I Miss The Sweeney Todd Revival- Page 2

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 11:30am

Brick, edit your post so you don't get this whole thread deleted.

Regardless of age, Raul's voice isn't low enough for Sweeney. They're not going go transpose the entire score to accommodate your casting fantasies.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 11:35am

He'd be a great Anthony.

I'd personally love to see an African-American Sweeney or Lovett.

[Hest882]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 12:01pm

I caught the equity tour in San Francisco and was completely mesmerized. My only criticism is that I think if someone is unfamiliar with the musical parts can be confusing. Nonetheless, I thought Judy Kaye was great and I was surprised at how *full* the production sounded.

[Gingersnap2]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 12:23pm

I loved the revival. I saw it in February 2006 and wish I could have gone back a few more times. I'll admit Patti didn't click with me, though, and her diction wasn't great...at times, if I didn't know the lyrics already, I would have gotten a bit lost. I would have liked to have seen Judy Kaye in the role.

[binau]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 3:23pm

It's not like cerveris' voice was low enough either at times. And it's not like entire parts •Cough•Patti•Cough• have had their parts transposed either.

Esparza has publicly expressed interest playing sweeney too so it's not like this idea is coming out of nowhere.

But since this production has genuinely seemed to influence many people/fans etc. I don't 'really' wish it never existed and the point about "company" was a good one.

(iphone - excuse grammar)

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 4:20pm

I saw the equity tour and the non-equity one. And strangely enough I preferred the non-equity. The person who played Sweeney on the equity tour (who I can't recall at the moment) was not very good IMO.

*Edited for grammar and to make more understandable* Updated On: 1/7/09 at 04:20 PM

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 4:36pm

You didn't like the Sweeney on the Equity or Non-Equity tour? I caught David Garry in Boston and then David Hess in Denver. I thought Garry, the understudy, was light years better than Hess. Updated On: 1/7/09 at 04:36 PM

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 4:59pm

I love me some Raul Esparza. But I just don't see him as Sweeney, especially after Michael Cerveris. Raul is my favorite actor, and I TOTALLY get him wanting to play the role, but maybe he should just let this one be.
HOWEVER, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see him sing "A Little Priest". That would be bangin.

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 5:42pm

I miss the revival because I never saw it. I just got the cast recording this Christmas, and I like it so much more than my OBC, despite the fact that I think Len Cariou is worlds better than Michael Cerveris (not that Michael Cerveris is bad at all; I like him as well, although he sometimes sounds a bit too weepy).

[laura is broadway]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 5:46pm

I did not like the Sweeney on the Equity tour.
I did like him on the non-equity tour.
and of course I did like Michael Cerveris.

[Kad]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 8:00pm

I did not love the Equity tour. I thought Judy Kaye was good, but I was underwhelmed by everyone else. Keith Buterbaugh's Turpin was very unintimidating. I understand the "Kennedy-esque" approach was going for, but it just didn't work. I even thought the holdovers from the Broadway production were phoning it in, and at times I felt that Benjamin Magnuson and Lauren Molina were very over the top. I was very disappointed.

However, I thought Benjamin Eakley at the Beadle was the highlight of the show, despite the relative smallness of the role. A very different approach that really worked.

The revival was the second show I ever saw on Broadway, and I loved it so much. So perhaps I was biased. But others that saw the tour with me and had seen the Broadway production seemed to concur with me.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 8:23pm

I miss it too. I wish I would have seen it more than once.

I liked it quite a lot although I was in the minority in finding COMPANY to be an all around more pleasing experience from the Doyle cannon.

Seeing his SWEENEY though was an experience I'll never forget. And Cerveris and LuPone were just stunning, brilliant, and mesmerizing. Oh, yeah, and Felciano deserved that Tony!

[sally1112]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 8:28pm

At least once a week I think how lucky I was to see this show second row center on Broadway, and how unlucky I am that I only got to see it once.
Such a great production. One of the most amazing nites of theater I have ever experienced in my life.

(The earlier poster who mentioned Miss LuPone playing the tuba..words can't explain the joy seeing/hearing that brought me.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 8:32pm

It's always interesting for me to hear people who were familiar with Sweeney when they saw the Doyle production say things like, "but I felt like if I hadn't known it, I would be lost." I was so, so lost the first time I saw it. I didn't know the show at all, and I just felt really overwhelmed; I didn't know what to look at or who to watch, and I missed a lot of the little details that you really need to pick up. I didn't dislike it, though; I was totally intrigued by it. I didn't fully understand what Doyle was doing, but I knew that whatever it was, it was remarkable. I saw it again a few days after I got back from seeing Company. That time (by this point I was familiar with the score, and had seen Doyle's work in another context), I completely got -- and loved -- it. I firmly, firmly believe that he is one of the best things to happen to American musical theater in... at least the past ten years.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 8:43pm

Having the performers randomly wander around the stage when they weren't in a scene was the only major misstep.

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 8:48pm

Considering that they're supposed to be patients/workers at an asylum, it wouldn't make sense for them to be stationary either.

The thing I started to notice after a few viewings was the subtle highlighting of the different props on the back wall above the piano during various scenes.

[SweeneyPhanatic]

Posted: 1/7/09 at 10:13pm

I saw the Equity tour when it stopped in Atlanta this past June. Loved it! I even managed to meet 9/10 of the cast at the stage door. The non-Equity tour will be in Savannah, GA, for one night in February; I think I feel a road-trip coming on...