Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?- Page 2
Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
#25Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 10:21am
Christ almighty, you disgusting creature why did you have to put the idea of Amber as Lovett in my brain. That’s all I’ll ever want, now along with Raul’s Sweeney.
Owen22
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/24/11
#26Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 10:24amRemember the nay-sayers when Sutton was cast as Marian? Out-of-the-box casting can usually be more thrilling than "perfect" casting and Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett is making me very happy. She and Groban will be slightly younger than your traditional casting, but I love this as well. And also an interesting choice of director.
blaxx
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/28/05
#27Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 10:48am
JasonC3 said: "Struggling to envision Ashford in this role, but I thought she was great in Sunday (particularly as Marie) and I'm not generally a fan of her work."
She ruined SITPWG, maybe she can just stick to her usual slapstick look-at-me routine?
Listen, I don't take my clothes off for anyone, even if it is "artistic". - JANICE
JasonC3
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/22/21
#28Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 10:49am
I'd ready for Raul on stage again in anything.
#29Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 10:56am
InTheKnowEvenIfYouDontBelieve said:
“I wish Groban was doing Sammi’s Man of La Mancha and Raul Esparza and Amber Grey were doing Sweeney…”
Raul Esparza would be great as Sweeney. I remember him even bragging in an interview that after seeing his George, Sondheim himself told him he should do Sweeney. I wonder why it hasn’t happened, even regionally…I guess Esparza doesn’t really do regional anymore. But as wonderful as Josh Groban is, he is so wrong for this role. I just can’t imagine him being scary.
#30Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 11:12am
Didn’t Raul do Chess a few years ago, regionally?
#31Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 11:23am
Josh as Sweeny would be absolutely great! Definitely a dream cast moment!
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
#32Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 11:42am
Full orchestra, like 30 piece? Or just a 12-14 piece orchestra? A large orchestra would get me to see this again. My favorite Sondheim score.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#33Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 12:08pm
Was the number of musicians in the pit for the original production around 18 or 20? Sounded fine enough for me and I feel like expanding the number of musicians is unnecessary if this would be a full out production (not a concert).
Just please no reduced orchestra.
#34Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 1:04pm
morosco said: "Was the number of musicians in the pit for the original production around 18 or 20? Sounded fine enough for me and I feel like expanding the number of musicians is unnecessary if this would be a full out production (not a concert).
Just please no reduced orchestra."
I believe it calls for 26-27 musicians. You definitely need that full sound to have the impact the score demands. I did a production once with the 9 pit musician version, and it just doesn’t work. It’s such a massive, overwhelming sound and composition that is almost unparalleled in musical theatre, so I do hope they honor the original orchestrations.
-There's the muddle in the middle. There's the puddle where the poodle did the piddle."
#35Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 1:10pm
It's a bit of an open secret at this point. If it's really playing the Lunt why didn't they announce with the Tina closing announcement? When should we expect this to be officially announced?
#36Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 1:14pm
I was lucky enough to work on a production of the show with a FULL orchestra, and I can attest to musikman's comments - it's absolutely thrilling. I'll never forget the sitzprobe, when I first heard the full orchestra play the opening number. Chills just thinking about it.
Seems like John Doyle's production showed all the local theatres in the country that it was possible to do Sweeney on a budget. So now, it feels like that's all we get (will a few notable exceptions). I was also in the minority in that I wasn't a fan of the "pie shop" production from a few years back. I had several specific issues with the direction, but it also cemented the fact that I'd be perfectly happy to go the rest of my life without seeing another small-scale Sweeney revival.
#37Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 1:50pm
JBroadway said: "I was lucky enough to work on a production of the show with a FULL orchestra, and I can attest to musikman's comments - it's absolutely thrilling. I'll never forget the sitzprobe, when I first heard the full orchestra play the opening number. Chills just thinking about it.
Seems like John Doyle's production showed all the local theatres in the country that it was possible to do Sweeney on a budget. So now, it feels like that's all we get (will a few notable exceptions). I was also in the minority in that I wasn't a fan of the "pie shop" production from a few years back. I had several specific issues with the direction, but it also cemented the fact that I'd be perfectly happy to go the rest of my life without seeing another small-scale Sweeney revival."
