Sweeney Todd - North American Tour - June Havoc- Page 2

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 8:21pm

Those are great links, Mike, thank you. And let's face it: Mrs. Lovett is a character come straight from the music hall. Nobody is going to underplay her. (I agree that Loudon is not overly broad in those links.)

[beaemma]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 8:32pm

I was taking graduate courses in Victorian literature when I first saw SWEENEY TODD, and Mrs. Lovett seemed to me to be a sort of Dickensian caricature. At the same time, I felt that Angela Lansbury made her a human being with real emotional depth. I'd say that none of the original performances were intended to be entirely naturalistic. The whole piece was very stylized. One of the things that impressed me the most about Lansbury, Cariou, and Hearn was the way they embraced the over-the-top elements, including the make-up and wigs, and also were able to convey very human and real emotional moments.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 8:46pm

I couldn't agree more, beauemma, and I saw the original with the original cast at least a dozen times.

When I said that Lansbury and much of the cast seemed too broad on the DVD, I only meant that they had allowed humorous moments to harden into schtick. It happens during long runs and could have been cleaned up with a rehearsal or two.

But on the whole, Lansbury's performance is, to me, the very heart of the play. Without her (see the film), it's just an operetta with a great score about a serial killer. With her, SWEENEY TODD becomes an indictment of capitalism run amok, whether or not Sondheim wants to admit it. To me, it's Lovett who makes the story more than just another slasher tale.

Updated On: 8/31/12 at 08:46 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 8:47pm

I certainly do get a sense of Dickens. You have the young (and let's face it, bland) young romance story, the social commentary (in this version), the different leves of caricature, etc. Like the beter Dickens books, the caricature still comes off as believable.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 9:04pm

I love Victor Garber as much as the next person and he was very good in the OBC. But he's not matinee-idol handsome. I thought Prince deliberately cast Antony and Joanna originally so that they would not become the focus of the action. They were skilled actors, but not pretty young things.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 9:11pm

I meant more as written, and the role was recast with Chris who was quite pretty back then. I just meant rather good natured, perhaps naive, perhaps bland the way Dickens' main romantic pair often are, compared with the broad caricatures and villains he surrounds them with (Little Dorritt is maybe the best example of that). You root for them, but if they weren't surrounded by everything else you'd probably want to smack them in the face...

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 8/31/12 at 9:23pm

Sorry, again, Eric. I absolutely agree with you re Dickens and his juveniles. I was just thinking aloud at how surprised I was when I first saw the show that more effort didn't go into making A&J "traditional looking ingenues". Of course, Garber sang the part divinely.

FWIW, I found Jocelyn's head voice particularly annoying. I liked her much better in A DOLL'S LIFE, where she belted most of the score. But she and Chris looked more like I expected those characters to look.

Updated On: 8/31/12 at 09:23 PM

[sparrman]

Posted: 9/1/12 at 1:00am

The Petty/Havoc tour was shuttered quickly and cancelled some engagements. I had tickets for it at the Orpheum in Memphis, but it was cancelled. I guess it just wasn't selling?

I heard Sondheim speak in 1984, and he addressed altering the score somewhat for the first Sweeneys. I can't recall if he referred to Cariou as "not a terribly accurate singer", or if he just said Hearn was "a more accurate singer". But it was something like that.

When Cariou sings the F on "joy" at the end of Epiphany, it's against a very discordant chord; I'm guessing this is so that any note he might sing would still sound okay. But Hearn hits the F and the Bb major chord comes in underneath it, I suppose because they knew he could reliably hit it.

Updated On: 9/1/12 at 01:00 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/1/12 at 1:07am

I do remember noting the chord difference. I think I prefer the dissonant one :P (But that probably says as much about which recording I play more). Thanks for the details!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/1/12 at 11:17pm

Thanks for the explanation, sparrman.

[goldenboy]

Posted: 9/1/12 at 11:40pm

I am a big Louden fan. Went back to see her in Sweeney Todd.
She was awful. Shticky and big.
But George Hearn was a revelation as Sweeney.

Would have liked to have seened Baby June Havoc.

[beaemma]

Posted: 9/2/12 at 12:19am

I saw Dorothy Loudon just once, shortly after she took over the role. I'm sure she was still finding her way, but the biggest thing that struck me was how much slower she was than Lansbury. I'm referring to her movement. She had difficulty getting where she needed to be at the right moment. The orchestra had to vamp more than once until she got up those stairs, for example. It made me realize just how physically demanding the role was in that staging. I also thought Loudon, whose work I had always admired, tended to treat each scene or song as a separate bit, rather than part of a unified whole. That might well have improved over time, but I really felt the role was a difficult challenge for her. It made Lansbury's achievement seem all the more remarkable to me.

[Bialyhoos22]

Posted: 9/2/12 at 3:26am

Here's a press photo from that tour (available on eBay right now!)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Press-Photo-Ross-Petty-June-Havoc-in-Sweeney-Todd-/251140955075?pt=Art_Photo_Images&hash=item3a792adbc3#ht_3307wt_1165




Updated On: 9/2/12 at 03:26 AM

[Bialyhoos22]

Posted: 9/2/12 at 3:42am

Also found the tour poster (proving that the version on the Sondheim Guide is correct) VERY interesting (questionable?) marketing campaign as compared to the initial Broadway (and original tour) promo materials... I can't imagine this did much to sell tickets. Interestingly enough, it does very much feel like a traditional 'Panto' poster...