Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd!
Sweeney Todd was a lot of fun. Right before it began, I was reminding myself not to complain, and then it started, and I just went "Eeee! :D." Lots of fun.
The voices were about what I expected, except for Johnny Depp, who was actually better than I thought he was going to be. (But I thought he was going to be pretty awful.) The main problem was that the voices were all weak. Not bad, simply not strong enough to really do justice to Sondheim's songs. In a stage production it would have been a disaster, but in a movie it was all right. Not as good as it good have been, but all right. (Actually, I was the most impressed with Toby's voice. But someone with more musical knowledge may disagree with me on all of this.)
The singing may have been less than the best, but I really liked the acting. Depp's over the top crazy Sweeney may not be to everyone's taste, but he pulled it off wonderfully, I think.
Helena Bonham Carter continued a trend that I also noticed in what little I heard of the Broadway revival, and that's the playing Mrs. Lovett as a dark, overtly creepy character. I understand this, but my favorite will always be Angela Lansbury, who played her her very warmly and matronly. I love that because it actually makes her a much scarier character, all friendly and warm until she makes you into a pie. But don't think that I didn't like Carter! I really liked her performance. I think she did very well.
Another thing that I was expecting but sad to see was the cutting down and removing of songs. The Ballad of Sweeney Todd was removed for obvious reasons, but I still missed it. I was more disappointed to see how the changed A Little Priest and By the Sea. A Little Priest is one of my favorite songs, and By the Sea had at least one of the most amusing lines cut. There was also a lot of the humor missing from A Little Priest, though, luckily, not from By the Sea.
But this makes it sound like I didn't like it, and I did. I liked it a lot!
And, because I love you, I'm uploading the the original Broadway cast recording. This is the complete version, and last I checked, it was out of print. Download it!
Disc One
Disc Two
EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention that the songs on disc two are mislabeled. I don't know why. They're still all there.
The voices were about what I expected, except for Johnny Depp, who was actually better than I thought he was going to be. (But I thought he was going to be pretty awful.) The main problem was that the voices were all weak. Not bad, simply not strong enough to really do justice to Sondheim's songs. In a stage production it would have been a disaster, but in a movie it was all right. Not as good as it good have been, but all right. (Actually, I was the most impressed with Toby's voice. But someone with more musical knowledge may disagree with me on all of this.)
The singing may have been less than the best, but I really liked the acting. Depp's over the top crazy Sweeney may not be to everyone's taste, but he pulled it off wonderfully, I think.
Helena Bonham Carter continued a trend that I also noticed in what little I heard of the Broadway revival, and that's the playing Mrs. Lovett as a dark, overtly creepy character. I understand this, but my favorite will always be Angela Lansbury, who played her her very warmly and matronly. I love that because it actually makes her a much scarier character, all friendly and warm until she makes you into a pie. But don't think that I didn't like Carter! I really liked her performance. I think she did very well.
Another thing that I was expecting but sad to see was the cutting down and removing of songs. The Ballad of Sweeney Todd was removed for obvious reasons, but I still missed it. I was more disappointed to see how the changed A Little Priest and By the Sea. A Little Priest is one of my favorite songs, and By the Sea had at least one of the most amusing lines cut. There was also a lot of the humor missing from A Little Priest, though, luckily, not from By the Sea.
But this makes it sound like I didn't like it, and I did. I liked it a lot!
And, because I love you, I'm uploading the the original Broadway cast recording. This is the complete version, and last I checked, it was out of print. Download it!
Disc One
Disc Two
EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention that the songs on disc two are mislabeled. I don't know why. They're still all there.