SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
#1SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 10:30am
Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton (good casting) in yet another UK revival of the Sondheim classic. Maybe this production will transfer back to Broadway with Bernadette Peters.
SWEENEY again
bwayguy22089
Broadway Star Joined: 12/16/06
#2re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 11:23am
I know she was the original Dorothy in the RSC production of The Wizard of Oz. I just can't picture it though lol. I think she is a great actress though (from other things I have seen) 
#2re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 12:09pmWell she was definitely a little long in the ruby slippers for the role even when she first played it. She is wonderful though.
#3re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 12:13pmImelda Staunton has been my dream Mrs. Lovett for years. This may call for a trip to London.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#4re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 12:36pmCompletely agree with you about Staunton - but Bell is a little too hammy for my taste. Is Bryn Terfel available? Opera commitments be damned!
#5re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 12:40pmStaunton is an Oscar-nominated actress after all, and she was in the London original cast of INTO THE WOODS, so I imagine she'd be just wonderful in the part, it truly fits her very well. I'd love to be able to see her in the part. Ball on the other hand...
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#6re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 12:49pmTerfel's Sweeney is peerless (vocally, at least) right now, but this production will fall around the time he's scheduled to do the new Ring Cycle in New York. That is, if he doesn't cancel. Ball wouldn't be my first choice (plus, isn't he a tenor), but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#7re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 12:49pmLondon gets so many revivals of NIGHT MUSIC and SWEENEY.
#8re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 1:06pmYou ain't kiddin'! This will be the sixth major production of SWEENEY TODD in London since 1980, the 4th since 2000. This of course doesn't include the original Christopher Bond play which has also had numerous revivals.
#9re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 1:14pmI'd rather it transfer with Imelda Staunton reprising as Mrs. Lovett. She's brilliant.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
sondhead
Broadway Star Joined: 10/25/06
#10re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 1:16pmUpdated On: 11/12/09 at 01:16 PM
#11re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 1:34pm
"Terfel's Sweeney is peerless (vocally, at least) right now, but this production will fall around the time he's scheduled to do the new Ring Cycle in New York. That is, if he doesn't cancel."
The new Lepage Ring will not be performaned in full until the 2012-2013 season. Terfel will be doing Das Rheingold in the fall of 2010, but the spring 2011 performances will likely consist of a "B-cast." Terfel has worked with Kent before in opera, and he has stated he wants to return to Sweeney, but I doubt the producers could afford him for a full scale revival.
...one can dream.
#12re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 1:38pm
I can't WAIT for Terfel's RINGS.
I hope they get George Tsypin and Eiko Ishioka to do the sets and costumes. Have they worked with Lepage before? They did my favorite RINGS, and I don't think it has been matched as far as pure visual splendor. At least none available on DVD.
P
#13re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 1:38pmI'm not so sure its a question of affording as it is taking even three months for an extended run. I'm sure Terfel's schedule is pretty booked already for 2011. Thats not far out in the opera world.
#14re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 1:49pm
"Im sure Terfel's schedule is pretty booked already for 2011. Thats not far out in the opera world."
Indeed, 2011 is surely booked in full. However, he has a habit of dropping an entire season of performances on a whim and without explanation (see: 2007-2008 season). Though I'm hopeful and excited that he'll actually appear for his four performance run of Tosca at the Met this season, I'm not betting the farm. If he wanted to do Sweeney, he would and could. Damn I hope Bell get's a TV offer and is forced to withdrawal!
Oh, I just noticed that "Epiphany" will be on Terfel's new recording (Anne Sofie von Otter as Mrs. Lovett). That's exciting.
Updated On: 11/6/09 at 01:49 PM
#15re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 1:51pmAnne Sofie Von Otter as Mrs. Lovett would be some really, really inspired casting. Love her.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#16re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 2:27pm
"This will be the sixth major production of SWEENEY TODD in London since 1980, the 4th since 2000."
I'm trying to think what the 4 since 2000 are?
There was the Doyle production and the Royal Opera House production. There was also the Bridewell but I wouldn't have called that a major production and the Bryn Terfel production at the Royal Festival Hall was a concert really.
None of those were open ended commercial runs in the way that this production sounds as though it will be.
And if we count on the same basis I can think of five productions in New York since 1979, so it's not like New York is suffering major Sweeney deprivation.
Updated On: 11/6/09 at 02:27 PM
#17re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 4:16pm
{
Oh, I just noticed that "Epiphany" will be on Terfel's new recording (Anne Sofie von Otter as Mrs. Lovett). That's exciting."
Apparently it's out
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sweeney-Todd-Epiphany/dp/B002TC75AA
Buying off iTunes now.
RE: The revival. What's strange is I posted on the west end forum a few months ago about a revival with Michael Ball that was posted on wikipedia randomly..everyone assumed it was just randomly/falsely added. I'm surprised it has come out to be true.
When my goodbye post was removed: “but I had a great dramatic finish!!!!”
Updated On: 11/6/09 at 04:16 PM
#18re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 4:57pm
According to Terfel's cite: still a go!
http://www2.deutschegrammophon.com/html/special/terfel-badboys/sites/tracklist.html
also
http://www2.deutschegrammophon.com/cat/4778091
Maybe in the import edition? Also, I thought it wasn't available until Nov 17?
#19re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 5:06pm
I don't know..It's out somewhere...I've already bought the track on iTunes and listened to it. It's definitely out.
The Amazon release date for the album was November 2nd.
When my goodbye post was removed: “but I had a great dramatic finish!!!!”
#20re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/6/09 at 8:12pm
Oh, WOOOOW. I am thrilled about the idea of Imelda Staunton playing Mrs. Lovett. I think she's brilliant (and I agree with the poster who said to watch her in Harry Potter... she was brilliant in that).
Now, that said, I love Michael Ball to bits, much more than anyone ever should, but I really can't imagine him playing Sweeney. Maybe he might surprise me and blow me away, but I just can't see him doing a role so scary and angry. I'm sure he'll sound beautiful, though. I was really just saying not two hours ago that I hope he never plays Sweeney Todd, but I'm still really excited that he'll be back on the West End. I thought he'd be Edna Turnblad and nothing else for the rest of his career.
In my pants, she has burst like the music of angels, the light of the sun! --Marius Pantsmercy
#21re: SWEENEY TODD to get 97th London revival --
Posted: 11/7/09 at 11:27amPraying for this to transer. Imelda Staunton is an ideal Mrs. Lovett. I honestly cannot think of one person I would rather see do the part.
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