Customer Reviews

Sweeney Todd

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

To all the idiots out there who think Sweeney Todd is a disgusting, horrible musical those people are who this review is directed to. Sweeney Todd is , in my opinion, one of the greatest musicals ever made. It has an outstanding score, perfect performers, and an amazing set. Sure it may be a little cannibalistic, but there is also romance and comedy (dark as it may be it is still funny). So to anyone who is looking into purchasing this soundtrack believe when I say IT IS ONE OF BROADWAY'S GREATEST WORKS!(...)

This cast recording was the first Sondheim recording I have ever heard. I rate this as one as my favorite musicals (others are Les Miserables and The Wiz). Len Cariou is a great as Sweeney Todd and Angela Lansbury makes the perfect partner for "A Little Priest". Ken Jennings is great in "Not while I'm Around" and works beautifully with Pirelli in 'The Contest". I loved Garber and Rice combining with Williams and Lyndeck in "Ladies in their Sensitivities/ Kiss Me". And of course Merle Louise does a great "City on Fire"

Sure this musical is a little dark, but it is a great piece of theatrical music. I recomend anyone to buy this CD. IT IS GREAT(...)

Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite musicals of all time. I bought it on a whim- what a stroke of luck! This is a pretty complete recording. Angela Lansbury-WOW. I always knew her as the Murder She Wrote lady and Mrs. Potts. Now I'd like to own everything she's been in. What an amazing actress.
Victor Garber is fantastic as Anthony. Lou Cariou has an excellent voice though I honestly prefer George Hearn's interpretation of Sweeney. It's much more passionate, humorous... multifaceted. I especially love Hearn's interpretation of "Epiphany".. It's so heart wrenching. You can see how Sweeney's pain and obsession finally drives him over the edge.
So... get the DVD in addition to this CD to hear a slightly different interpretation but certainly get this cd. You will not regret it!

Stephen Sondheim, the geinus, knows exactly how to use music to set the mood for his characters. The lyrics, especially in the several Ballad of Sweeney Todd numbers, are witty, clever, and thoughtful. If you are Worried about the violent content, there are some movies that make this look like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.
Listen to it when you can devote your time fully to it. Thre are many layers of feelings and music to discover. Enjoy.

Sure, the big selling point with a number of people is the fact that, in this story, a demented barber slits people's throats and then his downstairs neighbor bakes the victims into pies and sells them. But Sondheim's grand guignol masterpiece, based on a Christopher Bond adaptation of an old old British urban legend, rings with emotion, and the score is so gorgeous and outright perfect that the show isn't at all a rock-opera slasher stomper, which it could have been in less skilled hands.

The story has Benjamin Barker, now Sweeney Todd, come home after escaping from the prison where he was put on a trumped up charge so that the corrupt judge who sent him away could pursue his wife. Todd discovers that his wife poisoned herself and his daughter, Johanna, is now in the clutches of the judge. His neighbor Mrs. Lovett is there to give him a hand, especially when he goes irrevocably round the bend after a botched attempt to kill the judge, and she suggests the ideal plan mentioned above, which will give her pie shop a boost and allow Todd to slake his blood lust until he can get his hands on the judge.

While Lovett goes about their plan with glee, Todd continues in melancholy. The ending is far from a happy one, particularly when Todd realizes, too late, the awful secret Lovett has been hiding from him. The body count is high and keeps rising right up to the end. The happy ending of Todd's daughter Johanna and the fresh faced sailor Anthony is a relief.

The operatic score perfectly accompanies the proceedings. Sondheim is a master, a genius, and this is the score to undeniably prove it. To accomodate the stark horror of the tale, Sondheim takes influences from horror film music and opera, but it's absolutely his work. The music is thrilling and complex, the singing is wonderful, and the lyrics are often so clever you'll shake your head in disbelief. A real highlight is the act one finale, when Todd and Lovett sing about all the different people that can be made into pies. It's called 'A Little Priest', as in 'have a little priest.'

It's probably the greatest musical score of the twentieth century. Go buy it!

This is the original musical that got me addicted to Dark Musicals like Urinetown and such. The music will not let you down. Dont let this slightly gothic front fool you.This musical is dark, full of death, anger, and of course they burst into song.
Not at all dissapointing, Angela Lansbury gives a heartstopping performance with others. This is not to be missed!

Sweeny Todd is a very very dark yet funny musical and this recording gives you the full feel of it. Sweeny Todd is one of my favorite musicals becuase of the music. This is a must for anyone who has seen it on TV or Broadway. This is also a perfect recording for anyone who is playing it in a pit band; it trancribes perfectly. As I said before this is a must for any Sweeny Todd fan or anyone who is performing it live.

This recording is just ok. Cariou is allright at times, but he just doesn't display a whole lot of emotion in his singing. This is esp. evident in "Epiphany." Lansbury, I feel, is not even trying to sing at all. She croaks, and is not an asset to this recording. I am giving the three stars for three people: Garber, Rice, and Jennings. Garber plays a wonderful Anthony, and has the sexy voice to prove it. Rice is able to manuever her way through the difficult songs with ease and beauty. Finally there is Jennings, who gives he song "Not While I'm Around" a whole new meaning. If you really want this CD, i would suggest buying it, but dont expect too much out of Lovett and Todd.

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.

Before we consider this greatest and darkest of all musicals, we may legitimately ask: Was there really a Sweeney Todd? Christopher Bond, author of the play which inspired Stephen Sondheim's musical, was of the firm opinion that no such person as Sweeney Todd ever existed. But British author Peter Haining, in a 1993 book, claimed to have found evidence of a real Sweeney Todd, who was really a barber in Fleet Street, and also of a real Mrs. Margery (or possibly Sarah) Lovett, an actual baker of meat pies. Between 1785 and 1801 (according to Haining) Todd slit the throats of an estimated 160 clients, most of whom were popped into pies by the obliging Mrs. Lovett. The skeletons were hidden in the crypt of nearby St. Dunstan's Church, connected by caverns to both the barbershop and the pie shop. Only the haphazard detective procedures of the period allowed them to continue their gory deeds for such a long time; but eventually they were found out, Todd went to the gallows in January 1802, and Mrs. Lovett pulled a Hermann Goering and poisoned herself in her cell. However, a number of reviewers .... have found Haining's evidence flimsy at best. Whether or not Haining is right, it gives us a little extra frisson to hear Sondheim's diabolically clever lyrics and think they may actually have some basis in reality. I saw the original Broadway production of "Sweeney Todd" in 1979, and I still consider it one of the best things I've ever seen on stage. Has Broadway ever heard music more expressive, or lyrics more astonishingly polished and airtight, than here? It is wonderful to hear how vividly this original cast album recaptures that experience. It is hard to see how the performances of Len Cariou as Todd and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett could be bettered in any particular (though I understand Brian Stokes Mitchell and Christine Baranski gave Cariou and Lansbury a run for their money at the Kennedy Center in 2002). The supporting cast is just as superb, especially Victor Garber as Anthony Hope, Merle Louise as the madwoman and Ken Jennings as Toby Ragg. "Sweeney Todd" is not precisely a happy listening experience, but its gory brilliance is thrilling in every sense of the term.