Groban & Ashford in SWEENEY TODD On Broadway - Reviews & News Thread — Page 43

I saw this today and while I wll write a fuller review later I just want to say:

1. I loved it

2. I will never sit in the rear mezzanine of the Lunt-Fontanne again. My view of the stage was blocked by multiple heads.

I absolutely loved it. Full review here:

https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2023/04/sweeney-todd-is-cutting-entertainment.html

Cannot wait to go backand see it from a much better seat.

FANtomFollies said: "poisonivy2 said: "I absolutely loved it. Full review here:

https://humbledandoverwhelmed.blogspot.com/2023/04/sweeney-todd-is-cutting-entertainment.html

Cannot wait to go backand see it from a much better seat."

Great review! How did you find the sound/volume in the rear mezz?"

Fine actually. Maye a little muffled for Ashford, but overall I had no problems. I had serious issues with the sightlines up there though. Just two many heads blocking the stage, and also made my vertigo act up.

How is the rear orchestra sightlines?

I was just reading the title of this thread and it made me wonder how well Brittain Ashford would be as Lovett.

I saw the 4/1 matinee. We sat midmezz G 1,3,5. I did feel like there were some heads slightly in my way and it wasn't marked as partial view when I bought the seats (presale, maybe it has changed), but a few scenes with Joana, the Judge and Anthony were obstructed.

This was my first production of Sweeney, and the main reason I wanted to see it was the cast. We thought Annaleigh was hilarious and sounded amazing. From comments here I expected to miss more of her words, but it was much better than I thought. Josh Groban sounded amazing, but that was the main thing I liked about him. My companions thought Jordan had a better voice than I did. Gatan was great!! We had an understudy for Joana, and she sounded really good.

Overall, enjoyed the cast, but didn't love the staging. The ending felt pretty anticlimactic... is that how it always ends?

Rambles: I saw it last week. I was in row A of the front mezz. The bar wasn't an issue at all.

Overall I think it was good. It wasn't great. There were some things that I thought really worked well and others that didn't. A lot of the things that worked had moments where they didn't - so it's not as if things were simply good and bad.

Annaleigh's Lovett was really enjoyable for the most part. Her mugging did become bothersome during Priest, but her "Yes Mr. Todd"s were so funny at the song's beginning.

Groban's vocals were the clearest of any performer, but even after Epiphany, he could've been more menacing.

Gaten was fun in his Pirelli number and touching in "Not While I'm Around", but it wasn't anything I thought deserved distinction. His acting in the final sequence BLEW ME AWAY. It was haunting.

I did not understand the raves for Ruthie, who I thought was fine. Maybe she did more with the role than is normally done so that's why it received specific call outs on the board.

There were moments where I LOVED the choreography and there were moments where I didn't - all in the same song sometimes. When the ensemble crouched together, it looked haphazard from the mezz - maybe the orchestra view was more engrossing. "City on Fire" had some rough choreo moments, but "God That's Good!" I loved.

The lighting design was great and probably used to the greatest effect.

Turpin, Johanna, and Anthony were all well performed by their actors. I didn't find the lovers roles to be that big - no more than Marius or Cosette in Les Mis, but at least in Sweeney they acknowledge the absurdity of how fast they fall in love.

I'd tell people to see it. I would see it again, but wouldn't seek out a return visit with vigor.

theblackumbrella said: "
I'd tell people to see it. I would see it again, but wouldn't seek out a return visit with vigor."

I was thinking how last summer I saw both Into the Woods & Company twice in the same week, but after this I sort of felt like if I never get to see another production of this show in my life, I'll be good.

I went to Signature yesterday for the first time and saw "Pacific Overtures." It was only the second time I saw it live, the first being the Lincoln Center Festival in 2002. That one was incredibly opulent of course but seeing it in the more intimate setting yesterday, and only four days after "Sweeney," it offered its own plethora of delights and helps me articulate some of the issues I had with "Sweeney." The orchestra was above the stage and behind a screen but the sound was glorious. It felt like the recent revival of "Company," also with the orchestra above the stage. It felt alive. You could close your eyes and feel the orchestra. "Sweeney" is cramming everyone into that pit and the sound piping out sounds less "real" than my 2-cassette OBC (with libretto) that fills the room. Also, the only instrument not behind the curtain yesterday was the odaiko, and it's already staring at you when you enter the auditorium. The At This Performance sign when you walk in lists separately who is playing it. As the Washington Post wrote on March 15th: Adding to the drama of the taiko is the particular drum used in the production: a six-foot-tall instrument that, Rooney says, may be the largest odaiko (big taiko) on the East Coast. (It belongs to a friend of his.) The production’s associate music director, Angie Benson, will play the instrument in the production, and Rooney has given her tips. https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2023/03/15/signature-theatre-pacific-overtures/

That's what the current "Sweeney" is lacking without the organ.

Also, the diction and actor mics were flawless. It's a small space, played practically in the round, and the actors are practically in your face. "Someone in a Tree" didn't thrill me as much as I expected, don't know why, but I gained even more respect and awe for Sondheim's wordsmithing with Please Hello!" The international suitors even ran around the sections giving out competing flags for the audience to wave. There was a greater sense of danger and menace in "Pretty Lady" and the violence that ensues than anything in "Sweeney," including "Poor Thing." The theatre requires masks on Sundays and one guy just kept removing his before the performance even started and there were audience members screaming for staff to throw him out. Even that felt more menacing. He had his mask off for the whole first act and wasn't there for the second.

Looking forward to their "Sweeney" May 16-July 9.

Updated On: 4/3/23 at 12:27 PM

morosco said: "The ending felt pretty anticlimactic... is that how it always ends?

I saw a production of the show once where the ending was different and probably not an authorized change.

In the words of Elaine Stritch:





“WRONNNNNNG!”

Sorry, I completely screwed up the quote attributions. I was seconding TotallyEffed's (by way of Stritch) "WRONNNNNNG!", in response to the almost-certainly-unauthorized change described by morosco.

I'm seeing the show next week, so I can't yet say whether or not I'll agree with PhantomMickey's original statement "The ending felt pretty anticlimactic... is that how it always ends?" -- but if I do, I can only assume it'll be a pretty damning indictment of Kail's staging, since, short of actually contradicting the script (which would include stage directions as crucial as who kills who), I'd have thought the ending of this show was pretty hard to screw up, especially with a Toby as good as Matarazzo's is said to be.

But again, the whistle was not a cut to have made lightly. In addition to punctuating the opening house-to-black and some of the killings, it also bites off the final scene, getting us crisply from Toby's "Smoothly, smoothly..." into the final Ballad reprise. It's not just a decorative sound effect or an easy jump-scare. It's a part of the score, and a part of the book structure, and you can't just cut it without accounting for the multiple functions it serves.

So did the whistle ever actually arrive?

Hopefully with some ironic underscoring of the ‘anyone can whistle’ melody.