical" I can think of, there are different characters singing different things at the same time, just what you would expect to find in an opera. Besides, like an opera, most of the main characters are dead by the time the curtain rings down.

This is Sondheim at his best, coming up with some of his most beautiful melodies in a show where the "hero" and "heroine" cut people's throats and bake them into pies. Consequently while you have "Not While I'm Around" sung by a poor boy to his surrogate mother and "Johanna" sung by young Anthony to his intended, you also have "My Friends" sung by Todd to his set of sharp razors. Sondheim has always delighted in such ironies.

The highlight of the show/CD is the trio of numbers that ends Act I. From the sweet duet between Todd and the Judge ("Pretty Women"), to the savage intensity of Todd's "Epiphany", concluding with the ghastly humor of the Todd and Mrs. Lovett in "A Little Priest."

Angela Lansbury is a wicked delight as Mrs. Lovett, and a revelation to those who do not remember that she was always a strong performer in musical theater ("Mama," "Gypsy"). The appropriateness of her voice was driven home to me when I saw a road production of "Sweeney Todd" with June Havok (yes, the original Baby June, older sister of Gypsy Rose Lee) who had the great timing of the vaudeville stage but who sang everything about an octave lower than originally written.

However, it is Len Cariou who steals the show. "Epiphany" is a dramatic tour de force made all the more wonderous by the fact that it is being sung. If only I could sing, this would be the role I would most want to perform and "Epiphany" the song I would most love to sing.

One of the joys of this 2-disc set is that it includes the song "Johanna" which was cut from the show, which has the Judge (Edmund Lyndeck) flagellating himself while sneaking a peak at his young ward through a keyhole. Similarly, the entire original version of "The Contest" is presented.

Warning: in this production a steam whistle is used, primarily when Sweeney draws his razor across somebody's throat, in a particularly effective bit of stagecraft. If you listen to the opening song with the volume up too high, you are going to get blown away.

This review is by Crosley

Stephen 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.

Stephen Sondheim is my hero for scoring this musical. "Sweeney Todd" is most definitely one of the top five musicals of all time, if not THE top musical, at least in my opinion.

The blackly humorous and gruesome story of a barber who goes berserk with revenge after being wrongly imprisoned is one of the most original stories I've ever heard. I don't want to spoil the musical for anyone who hasn't seen it, but let me just say that the method by which Sweeney and his accomplice (Mrs. Lovett, played with tremendous hilarity by Angela Lansbury) dispose of the bodies is horrid and hilarious at the same time.

The music is truly inspiring. Sondheim's score consists of sweet love songs, frightening ballads of redemption and overall great music, all puncuated by the deafening pierce of a factory whistle (which sounds each time Sweeney claims another victim).

Len Cariou played Sweeney almost to perfection, balancing the tender man who loves his daughter to no end with the homicidal maniac who can't wait to get his hands (or his razor, rather) on the Judge who put him away (As the Judge sits down on the barber stool, Sweeney tells him the shave will be "the closest I ever gave").

This is an utterly fantastic musical, and if you are into Sondheim this is the ultimate treat. Check it out.

For those of you who already have the original issue of this cd and are wondering if the remastered version is worth investing in, let me save you some trouble. There is almost no audible difference in the remastered version, unless you count the fact that they've added a ton of reverb - for those who don't know, it's the sound of singing in a cave. The cd here is otherwise still "trebly," and the discrepancies in volume level are still there. Don't get me wrong, this cast is amazing, but don't pay again for this "remastered" version, unless of course you're dying to hear Julie Andrews sing the second part of "Sweet Polly Plunkit" as a bonus track.
Edit: How could I forget my other big gripe? NO LYRICS! "MasterworksBroadway," who reissued this along with a bunch of other Sondheim, decided to axe lyrics that were previously available in favor of fat, uninspired essays. I've confirmed this with my Into the Woods "Remastered" edition (treble and reverb in full effect) which lacks the lyrics the original cd had.

The typical musical has you leaving the theater humming catchy tunes and a feel good outlook on life. In Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" (which is really an opera) a listener or theater-goer leaves the theater moved, frightened, laughing, and yet questioning goodness in human nature!

I got to see this musical on Broadway, with this particular cast, and have never seen anything quite like it since. Len Cariou, Angela Lansbury and the rest of this exquisite cast created a comical, romantic freak show in which the good guy did not always come out on top. If you do not know this show, it would be good to find out more about it before you buy it. My email address is listed in my "about me" page. I would be glad to take the time to talk more about this to any one interested!

