Lack of English accents in Sweeney Todd - WTF?- Page 5

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 12:10am

who cares

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 4:12am

I just got back from seeing a production of Macbeth.

Not one Scottish accent. And it was a brilliant production.

Made me think of the whiners in this thread.

[Kad]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 10:42am

But Diva, they're just having a discussion. Case closed.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 11:02am

I'm still trying to figure out why the generally wonderful revival of Sunday in the Park with George at the Roundabout a few years ago asked the cast to use varying English accents in Act One, where everyone (save for two characters) is French.

[Kad]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 11:03am

The London production used them to differentiate class more than anything else. I can't really remember the accents in the Studio 54 iteration

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 11:08am

I'll never forget the accents in 54, which ranged from sublime to Dick Van Dyke. And since class is far less a theme in Sunday than in Sweeney Todd, I really didn't understand the choice. It's not the like two British leads couldn't handle some sort of American accent, which they both did very well in Act Two.

But then again, I had no idea why everyone in NINE had to have Italian accents.

[Kad]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 11:10am

Clearly you weren't paying attention during "Be Italian".

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 11:11am

I paid attention enough to know that I shouldn't just hold you but hold *this*.

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 12:05pm

Because that way Daniel Evans and Jenna Russell wouldn't sound out of place. As we heard in act two, American accents aren't necessarily their strongest cards, so making the french characters English was something of a no brainer. Would it have been more distracting to have everyone but George and Dot be American? I don't know. But the solution they had worked.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 12:10pm

I didn't think it worked cause I thought the quality of English accents was...varying, let's say.

I would have had no problem with Evans and Russell using their natural accents, and the rest of the cast using theirs. I also didn't have much of a problem with their American accents. The accents I had a problem with were some of the British accents being employed by the American actors.

Same with Nine. Would have been fine is Banderas was the only one with an accent (as it is his natural accent). I don't even think Liliane LeFleur needs a French accent (think Josephine Baker).

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 12:39pm

I was listening to the OBC this morning and noticed that in "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" the women sing "Isn't it a crime they let these urchins clog the sidewalks?" instead of pavements. Struck me as very odd.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 12:48pm

I think audiences' preconceptions with accents (especially American audiences) is odd, when you think about it.

If anything is a period piece and set in any country other than the United States, they expect the actors to have (some form of) British accents. I don't know why that is. All those TV episodes of Masterpiece Theatre with bonnets and bustles probably had something to do with it.

But it can be in France, Germany, Japan, Timbuktu, or Sweden ... if it's a work in English, set in a period of at least 100 years ago, we want those accents!

I do remember people (even other actors I talked to) at the time, finding the noticeable American accents on all of the leads in the film version of "Amadeus" to be jarring. They thought they sounded so "ordinary," because they didn't trot out something British for that era ... even though the characters are Viennese, Austrian, Italian, German, etc.

[ChiChi]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 12:53pm

Robert Redford never uses accents. Yes I know, everyone, he wasn't in Sweeney Todd. Still, he doesn't use them.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

[Kad]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 1:38pm

Robbie- the reverse is true for the cast recording of the revival. Many of the British actors have pretty terrible American accents.


I once saw a London production of Beyond the Horizon where the accents ranged from Midwestern to Texarkana to mid-Atlantic... in an O'Neill drama.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 1:49pm

Hahahahah. Yes...I've heard some terrible 'American' accents in my time.

I think I would have been fine if the English actors used their natural accents in Act 2 (if I were watching the show on the West End). Both musicals I saw this past London trip were English-set, so I wonder what, say, the new Singin' in the Rain sounds like.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 2:03pm

Best12 is right. We (Americans) except almost all period/continental shows to use British accents. Really things like this are up to the director. The original Sunday didn't use them at all but the revival did for reasons of the leads, distinguish class, etc. I was thrown off in the Night Music revival when Bernadette/Elaine took over because Bernie attempted to sound continental while Strichie basically sounded like she was fron Yonkers or something.

