Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing

[MargoChanning]

Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#0

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:06pm

Even though Roundabout had already begun casting, apparently they never secured the rights. It'll be presented by commercial producers instead. I guess it's more likely now that the show will run longer than the usual 10 to 12 week limited engagement Roundabout typically employs (to avoid the costs of the Production Contract). Hopefully, it'll have a nice long run.

From Broadway.com:

" As we previously mentioned, the London production of Sweeney Todd, which recently ran at the West End's New Ambassadors Theatre, is indeed coming to Broadway next fall. However, instead of being presented by the non-profit Roundabout Theatre Company, the musical will have a commercial production at a theater to be announced.

Directed and designed by John Doyle, this production of Sweeney Todd ran at the New Ambassadors Theatre from October 13, 2004 to February 5, 2005, after a national tour and a run at the Whitehall Theatre. Matt Wolf of Variety said of the production: "The first thing to be said about director-designer John Doyle's simply thrilling new West End production--the venture began earlier this year at the tiny Watermill Theater in Newbury, west of London--is that it sounds, looks, indeed plays like no Sweeney you have ever seen before. It isn't just the scaled-down nature of the staging that's worthy of note: comparable Teeny Todds have been done before, on Broadway and elsewhere. But as socked across the footlights by a uniformly dazzling nine-person cast, all of whom pretty much play at least one instrument if not more, this Sweeney seems, to paraphrase the famous Sondheim lyric, 'to hear music that nobody's heard,' in the process turning a potentially over-familiar piece--at least in Britain--into something entirely fresh."

The Roundabout Theatre Company had been casting for its presentation of the tuner, but, the organization never secured the rights to present it in New York. The Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd will instead be produced by Steven Baruch, Thomas Viertel, Marc Routh, Richard Frankel, Ambassador Theatre Group, Adam Kenwright and Maidstone Productions.
http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Story.aspx?ci=508558

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

[Mother's Younger Brother]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#1

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:11pm

Already a thread on this here:

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.cfm?thread=842542&dt=031805115541

:)

[Mattio98]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#2

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:12pm

As thrilled as I am to have Sweeney back on Broadway, I'm a little wary about this production. I love innovative theatre but I guess that when it comes to Sweeney, I'm a little bit more of a purist. I'm also worried that if they revive Sweeney now with this type of production, we might NEVER get to see people such as Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bernadette Peters, Patti LuPone, et al do this show on Broadway. Just out of curiosity, what does Sondheim think of this production?

[Michael Bennett]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#3

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:35pm

He likes it well enough to approve it coming to Broadway...

[melissa errico fan]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#4

Posted: 3/18/05 at 4:37pm

I'm very happy that "Sweeney" is returning.

[La Vie Boheme]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#5

Posted: 3/18/05 at 5:04pm

I second that

Dirty Rotten Scoundrals Program: $10 Dirty Rotten Scoundrals Window Poster: $15 Winning the lottery with your friend: Priceless (+ $25) I<3NY

[BwayTheatre11]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#6

Posted: 3/18/05 at 5:27pm

Margo has the right to post something that has already been posted...even if it is by me, lol.

CCM '10!

[Gothampc]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#7

Posted: 3/18/05 at 5:35pm

Who's head is going to roll at Roundabout?

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

[HeyMrMusic]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#8

Posted: 3/18/05 at 5:55pm

I'm more than excited. I love Sweeney and the new concept sounds great. Hooray for fellow actor-musicians!

~Steven

[Katecab99]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#9

Posted: 3/18/05 at 6:16pm

So excited about this!! I've never seen Sweeney, and now I can't wait!

[HeyMrMusic]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#10

Posted: 3/18/05 at 6:24pm

You should watch the DVD of it! Fantastic!

~Steven

[StickToPriest]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#11

Posted: 3/18/05 at 6:26pm

As much as I think Studio 54 would have really suited it, the fact that it will now be an open-ended run makes me ecstatic.

