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

[hollebolle]

Posted: 4/1/23 at 10:35am

east side story said: "House seats."

That makes sense, it just seemed like a lot. Some of them have since been purchased, but it was like 40 seats when I first looked. I don’t know what quantity is normal though, and this is obviously a big production. 

 

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 4/1/23 at 7:46pm

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. 

[east side story]

Posted: 4/1/23 at 7:53pm

poisonivy2 said: "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."

We must have been at the same performance.  I myself did not love it.  There was no danger, and considering the stakes of each character, none of it came across to me. And what was that choreography?  I also echo earlier sentiments regarding how quiet the orchestra sounded (I was in ORCH K) and also strained to hear a lot of Ashford’s one-note performance.  Groban has terrific vocals, but scary he ain’t, even if “Epiphany” was absolutely thrilling.  Gaten and Ruthie were the standouts, and Jordan Fisher’s performance worked for me.

The audience around me absolutely loved it, though.  I’d give it a 7 out of 10, because imperfect Sondheim is still the best.  I hope this cast enjoys a healthy run!

Updated On: 4/1/23 at 07:53 PM

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 4/2/23 at 2:07pm

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]

Posted: 4/2/23 at 2:47pm

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? 

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 4/2/23 at 3:00pm

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?

 

[aliciag3]

Posted: 4/2/23 at 9:46pm

I sat in row XX, seat 113 and it was great! I was a little worried about the mezz overhang and scenes on the upper platform/walkway but i could see everything perfectly! 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 4/2/23 at 10:57pm

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

[poisonivy2]

Posted: 4/2/23 at 11:03pm

I mean I've been an Ashford fan since Masters of Sex.

[PhantomMickey]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 8:44am

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?

[hearthemsing22]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 8:47am

I need to see it again. I don't care where, I don't care how. I loved it so much. I didn't find the ending anti-climatic...it blew me away. I saw another production and completely forgot how it ended so I was extremely surprised. It was amazing. 

[theblackumbrella]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 9:29am

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.

[east side story]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 9:42am

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

Agreed.  There is no emotional apex in the final moments, and I believe it is a few factors at play.

1) As gorgeous as Groban sings, again his "Epiphany" was outstanding, he does not have enough gas in the tank to go there emotionally in these scenes.  And for the record, neither does Ashford.  I remember hearing that Lovett's demise was eliciting snickers from the audience at earlier performances, but at my performance she put up a noticeable fight as Sweeney inched her towards the oven doors.  Neither performer was able to sell that scene to me, and as a result Lovett's death simply felt like another ticked box on the to-do list of our journey to the house lights coming back up.

2) I don't think Kail knew what to do with the ending (or most of the show, if I'm being honest).  

[inception]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 9:53am

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.  

[Piparoo]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 10:02am

inception said: "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've seen this one, the Barrow St production and the Doyle all live, and all the videos. I’m not sure I need to see another production of Sweeney for a long while. All of us likely have a specific vision for it fixed in our minds. For me, that specific vision has never been fully realized on stage.

[MezzA101]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 12:27pm

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]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 12:34pm

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.

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

After Todd kills Lovett and the Beggar Woman, Tobias enters the bakehouse and sees what has happened. Tobias picks up the razor off the floor and slowly hands it to Todd. Todd then takes the razor and commits suicide by slitting his own throat. It was just the staging that was changed, no dialogue was altered.

 

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 4/3/23 at 12:40pm

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.

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

After Todd kills Lovett and the Beggar Woman, Tobias enters the bakehouse and sees what has happened. Tobias picks up the razor off the floor and slowly hands it to Todd. Todd then takes the razor and commits suicide by slitting his own throat. It was just the staging that was changed, no dialogue was altered.

In the words of Elaine Stritch:

 

 

“WRONNNNNNG!”

 

[weaselprince71]

Posted: 4/4/23 at 1:00am

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

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

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

After Todd kills Lovett and the Beggar Woman, Tobias enters the bakehouse and sees what has happened. Tobias picks up the razor off the floor and slowly hands it to Todd. Todd then takes the razor and commits suicide by slitting his own throat. It was just the staging that was changed, no dialogue was altered.

In the words of Elaine Stritch:


“WRONNNNNNG!”"

 

Seconded.  I'm not even a big fan of the particular nuance whereby some audiences, abetted by some directors (both misguidedly imo), insist on perceiving Sweeney as... 

 

Click Here To Toggle Spoiler Content

...offering up his throat to Toby: cheap catharsis, and too tidy by half, even when handled as intelligently as Doyle and Cerveris managed in 2005.  (In their defense, Doyle's conceptual framework set the moment up to work better than I might otherwise have imagined it could -- but several viewings still left me ambivalent at best).

By contrast, Hearn's Sweeney, on the proshot tour video, not only didn't consciously submit to his fate, but made a handy meal of his shock and horror at being slashed.  (He also, if you watch closely, took a horribly plausible while to die even after Anthony, Johanna and the cops have arrived -- which is to say: he may have had just enough time to put the pieces together and finally recognize the disguised Johanna before expiring).

 Hammy or not, I think Hearn's impulse not to submit actually gets us closer to the heart of the character and the show.

[weaselprince71]

Posted: 4/4/23 at 2:22am

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.  

[LarryD2]

Posted: 4/5/23 at 9:14am

I saw it last week. Ashford and Matarazzo were the standouts for me. Groban sang brilliantly but captured none of the character's tortured menace. Was not much taken with Fisher, Bilbao or Rapson. Miles is definitely making a lot of choices -- some work, others don't. Kail doesn't really seem to have much to say here. It's a blandly traditional production, but even the original Prince staging had more interesting perspectives on class, sex, and social inequity within the melodramatic framework. The crowd ate it up. I was comped -- if I'd paid $300 like many in the audience, I'm not sure I'd have felt it was worth the price.

[binau]

Posted: 4/9/23 at 6:57am

So did the whistle ever actually arrive? 

[JasonC3]

Posted: 4/9/23 at 7:16am

Rumor has it that someone opening a box and finding the whistle is how Here We Are begins.

[binau]

Posted: 4/9/23 at 7:33am

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

[Dolly80]

Posted: 4/9/23 at 7:54am

What a lifeless production. Unimaginative staging and terrible sound.

AA really made me laugh- but her mangling of the accent just threw me too much. She was barely intelligible for most of the show. I feel like I’ve seen all she can do now on stage, it’s the same old schtick. As a Brit- the dreadful accent was too distracting to allow me to ever engage with her character.

Josh Groban sang spectacularly , but zero depth to his performance.

The true stand out to me was Gaten M- a truly committed and moving performance.

Oh and why is the ending always messed up? AA actually stepped into the oven herself - how hard is it to make that moment horrible to watch?

The sound designer should have been fired in previews- shame on them for having this glorious orchestra and squandering it with such terrible sound design.