If you remember in Venus in Fur Vonda switched into an accent whenever she slipped into character. It's just expected for an actor/the audience to hear a "classy/dignified" accent.

The Cate Blanchett Uncle Vanya took place in Russia but they all used their natural Aussie accents. At first it threw me, but then I realized I wouldn't have been thrown by say, Mary Louise Parker in Hedda Gabler not being Swedish.

And yeah, when I saw Singin' in the Rain in London this past spring I was laughing at how AWFUL their American acccents were. Lina was basically just making up funny noises and not even remotely trying to do a real (albeit exagerate and funny obviously) based American accent of some kind.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 2:21pm

^ Which is why, I think, if it's a show playing on the West End, why bother? Just use your natural accent. But...I guess Hollywood is so much a part of the show, you need to do it. And since Brit-set shows here are expected to use English accents, I guess we should demand the same of our British friends.

One thing that drives me NUTS, though, is on the recording of the National's LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (with Judy Dench), the words 'enchanting' and 'panting' do not rhyme because of the native accents employed. The words MUST RHYME!!!

[binau]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 5:47pm

[nvm]

Updated On: 8/25/12 at 05:47 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 6:09pm

If anything is a period piece and set in any country other than the United States, they expect the actors to have (some form of) British accents. I don't know why that is. All those TV episodes of Masterpiece Theatre with bonnets and bustles probably had something to do with it.

I agree it makes no logical sense, best12, but despite that little revolution over two centuries ago, Americans still hear upper-class English accents as "classical". Unless OEDIPUS is specifically set in Austin, we just don't expect Oedipus and Jocasta to sound like George and Laura Bush.

I doubt one hears a lot of cockney Creons on the West End either, but there I assume the director and actor are actually acknowledging the character's social class. In the U.S., I think it's just a matter of habit.

(The above is my totally unscientific theory. I have not conducted a poll.)

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 6:23pm

"One thing that drives me NUTS, though, is on the recording of the National's LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (with Judy Dench), the words 'enchanting' and 'panting' do not rhyme because of the native accents employed. The words MUST RHYME!!!"

Firstly, it's Judi Dench.

Secondly, if the lyrics don't rhyme, it's the fault of the lyricist, not the actor. Even if the lyricist happens to be the greatest in the world.

[binau]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 6:29pm

If two actors perform the same lyric and one can make it rhyme and the another can't, I'm perplexed why the 'blame' is on Sondheim here. Not that it really is the actors' fault anyway, but the director's or the vocal coach, or whoever is responsible for accents in the production....the lyrics were written to rhyme if they are said in a certain way.

[Broadwayhunk]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 6:34pm

So now it's considered "too hard" for actors to adopt the proper accent for the role? How sad that the acting profession has fallen to such depths. At least we still have Meryl Streep.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 6:39pm

Secondly, if the lyrics don't rhyme, it's the fault of the lyricist, not the actor. Even if the lyricist happens to be the greatest in the world.

Thirdly, "enchanting" and "panting," DO rhyme, unless you're using certain British dialects that mess it all up.

"Enchaahhhnting," and "panting?" Come on.

Let's don't blame the lyricist on this one, especially if you haven't looked at the lyrics in question.

Updated On: 8/24/12 at 06:39 PM

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 6:44pm

I'm afraid they don't rhyme in my accent. What I am saying is that Sondheim has changed lyrics before to suit different accents. The characters in the show would not say "enchanting" in such a twangy way. Unless you're writing Oklahoma, you need not be tied to dialects in lyric writing.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/24/12 at 6:49pm

Speaking of which, does anyone understand why in "proper" English accents some words take the broad A and some the flat? Obviously, the convention is different than it is in most American dialects, but is that all it is, convention?

For the life of me, I can't figure out a rule for when the English say "dahnce" and when they just say "dance". (I'm speaking of stage speech here, since that is most of my experience.)