Sweeney Film... why cut the songs?

Sondheim and the other creators have explained why KISS ME was cut. It would've been so repetitive and silly on screen. Plus Logan/Burton didn't want Anthony and Johanna to verbally communicate until the end.

thanks... just wondering

but just saying... 4 out of the 20ish people in my theatre left to go to the bathroom during WAIT... it's just boring and doesnt further the plot much

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and for that i am grateful... I'm not saying I wish they were cut so much as I wish that Kiss Me had been saved over Wait and Ladies... I love EVERY song from this perfect score... just really miss Kiss Me and think the Anthony-Johanna thing is way underdeveloped for the people that haven't seen the stage show

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but this movie didn't have to be so dark... i think it would have been great if Tim Burton had made it into a deliciously dark comedy... I think a lot of it is funny but i could do with more...

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"Wait" adds everything to the plot. Without that song, Sweeney would have just killed Turpin from the moment he walked into his shop. The whole rest of the story/film happens because Lovett suggests that Todd take his time and relish in setting the trap.

Updated On: 12/23/07 at 08:53 PM

I would have prefered "Kiss Me" be included in place of "Wait". "Wait" is beautiful and it does add a little something to the plot, but it's also a little something that could be said in one line. I like it on stage, but the film would not have suffered without it.

Updated On: 12/23/07 at 08:58 PM

- but the film would not have suffered without it.



Just like the film does not suffer without KISS ME. The film is written so the two lovers don't verbally communicate until the end. There would have been no way KISS ME would have worked, without John Logan re-writing several aspects of his script.

I think KISS ME is a great duet, and I find the quartet to be one of the greatest written for stage. But I agree with Sondheim that it would look utterly stupid and silly in a film.

Updated On: 12/23/07 at 09:02 PM

Best:

I think that Burton and Logan were working on the contrast between youth and innocence versus adulthood and that innocence being gone.

And the musical, obviously, works in extremities. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett are so corrupted by life; it has turned them into evil people. On the otherhand, Johanna and Anthony have not yet really lived. They are innocent and naive, and they have this life all planned out together before they really know each other. But we see what has become of the people in this place once they leave their innocence behind, and I think it is ominous at best what will happen to Johanna and Anthony.

I think this is made clear at the very beginning of the film. Many have squabbled about the youth of Anthony, because he clearly is not old enough to have sailed the world and beheld its wonders. But I think that is the point entirely. He thinks he is wise and worldy, but he is young and foolish. And we learn this right when Sweeney steps in and interrupts Anthony singing about all his experience.

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Updated On: 12/23/07 at 09:16 PM

Actually, with that in mind, I would have liked it if Burton and Logan had added the scene where Judge Turpin proposes to Johanna, if anything just so that the two could have some more screen time together (their wonderful scene after "A Little Priest" was too brief for me).

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Thanks for the link!

Screenwriter John Logan’s greatest contribution is making Johanna substantially smarter than her stage counterpart. The elimination of “Kiss Me” helps, but Logan put a brain in this girl’s head – and not a moment too soon. Over the years, many haven’t been able to root for the Anthony-Johanna alliance, because she’s such a twit. Here we actually like her.

I agree with him. Logan gave Johanna much more of an edge in the film, and it works.

Johanna has a brain? How can we know that or anything about her when she speaks less than 20 words of dialogue in the whole film...and only sings for about a minute? If anything, I found her more a desperate, pretty porcelain doll than she usually is in the stage production.

As others have mentioned before, Kiss Me serves not only as a comic relief for the audience but is also very theaterically based. It would not work at all on film and sometimes even on stage comes across as over the top to some non regular theater goers/audience members. The song Wait is vital to the plot in numerous ways already mentioned by numerous posters. As ljay mentioned its also a beautifully constructed piece.

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