George Hearn was married to Betsy Joslyn? — Page 2

I love Betsy as Johanna! Her voice is quirky (and I am a bit of a singing snob) but it fits Johanna to me. I find her funny and sweet, and I think that Green Finch is supposed to show that she is having a tough time. I LOVE her face when she sings "are you screaming!" Johanna's lyrics in "Kiss Me" show her as a bit of a bubblehead, but she has to have enough balls to shoot Fogg later.

Lauren Molina kind of reminded me of her. Definitely not the pretty and safe Johanna there either...she is terrific!

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I doubt that we will see an encore of a show that ran for a total of 23 performances on Broadway (which included the 5 previews).

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Betsy Joslyn's Johanna STANK. She performed "Green Finch" as if she were a bobble-headed doll--it was a complete parody of the role and of the song. Yes, the show requires large, exaggerated personalities, but interpreting Johanna as a gibbering loon makes hash of the show---why would Antony fall in love with THAT on the spot, instead of running for a tranquilizer gun? I felt as if she belonged in the lunatic asylum, and I was not rooting for her to escape at the end.

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I'd like to know the same thing about Sarah Rice's interpretation. This is actually a big problem I have with the show, and it apparently started at the conceptual level. The writers can't seem to decided whether Johanna should be taken seriously as a portrait of threatened innocence, or played for parody--their view of her changes every other scene. "Green Finch" is a lovely song if played seriously, but it becomes actively annoying when overdone (by Betsy Joslyn, IMO), while "Kiss Me" requires breathy ditziness. I think this is because Victorian notions of virtue and purity seem sappy to us now, and it is difficult to know just how to play them believably for modern audiences.

Personally, I prefer a more "real" approach. Johanna is the first person we see in the show who isn't corrupt or twisted by life in some way. She is also the person everyone is fighting for; everyone has a stake in her fate (directly or indirectly) and her name is mentioned in the score almost as many times as Sweeney's is. If she and Antony are just normal, ordinary people in trouble, they provide a foil for all the other big, outsized personalities to bounce off of.

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I was the conductor of the National Tour and the DVD of SWEENEY TODD, and I must take up for Betsy. She replaced Sara Rice on Broadway and was directed by Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim. She is an incredibly talented performer, and her performance, whether you like it or not, was arrived at with the guidance of two theatre geniuses. We were all guided by those two incredible men, so, it's OK if you don't care for the interpretation, but don't blame it personally on her. They wanted Johanna the way that Betsy played her.

I cant imagine that if she ignored Prince's direction and "it was all her" that he would've cast her as the lead in his next big musical...but I wasnt there.

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No, you're absolutely right, Musical Director. It's unfair to blame her performance solely on her. I'm sure she's a nice person and a lovely performer, but I really feel like there were mistakes all around in that Johanna.

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Updated On: 10/28/05 at 02:33 PM

I thought Molina was the best part of the show. First, from a purely technical standpoint, you could understand every single word she said. Though she really didn't have the vocal range for the role (the whole '...From the pearls of Spain to the rubies of Tibet and then home...' is actually supposed to be up the octave...and I kind of missed that), she acted it with such clairty, spontinaeity (sp??) and relish that I really didn't mind. I mean...it's a 16-year-old girl who has been locked away for all those years...she sings to birds and KISS ME is the first time she's in the room with a man she is attracted to at the same moment that she's coming in to her sexuality. I think that calls for quite of bit of quirk...be it ditziness or what have you.

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I would like to clarify that I dont think that she should act like Aunt Clara from Bewitched...I think that robbiej is right, that she should be mixed up and nervous...look at what she is going thru.

I agree that Molina is riveting in the new Sweeney, I cant say enough about her and Manoel who plays Toby. She made me laugh AND had me worried for her. I didnt feel differently for Joslyn when I first saw it and then on television. I think that Kiss Me is a sweetly funny song and Joslyn does it well...obviously I am alone there.
poor besty ;(

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Well...playing Johanna as a looney tune (at least a jokey looney tune) for the entire evening wouldn't really work. But there is much comedy in 'Kiss Me'. It's a delicious number that helps lighten the darkness of the piece. It's also very true...these are young people in love and plotting to run away and marry. And it's the first time they're ever in the same room together. It's kinda funny. And Molina nailed the humor, not because she was going for the yuks, but because she played it truthfully and with crystal clear precision.

For the rest of the piece, you never felt she was being inappropriately funny...she was actually quite tragic.

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Musical director-so interesting to hear from you! Thanks for the info: I don't mean this question in a smart ass way at all, but if they wanted someone like Betsy as Johanna, then how did Sarah Rice end up in the role? I didn't see it but I understand she was much calmer. Did they try to get that out of her and didn't succeed or what?

Like I said earlier, the more I watch that version the more I appreciate Betsy-not her voice as much as her acting. Someone said her scene with Sweeney is good and I agree (I guess they had good chemistry because he was her hubby!) You can really see her commitment in her eyes, and she is truly living in the moment, which I'd imagine is pretty hard when you've been doing a role for so many years.

Johanna is not ditzy, I think she's just sheltered. I don't think Betsy plays Johanna as a ditz-I think she plays it naive.

Distinctive Baritone-Betsy is immortalized on that video-people who have never seen Sweeney on stage are going to base their opinions of it off of that recording. So although it was twenty-five years ago people who are just discovering or even re-visiting Sweeney are going to have something to say about her and everyone else on the recording.

Well it wasnt meant to start out that way, just got that way once she was mentioned. Not anyones fault though, but I still like her a lot. That cast got me hooked in such an odd way, loved em all

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I am close to the source, and she was NEVER married to George Hearn. They only dated. Wow, it is amazing that this rumour still exists and IDB is wrong.

As far as her interpretation of the role of Johanna versus Sarah and the involvement of Prince etc.:

They were both down to the final audition for the role, originally. They went with Sarah because she came off younger (the character is 16) and more innocent. Sarah and Betsy are two very different personalities and I think Hal liked both. In the beginning, Johanna was written as more of a plucky heroine and the role kept getting whittled down because they (the creative team) felt the focus needed to be more on the two main characters (Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett).

Hal is not a detailed acting director (see Angela's book on this point) as long as you give him an energy and strong visual he is looking for. He doesn't seem to care so much how you get there or fine-manage line readings. He likes the personality of the actor to emerge to color in the details, which is why he casts them in the first place. He sees the broad stroke, the actor fills in the details.

According to friends who were around for rehearsals, all the direction they got for "Kiss Me" was Prince wanted to see all ams and legs moving everywhere and Johanna was to be like Adele in Die Fledermaus -- all out front operetta style. I believe she and Victor did the actual blocking of Kiss Me themselves.

As far as the keys for the song go, Paul G. wanted to raise the keys higher for Sarah originally, but the relative key for "Johanna" would be too high for Victor. When Cris and Betsy came in later, they went ahead and raised the keys, which was not so good for Betsy but better for Cris. This I got from Paul G. So really Sarah's and Betsy's keys should have been switched, but they couldn't because of the men they were playing opposite. Cris is a higher voice than Victor. Sarah's voice sits higher than Betsy's.

Betsy has a beautiful lyric soprano and great belt and is dazzling on stage and off. Sarah is a glorious coloratura soprano and can also be very funny and moving. Different flavors, but both delicious.

I liked both women's interpretations as well as Lisa Vromen and Heidi Grant Murphy and many others I have seen.

I think the real unsung heroine of acting is Merle Louise' Beggar Woman. She was incredibly heartbreaking.