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

[Michael Bennett]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#12

Posted: 3/18/05 at 6:45pm

Priest --

Studio 54 really would have been too big a venue for this production. The theatre it played at in the UK was tiny. It was incredibly intimate. The Euguene O'Neil is practically too large -- I wish it could go into the Broadhurst or the Music Box. Or even the Helen Hayes where it would sell out for months!

[zippyjen]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#13

Posted: 3/18/05 at 8:00pm

this is so exciting! I also think studio 54 would have suited the show but what can you do?

"At the opening night party, they had clowns on stilts, jugglers, a chocolate fountain, popcorn, hot dogs. [My son] looked at me like I had been holding back. Like, 'This is what you do?' I had to tell him, 'No, no, darling. Opening nights don't usually look like this.' It's usually a dark bar with a bottle of vodka." ?Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Jan Maxwell plus i proudly share the title of the shortest member over the age of 10 with wickedrentq!

[Theatreboy49]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#14

Posted: 3/18/05 at 9:45pm

I love the show to death but its to early for another revial, they did one in 1990 (but as long as I revive it one day I dont care lol) I hope they cast it well or it will suck.

<------ Me and my friends with patti Lupone at my friends afterparty for her concert with audra mcdonald during the summer of 2007.
"I am sorry but it is an unjust world and virtue is only triumphant in theatricle performances" The Mikado

[Unknown User]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#15

Posted: 3/18/05 at 10:00pm

Sweeney is my all time Favorite show. I recently played Tobias. I have been hoping for somtime that they would revie this show on broadway. However, this production makes me SICK.

The actors doubling as musicians works for musicals like Caberet, but what is the point of having the Sweeney cast as the orchestra other than for gimmick. It doesnt have anything to do with the plot. I have read several reviews, one, from the sondhiem review, and it said that the singing and score didnt sound too good.

ALSO there are nine principles in Sweeney. (Sweeney, Lovett, Tobias, Anthony, Johanna, Judge, Beadle, Begger Woman, and Pirelli), the cast of the london has...nine people. Sweeney kills many people in the show, during the song Johanna! HE CANT KILL PRINCIPLES? so who the hell does he KILL!?

To me it seems like the people responsible for this production are just trying to say " hey look at us, we are doing sweeney with only 9! PEOPLE AND AND AND AND !!!! they are the orchestra as well! so HA!"

[Michael Bennett]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#16

Posted: 3/18/05 at 10:24pm

You really just need to see the production theatreguy -- but it is a radical rethinking of the original show. And a BRILLIANT one at that.

SPOILER BELOW

The deaths are represented by blood being dropped from a white bucked from the top of a ladder into a coffin -- which is used in many different ways in the show -- as Anthony's boat - Sweeney's chair -- Lovett's counter -- etc. Its an extremely striking effect -- you dont miss seeing Sweeny actually cutting an ensemble person's throat at all...

Updated On: 3/18/05 at 10:24 PM

[Unknown User]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#17

Posted: 3/18/05 at 11:37pm

ok, but why!

why!

how does that add ANYTHING to the plot!

again it seems so "look at me! we're gunna be SYMBOLIC TOO!"

[Michael Bennett]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#18

Posted: 3/18/05 at 11:43pm

The whole thing takes place in an insane asylum. I guess they play their own instruments because the band couldn't get past the nurse at the front desk.

[Mattio98]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#19

Posted: 3/18/05 at 11:49pm

This sounds somewhat reminiscent of the recent "Rose Rage" at the Duke which was excellent. Are there more musicians or is it just the 9 actors? I can't see the score of Sweeney being played with only 9 instruments.

[Michael Bennett]

re: Sweeney Todd Confirmed for Broadway -- Roundabout NOT producing#20

Posted: 3/19/05 at 1:12am

There might have been a music director/piano player who was not in the cast but as I remember it -- it was nine people total.

The entire score has been reorchestrated though -- often to chilling effect (for example the piccalo solo in "Pretty Women" is played by Joanna.) Each character now has a musical instrument that is their "theme" and the way they chose to intrigate each instrument into each song is fascinating and revealing.