AGREED. I thoroughly enjoyed both the pie shop and John Doyle productions, but it's now time for a full scale revival complete with bells and whistles in every area.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#38Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 1:54pm
What I love about SWEENEY is that if done well the material seems to work in any setting. Broadway singers, opera singers, non-singers/film, large pit orchestra, small pit orchestra, self-players, massive film orchestra, symphonic orchestra, piano and a couple strings, grand, intimate staging etc etc. maybe people have their preference but I have loved them all. I don’t know if you can say many other shows have shown to be as flexible this one.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 7/29/22 at 01:54 PM
#39Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 1:55pm
If a cast album is released, I know that first loud whistle is going to scare the living daylights out of me. I’ve heard “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” many times and it still makes me jump a little.
Well, I’ll be. That bird really did it.
InTheKnowEvenIfYouDontBelieve
Understudy Joined: 7/21/22
#40Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 1:56pm
Heard the budget is about 37mil
#41Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 1:58pm
37 million?? I personally don’t believe that can be true. Unless Hugh Jackman plays Sweeney with Meryl Streep as Lovett for a year they’ll never make it back.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#42Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 2:01pm
Good Lord! I agree, they would have to have big-name stars do a full year with mostly sold-out houses to make that back!
The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes. -Harold Prince
Huss417
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#43Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 2:12pm
Here is the original thread that was active up till 7/10/22
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1152526
"I hope your Fanny is bigger than my Peter."
Mary Martin to Ezio Pinza opening night of Fanny.
JSquared2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/23/17
#44Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 2:22pm
InTheKnowEvenIfYouDontBelieve said: "Heard the budget is about 37mil"
Pretty much everything that you are "hearing" is wrong. You may want to check the batteries in your hearing aids.
TapDanceGal
Understudy Joined: 5/10/14
#45Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 2:35pm
Jordan Catalano said: "Didn’t Raul do Chess a few years ago, regionally?"
Raul did do Chess at the Kennedy Center as a part of the Broadway Center Stage series back in Feb 2018 with Ruthie Ann Miles, Ramin, & Karen Olivo
morosco
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/10/04
#46Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 3:05pm
I just can't picture Josh Groban as Sweeney Todd.
#47Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 3:07pm
Jordan Catalano said: "Didn’t Raul do Chess a few years ago, regionally?"
True, I forgot about that - although I think that was at least semi-intended to be a "pre-Broadway" production, although a transfer obviously never happened.
That reminds me that he was also going to play Hamlet at Chicago Shakespeare a few years ago, and dropped out only two or three months before opening with no explanation given.
A lot of Broadway stars won't do a regional show unless it's a prestigious company. Anyway, he's a big enough name that if he really wanted to play Sweeney Todd for a summer in Ohio or whatever he could make it happen pretty easily I imagine.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#48Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 3:10pm
To my surprise, Groban was in every way successful in Great Comet, taking the character role and bringing his vocal gifts to a tortured man, bewildered by encroaching middle age and circumstances. He not only sang it elegantly, he fully embodied the man. Even the padding worked. Sweeney may prove a good fit, and his underlying vulnerability - a good man destroyed by cruelty - may bring out a new color in this character.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
InTheKnowEvenIfYouDontBelieve
Understudy Joined: 7/21/22
#49Anything new on the rumored Groban-lead Sweeney?
Posted: 7/29/22 at 4:25pm
JSquared2 said: "InTheKnowEvenIfYouDontBelieve said: "Heard the budget is about 37mil"
Pretty much everything that you are "hearing" is wrong. You may want to check the batteries in your hearing aids."
Lol
sure, Jan.
again, I was cursed out on here a week before Funny Girl announced Beanie and when I announced that Katrina was Bobbie. Both times “sources from the show” informed me how wrong I was. I know I’m right, I don’t care if you believe the truth because it doesn’t make it any less true hahah
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