Lack of English accents in Sweeney Todd - WTF?

Why didn't Len Cariou or George Hearn even ATTEMPT a London accent in the original production (and 2000 NY Phil Concert) of Sweeney Todd? I mean, to me Angela Lansbury was the only original cast member who really adopted an English accent! Even the ensemble is very American-ized on the original cast recording. I know Musical Theatre is very much the quintessential American art form, but Sweeney Todd, like My Fair Lady and Oliver!, is extremely English, and I would have thought that an appropriate accent would be fundamental when mounting such an English show.

I've always thought it works better when Todd doesn't have an accent. Maybe it's because I was brought up on Cariou and Hearn and I just got used to it that way.

Because Len Cariou is great. Case closed.

Actually, Alan Jay Lerner was American. Fritz Loewe was Austrian, but lived much of his life in America. Neither were English.

Lerner sometimes spoke with a faux-British accent because I think he fancied himself an Anglophile, which could have lead to your confusion.

Lansbury's accent isn't quite English. But it's not quite American. It's sort of Lansburyian.

Lansbury's accent is better. Everything the woman does is better than what most people do.

Angela has an accent, but I think for how long she has been in the U.S. it has become more New England. Perhaps that's why they made her New England for MURDER SHE WROTE.

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Cerveris used a british Accent.

I think Cariou and Hearn do more of a mid-atlantic LACK of accent as Sweeney than an american one (this is talking about the Original casts. On the concert video Hearn doesn't do an accent at all, but that's a concert an nobody does an accent except LuPone). You could argue that this relates him better to the audience. Actually the only people in the original production who did strong british accents were the cockney characters: Mrs. Lovett, Toby, the Beggar Woman, The Beadle (who clearly began low-class and climbed the social ladder). Everyone else adopted mid-atlantic pronunciation or very slight oxford accents. Edmund Lyndeck didn't use an accent at all. Victor Garber and Chris Groenendaal kind of did. I don't know why. Maybe Hal Prince felt that except for the really low-class characters, the accents would be distracting or unnecessary. English accents are harder than they seem, as Hollywood has proved so many times. I know that I consider my English Accent to be pretty good but it takes focus to maintain properly without going either too American or too regional (I usually slip into Yorkshire for some reason). I don't think it's necessary in Sweeney that strong accents be applied, except by Lovett and Toby. (My feelings on this may be suggested by having just seen a regional production of Sweeney where the accents were a real issue.)

Cariou is a classically trained actor. He probably can do an English accent.

Patti's was just dreadful, not that it bothered me. She didn't seem downmarket enough.

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It never really bothered me either, just like it doesn't bother me that Clark Gable doesn't use a southern accent in Gone With the Wind.

And let's not even talk about Dick Van Dyke's "regionally challenged" accent in Mary Poppins.

The strong personalities of these performers inhabit the roles. They own them, lock, stock, and barrel.

I remember being surprised by Depp's accent in the film version of Sweeney (not that he hasn't pulled that one out of his bag many times before), but I was so used to hearing this role without one. Funny how that works.

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I'd rather have the American actors sticking to American accents and being as utterly marvelous as Cariou and Hearn than spending all their mental energy trying to sound English and letting their acting suffer, which happens, IMO, to most performers who try to put on accents.

And the difference between Sweeney and My Fair Lady is that the latter is about accents. The former just happens to be set in England.