Sinister, operatic, thought provoking and beautiful, Sweeney Todd has carved out its own niche in the world of musical theater!

Inspired by old British folklore and a melodramatic play about a murderous barber whose neighbor bakes his victims into meat pies, "Sweeney Todd" is not only a true musical thriller, a blood chilling piece of theater, but the very best score composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim has given us to date. Set against the back drop of industrial revloution London, "Sweeney Todd" tells the tale of Benjamin Barker, a good man sent to prison by a lecherous Judge Turpin who covets Barker's wife, Lucy. As the musical begins, Barker has escaped prison, assumed the name Sweeney Todd, and returns to London with revenge in his heart and a need to find his wife, Lucy, and their daughter, Johanna. Todd turns to Mrs. Lovett, his pie baking neighbor from his former life, and enlists her in his plan to hunt down and dish out vengeance to his enemies. What follows is a heart racing thrill ride of epic proportions, and Sondheim uses the story to illustrate that in a society where we are surrounded by Sweeneys, none of us are exempt from the razor blade of retribution. This is not for the mild mannered listener looking for a pleasant musical diversion, although the score is glorious and a feast for any music lover. The performances, especially those of Tony Award winners Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou, are perfect. The show was later put on VHS with Lansbury and George Hearn as Sweeney as well as several of the cast members featured here. In whatever version you experience it, you will not be able to deny that this is one of musical theater's most important works.

Stephen Sondheim's greatest triumph is SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. What's it about? On one level, it tells the story of a crazed man's bloody revenge on a corrupt judge. However, Sondheim's talents, combined with those of Hugh Wheeler and Hal Prince, create a thrilling, macabre, truly brilliant work of art.

Wheeler's book speaks to a much larger, more powerful theme - the impotence of the comman man in the industrialized societal structure. Prince's direction of the original 1979 production further enhanced this vision - the stage dominated by a gargantuan ironworks, the score overshadowed by a piercing factory whistle. Sondheim's incredibly intricate score has become one of the few Broadway musicals to find its way into the opera repertoire.

Add to the mix an incredible cast - starring Len Cariou as the dehumanized barber and Angela Lansbury as his morally bankrupt accomplice - and you have one of Broadway's most perfect musicals!

THE STORY:
It's called a "musical thriller" for a reason, so I'll try not to ruin the surprises here. After a stunning prologue, the background (events that occurred 15 years prior to the action) is cleverly explained through conversations in the opening scenes: a young 19th-century London barber named Benjamin Barker was exhiled to Australia on fabricated charges so that the lecherous Judge Turpin could seduce the barber's wife. After Barker's departure, his wife took poison and his daughter was made Turpin's ward. The middle-aged Barker (Cariou) has now escaped and returned to London to seek his revenge, but to avoid recognition he is going by the name of "Sweeney Todd."

Todd takes his former neighbor, Mrs. Lovett (Lansbury), into his confidence. The dowdy Mrs. Lovett, owner of a failing meat-pie shop, eagerly agrees to help Todd, for questionable reasons. In quick time, Todd restores his barbershop and is about to realize his revenge on Turpin when circumstances allow the judge to escape. Todd rages at his powerlessness brought by the uncaring twists of fate and vows to take his revenge on all of mankind. As he plots to slit the throats of innocent men until he can slit the throat of Turpin, the enterprising Mrs. Lovett suggests that her business can make use of the corpses. For the first time, Todd smiles.

Act II chronicles Lovett's financial success and Todd's barbarous (pun intended) campaign. Events come to an adrenaline-pumping conclusion involving an assistant at the pie shop, an insane beggar woman, an unctious beadle, and a young sailor. Todd realizes too late that life still held one pleasure that could have brought him back from the realms of inhumanity.

THE MUSIC AND LYRICS:
Sondheim showcases the depths of his intellectual prowess in this ambitious score. Exquitely crafted with recurring liefmotifs and pulsing momentum, the score reveals more and more layers of nuance upon repeated listenings. The music ranges from frighteningly atonal sections depicting hopeless chaos to lushly melodic passages representing youthful dreams. Three different songs entitled "Johanna," sung by the sailor, the judge, and the barber, convey heroic love, lustful passion, and insane indifference, respectively. "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" compares Johanna's confinement by society to that of caged birds. "A Little Priest" is the ultimate in black humor - witty lyrics abound in this celebratory waltz about cannibalism.

