Sweeney Todd-10/26/2005

twogaab2, opinions are never wrong!! (unless your opinion is something like "I can eat car engines for breakfast")

Personally, I saw the show on Oct 15 and it was my first Sweeney, and I was not bored or confused at all. In fact I was very much into it.

Loved the actors playing the score!

=0) just my opinion...

I think people...ok...I won't talk for 'people', I'll only talk for myself...I think I focus on the 'concept' because it's the 'concept' that gets in the way of my enjoyment of the piece.

The actor-musician conceit is something I have only a small problem with (even though I missed the 'Yums' in 'God, That's Good' in a big way). As has been discussed, the idea is that the instrument is the extension of the character. Rarely did I feel that worked in any sort of meaningful way. It didn't deepen my understanding of any of the characters or the story. It did, deepen my appreciation of the performers which, in the end, is detrimental. In my opinion, one shouldn't leave SWEENEY TODD saying, 'Wow...what a talented cast.' One should leave it disturbed by it's unflinching exploration of the dark heart of human nature. Barring that, one should leave at least thrilled by the gory revenge story presented. I felt neither of those things. The cast is remarkable. No doubt. But my biggest problem with the piece was with the staging and the cuts made to it.

Toby's role seems much less a presence in this version of the story. When he sings 'Not While I'm Around', the impact is lessened because the scenes that established Mrs. Lovett's affection toward him have been removed.

The staging was even more problematic. Because the pantomime that took place during 'Poor Thing' was gone, we are robbed of two things. One is that we don't know who Johanna is when she starts singing 'Green Finch...' (the removal of the Bird Seller scene doesn't help in that regard, either). Two is that the audience is never clued in as to who the the Beggar Woman really is just before she's killed. It completely robs that murder (Sweeney's tragic deed for which he must die) of it's importance in the show. The pouring of the blood to signify the murders was actually quite fun. But that and, even more damagingly, the presentation of the blood-splattered lab coats long before the actual murder takes place, removes any of the suspense from the murders. I also felt the tiny white coffin was a terribly muddled metaphor. It replaced the chair, which does not, in effect, represent innocence or his love for his family or any such thing. It looked cool, but didn't really carry enough meaning to warrant the change.

When all is said and done, I'm very happy I saw this production. The cast is terrific and it made me appreciate the tightness of construction. But, I feel it wasn't really SWEENEY TODD I saw.

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Updated On: 10/27/05 at 11:33 AM

But how many times can I use the phrase 'in the end'???

I need to fix that!

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The actor playing Toby has a big presence, but the actual character of Toby doesn't have a whole hell of a lot to do in this particular telling. The relationship between he and Lovett (his central relationship in the show) is merely sketched in, making 'Not While I'm Around' beautifully sung and nothing more.

Your explanation of the little white coffin still doesn't make it seem any more meaningful to me. Todd has already experienced loss of a profound kind within the first 30 minutes of the show. So introducing it as his barber chair in Act 2 seems...well...odd. To go with 'loss of a child' seems odd as well. He hasn't lost her, actually. For much of the second act, he believes that he will be reunited with her. The coffin is a cool prop, but not a great metaphor.

As for the lab coats, I'm not opposed to them (though the blood on them was a bit more 'Candy Apple Red' than blood colored). My problem was with how the lab coats were placed long moments before a character is actually killed. It takes the suspense out of the moment.

In general, I don't have a problem with the 'concept' as much as I have a problem with the execution of said concept.

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Another note about the little white coffin: when he gets his new "chair" he doesn't in fact think he will see Johanna again. He knows shes not dead but the Judge has said he was going to hide her away near the end of act one. In Sweeney's version of Johanna, act two, he sings about how he fears they "will never meet again" and "goodbye johanna", etc. So it is about the loss. And even though she is not a child now, she was the last time he saw her, so she will always be the child in his mind now. Also, as I said, as the show continues through the act the chair looses some of that symbolism as he cares less and less for his love and becomes obsessed with the madness of it all.

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I agree about the final "Ballad of Sweeney Todd". It took away from the eerie-ness of the ending to have Tobias bound up as he was at the beginning of the show, and then unbound again to sing the final song.

i dissagree. If it ended with just toby in the chair, then it would have been less of a a musical. besides it's way too sad it they did it that way. with the last ballad of sweeney todd it gives it that last bit of musical "omf!" you know what I mean?

then it would have been less of a a musical. besides it's way too sad it they did it that way.

Do you mind explaining that a little bit further? Sure, it would be sad, but I'm not sure that's a reason not to do it.

The idea of the orchestra decreasing as the characters are killed is SO intriguing, and would have made the end so haunting. Now I'm curious to see how/if that would have worked!

'it was very unclear what the Beadle's role was'

This was also addressed in the original staging's pantomime during 'Poor Thing'. The actress playing Johanna was actually playing Lucy, Todd's wife, in it. She mimed opening a window and cradeling a baby. Then the Judge and Beadle appeared, conspiring how to 'get' her. The re-enact the story of the song up to and including the part where the Judge rapes Lucy.

So those characters are fully set up. Now...you don't have to do the pantomime, but it's a pretty flawless idea...one that leads directly to the end of the show. The Beggar Woman ends up in Todd's parlor and re-enacts all the movements that Johanna/Lucy did earlier. It is then that you realize The Beggar Woman is Lucy. And it's why Todd murdering her is so upsetting.

As for the final Ballad of Sweeney Todd, it seems that what the production was aiming for was a very disturbing telling. Leaving the audience with the final image of Toby strapped to a chair in silence would have been perfect. It works on several levels. First, it's a disturbing image by itself. Then you have an audience of people waiting for that final musical number to remind them that it's all just a story...and that number never arrives. It's jarring and upsetting...and, it seems, perfectly in keeping with the spirit of this production.

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I would actually not discourage anyone from seeing this show. Though I felt it didn't actually work, it contained some interesting ideas and 9 fantastic performers.

I was in the back of the mezzanine and saw everything just fine.

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Remember the $36 tickets, they are definately worth it and not bad at all.

See the show decide for yourself, it seems to be a total crapshoot between really love it, or have serious reservations. (I happen to be in the 'love it' camp.)

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See...but that, I believe is the problem. For this concept to really work, we need to actually buy the fact that these are people in an asylum acting out a story...OR we need to believe that these are Toby's thoughts. It's also the problem with such known people like Patti Lupone, Michael Cerveris, Mark Jacoby and Donna Lynne Champlin being cast in the show. We can never fully give ourselves over to the concept. We, as an audience, are always aware that we are watching actors we've enjoyed for a very long time performing in a show. The biggest laugh of the night was Patti Lupone playing the tuba. Why? Not becuase it was Mrs. Lovett playing the tuba, but the woman who gave us Evita, Reno and Corky's mom. It exists on a meta level that just undercuts the concept.

If we're left with simply the image of this disturbed young man who has been through something traumatic (or not...perhaps it really is just all in his head) and must be put away, we are left in a very disturbed, unsettling (sp??) place. To break out of it (and character) to comment on everything we've seen and that Sweeney could be everywhere seems to go against what this production is trying to say. Perhaps it's not Sweeney who is everywhere, but Tobias, being driven by the things he has seen (or thinks he has seen). But we're not allowed to fully experience that. We pulled out of those feelings far too soon.

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