Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd ...
Sunday, 03 February, 2008
So Bec and I went to see Sweeney Todd today. I have to admit, I went in with high expectations. It was Sondheim. It was Tim Burton. It was Johnny Depp/Helena Bonham Carter/Alan Rickman/Sacha Baron Cohen/Timothy Spall. It had the Neil Gaiman stamp of approval. Okay, so Robin McKinley didn't like it, but Lizz did, as did Karen, with some caveats. But anyway, as I said: high expectations.
It was impossible for me not to, really. Out of Sondheim's entire canon (well, the bits I've heard anyway, which is most of it; the only things I am not familiar with are Gypsy, Saturday Night, Do I Hear a Waltz? [though I know the title song], Bounce and The Frogs [that's the one that is performed in a swimming pool])—sorry,—out of Sondheim's entire canon, Sweeney Todd used to be my absolute favourite Sondheim musical. (It has since been supplanted by Sunday in the Park with George as I grew older, wiser and more passionate about my own artistic production (Matt loathed that one). I still remember what I loved about Sweeney: the music is gorgeous, the humour is black, the libretto is witty and clever, and it's just so dark dark dark—depressingly so—but also angrily so (for the musical is all about revenge)—and I was in a stage of my life where the emotions resonated with me.
I own the Broadway Cast recording with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou (and most people don't know that Angela Lansbury sings; she was in Anyone Can Whistle), as well as the script book. I've seen the show three times: two were fairly dreadful amateur productions, and the other was a fairly good production that was put on by NUTS (UNSW Theatre Society) in which one of my friends did the costumes and sang in the chorus. So I know the musical fairly well.
And I always knew it would be a challenge adapting it to screen. Film is obviously a very different medium to stage, and it has certain advantages and disadvantages. There were certain things I loved about Tim Burton's movie—like the production design, the costumes (by Colleen Atwood; she also did Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Gattaca and Little Women. I particular love the costumes when Helena Bonham Carter sings “By the Sea”), Sondheim's majestic score blaring from the cinema speakers (and the orchestration was magnificent!), the way in which some of the scenes were shot (the cockroaches scurrying around Mrs Lovett's kitchen; the opening credits with the blood) ... I thought Helena Bonham Carter did a terrific job. Johnny Depp I was less impressed with; he seemed rather wooden (though he did mad crazy quite well). He just didn't exhibit the emotion I felt when I first heard the Broadway cast recording—the pain, the anger, the darkness. He left me cold, just as his revenge was cold. But I should have empathised with him more.
(Incidentally, there was a wonderful shot of him scowling with pinpoints of lights in his dark eyes, and I found myself thinking, “If they ever make a movie of Gaiman's Sandman series, he'd be the perfect candidate for Dream ...”)
Carter and Depp's vocals were adequate: Carter was a bit wispy at times which was okay but you could tell she was straining on some of those high notes. Johnny Depp sang parts of it a little too sweetly but the angry parts he did well. (Though I felt that “Epiphany” should have been darker and angrier.) I think that part of the problem was that Depp is a tenor; it felt like they transposed some of the songs up. I may be wrong, but I'm fairly sure the original role was for a baritone. Then it works quite nicely in the duets. Unfortunately that gave you the sense that Depp wasn't quite old enough. Both Depp and Carter looked a little too fresh-faced and pretty for their roles, even with the eye make-up and brow lines. That said, their supporting cast was wonderful: Alan Rickman fulfilled my expectations as the slimey Judge, and Timothy Spall was perfect as the Beadle. Sacha Baron Cohen: I always thought Pirelli was supposed to be fat (and hence Mrs Lovett's comment about “seems and awful waste” at the end of Act 1) but Cohen did a good job (even though “Pirelli's Miracle Elixir” is supposed to be sung faster. I realise not all actors are singers, and that some of the songs were made slower to accommodate them, and to help the audience understand what was being said. Sondheim has often been accused of being too wordy.)
The omissions were interesting. I didn't mind that they cut “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” (though Karen had a good point: it made the ending rather odd because the chorus doesn't get to come back for the climax of that number). I also didn't mind that they cut the “Wigmaker Sequence” (though it is rather funny) and the “Parlour Songs”. But why the Judge's rendition of “Johanna” (the self-flagellation scene)? It gives the Judge's character a bit more depth. (Admittedly, you do get the same information in another scene, but Alan Rickman would have been sterling in it.) Why not “Ah, Miss” by Anthony alongside “Green Finch and Linnet Bird”? Why the omission of “Kiss Me” with the gorgeous quartet of voices? (That's one of my favourite numbers and it shows just how much of an airhead Johanna is:
He means to marry me Monday,
What shall I do? I'd rather die.
I'll swallow poison on Sunday,
That's what I'll do, I'll get some lye.
—and then, a bit later, singing to Anthony,
I loved you
Even as I saw you,
Even as it does not
Matter that I still
Don't know your name ...
as he's proposing to her.) Why the omission of the slutty stuff by the beggar woman? Why does Johanna open her mouth to sing one song, and then you never hear her beautiful voice again? (Anthony's duet with Sweeney at the beginning of the second act was lovely though.) What happened to “God That's Good”?
Sweeney has so many comedic moments, I felt like they could have been exploited a little more. Particular the line about actors in “A Little Priest”. And it was odd that “Epiphany” was sung to oblivious men in the street; normally Sweeney sings it to the audience and you get the full brunt of his menace. There seemed to be pacing problems too: there were times when it felt like it dragged, and other moments where you were galloping full throttle through the plot.
Overall, I wouldn't have said, like Robin McKinley did, that it was a “botched” job. I wish it had been better in places, but I recognise the limitations Burton was working with. I think I probably need to watch it again to see it on its own merits as a movie; I know I'm way too close to his source material.
Current:
Bible: Isaiah (ESV) 28/09/2010
seen: Tropic Thunder 26/09/2010
seen: The Life of Mammals 24/09/2010
seen: What a Girl Wants 19/09/2010
seen: Jerry Maguire 19/09/2010
seen: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 06/09/2010
seen: Tomorrow Never Dies 05/09/2010
seen: Nanny McPhee 28/08/2010
read: Mercury (Hope Larson) 27/08/2010
read: Spellcheckers Vol 1 (Jamie S Rich, Nicolas Hitori de, Joelle Jones) 16/08/2010
read: Solipsistic Pop Vol 2 (Solipsistic Pop) 16/08/2010
read: Chiggers (Hope Larson) 15/08/2010
seen: Josie and the Pussycats 14/08/2010
seen: Mr & Mrs Smith 14/08/2010
seen: Step Up 2 13/08/2010
Blinks:
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
Online magazine that publishes fairy tales that are not reworkings of old tales.
Journal that publishes fairy tale writing.
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Hmm. I really liked it, but my only exposure to the play was in Jersey Girl, and I had had mixed reactions to Into The Woods.