So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Leadingplayer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/12/03
#2So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 3:30am
Really?
(edit: Oh I didn't realise it was "mr" not "mrs" ::P))
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 9/5/12 at 03:30 AM
Leadingplayer
Broadway Star Joined: 5/12/03
#3So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 4:53am
I don't believe we are told in the Sondheim musical. There are various plays, films and even a ballet based on the story and I don't know them all.
If there was a Mr. Lovett, he probably died, since life expectancy at the time was something around 40. Since Mrs. Lovett is usually played by a woman over that age, she may be expected to have outlived her husband.
Another possibility is that Mrs. Lovett was never married and simply adopted the title "Mrs." at some point for the sake of respectability. Frequenting an establishment run by a never-married woman may have been frowned upon in Victorian England.
#4So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 5:20amMr Lovett's name is given as "Albert" in the musical. Since he had gout, it is safe to assume he probably had something like diabetes and died at the usual age for men in those times.
#5So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 7:03amAnd what with the price of funerals what they are, perhaps he was the original meat pie.
....but the world goes 'round
NoHSMisNotAMusical
Stand-by Joined: 10/21/11
#6So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 7:08amAccording to the god-awful Tim Burton movie, his name is Albert and he died. But I don't count that as canon.
#7So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 9:34amFor some reason I always imagined Mr. Lovett was enough older than Mrs. Lovett, but I don't know why I thought that. Maybe Mrs. Lovett seemed like she'd been a widow for an extended period of time and never got the love and sexual satisfaction she had wanted.
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
#8So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 9:42amRead the script, don't just listen to the recording; after the Judge's "Johanna," Mrs. Lovett brings Sweeney a chair, saying "It's not much of a chair, but it'll do till you get your fancy new one. It was me poor Albert's chair, it was. Sat in it all day long he did, after his leg give out from the dropsy."
#9So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 9:44am
I figured she was a widow, since she owned a pie shop, and (correct me if I'm wrong), but it was not common for women to own their own businesses back then, especially single women. Remember, they couldn't even vote, and I'm not sure what year they were legally allowed to own property of any kind. But in "Jane Austen's era" just a couple of decades before this story, they couldn't own property.
I might buy the unmarried title of "Mrs." if she had been in service prior to this story, but that title is usually reserved for housekeepers and cooks, and it's pretty clear that "Mrs." Lovett isn't good at either housekeeping or cooking.
And don't forget the original story and character were set in the 1700s when women definitely couldn't own property or run businesses on their own. She would have had to be a widow without any male relatives to inherit her husband's "estate."
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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#10So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 10:01am
"According to the god-awful Tim Burton movie, his name is Albert and he died. But I don't count that as canon."
Everything I said is supported by the musical libretto.
#11So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 10:19amI kind of like the idea of Mrs. Lovett being a failed housekeeper or cook. Sort of Mrs. Patmore's evil twin.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#12So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 10:32amShe'd be Mrs. Hughes' worst nightmare, that's for sure.
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
#13So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:03pmIn the Tim Burton film there is a very prominent photo of Mr. and Mrs. Lovett in her parlour, and she has a line describing how he "gorged himself to bloatation." I think it's pretty clear what she means.
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NoHSMisNotAMusical
Stand-by Joined: 10/21/11
#14So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:08pmClapYo'Hands- Is it? I'm sorry. I haven't reread the libretto in a bit and I don't believe the 1982 tour video has any lines to that effect.
#15So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:08pmSo does anyone think there were ever any little Lovetts?
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#16So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:15pm
Hmmm ... could be.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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Wynbish
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/27/12
#18So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:22pmStay away from her meat pies.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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#19So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:24pmYes, for whatever reason, the line is dropped from the 82 tour video.
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beaemma
Featured Actor Joined: 11/24/09
#20So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:34pmI don't remember the line being said on Broadway either, but it is in the first hardback edition of the script.
#21So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:47pmI wonder why it was dropped. It takes all of 2 seconds to say it and gives her a backstory that is otherwise nonexistent.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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#22So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:51pm
Just because.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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#23So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:55pmI feel like in the Sweeney Todd Burton film there was a tiny scene where it showed a picture of a very overweight Mr. Lovett beside Mrs. Lovett and she says soemthing about how he "gorged himself to bloatation."
#24So whatever happened to Mr. Lovett?
Posted: 9/5/12 at 12:57pm
Not to be too snarky, but perhaps if you read this thread first, you'd feel even more like it.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
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Updated On: 9/5/12 at 12:57 PM
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