THE RECORDING:

I've never heard any other recording of SWEENEY TODD, but that does not prevent me from giving the original cast recording an enthusiastic endorsement. Lansbury and Cariou are perfectly cast in their roles and Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations are hair-raisingly wonderful. Since this masterwork is so seamlessly woven together, you MUST purchase the full double-CD recording, which includes the libretto.

As PORGY AND BESS was Gershwin's masterpiece, SWEENEY TODD is Sondheim's.

It opened on March 1, 1979 to wildly enthusiastic reviews and won 8 Tony awards. After the Broadway run, it toured with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn (the tour was video-taped for TV) and a second smaller tour went out with June Havoc (the original Baby June!) and Ross Petty. Since then it has been staged large (Houston and New York City Opera) and small (Broadway's Circle-in-the Square with a cast of 14 and 3 musicians...affectionately known as TEENY TODD). It works well in all venues.

Top stars have wanted to play Sweeney and/or Mrs Lovett: Brynn Terfel; Brian Stokes Mitchell; Patti LuPone; Christine Baranski. Performers love doing the show.

Why?

Start with a wonderful story, no more grusome than those Saturday matinee horror flicks but just as much fun and with a couple of good twists! Add fascinating characters, and a majestic, complex and exciting score. Even actors who have played the show many times find new levels each time they perform it. And audiences enjoy seeing the show multiple times. (I have seen 10 different productions over the years and never tire of it!)

This original cast recording as as near perfect as one could hope for. True, a few dialogue scenes have been eliminated but the missing sections are neatly summarized in the libretto and believe me you will want to follow along to relish every word. Not that you need the libretto to understand the lyrics. Each cast member has perfect diction and the balance between singers and orchestra lets you hear every word clearly. Thomas Shepard did his usual brilliant job translating a highly visual show to audio, with effective use of sound effects.

The stars (Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou) won deserved praise. Sara Rice as Joanna brings gentle sadness to "Green finch and Linnet Bird" that no other actress has managed. Ken Jennings makes a simple sweet Tobias. And Edmund Lyndeck is properly creepy as the evil judge. The whole company and orchestra are conducted with precision by Broadway's top music man Paul Gemignani.

Avoid the single CD of highlights...it was one of the very first CD releases and doesn't have the brilliant sound quality of this carefully mastered complete recording.

Now...you want a good laugh? Read the review posted here by Wayne Schultheis where he spends most of his time praising PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. He quotes perfectly PHANTOM lyrics (attributing them to Lloyd Webber when in fact they are by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe) but when he quotes SWEENEY TODD - the disc he is supposedly reviewing - he completely mangles the quote! It makes you wonder if he has ever even seen or listened to SWEENEY TODD. I have never met anyone who has seen both shows and didn't declare SWEENEY not only the better of the two, but among the very best that Broadway has ever produced.

"Sweeney Todd," needless to say, is a very strange story, and leave it to Stephen Sondheim to make a musical out of it. This musical, though, is one of the best ever written. Without taking itself too seriously, "Sweeney Todd" is a mixture of horror, black comedy and romance, and is truly a masterpiece. Though not everyone will be charmed about a show about cannibalism (members of the audience were always leaving the original production once they realized what it was actually about), "Sweeney" will forever be a theatrical milestone. The opening and closing title song remains one of the best opening numbers of the musical theatre. Though I did like George Hearn's singing voice (especially in his show-stopping "Epiphany,") more than Len Cariou's, he brings life to the title role. Angela Lansbury is also delightful as the endearing accomplice who cheerfully turns dead bodies into meat pies. I bought this CD two years ago, and I still cannot stop listening to it. BUY IT!

Whenever I find myself trying to explain to friends why I enjoy Sondheim's musicals so much, I invariably say, "Well, for instance, one of his shows is about a barber, out for revenge, who kills his customers, and his downstairs neighbor who grinds up the corpses and bakes them into meat pies. Sondheim is wonderfully twisted, I tell you."

Add to the mix a crazy beggar woman, a long lost daughter, a perverted judge, a corrupt beadle, a rape, a poisoning, an insane asylum and you have Sweeney Todd.

And the music--you won't hear your typical Broadway love ballads or dance numbers in this CD. Sondheim's music is rich and disturbing, not necessarily melodic, but I can promise you that you'll be humming at least one of the tunes after hearing the show. (Just don't go around singing Todd's signature lyric of "...They all deserve to die..." or you might get locked up yourself.)