Sweeney Todd - Tony's in its future?? (And reviews!)- Page 2

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 7:17pm

P.S. Baby coffin = his struggle with his daughter. I think there have been vaguer metaphors.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 7:53pm

God, where are all these reviews??

[MoonOnAstring]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 7:57pm

I guess the majority of them will be in tomorrow's papers. I'm so anxious...

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 7:58pm

The show hasn't even started yet, so I doubt they'd be realeasing all their reviews just yet. Oh, and I was just saying that it seemed like the preview period for Sweeny went by really quick, not saying it actually was. I just didn't expect it to open so soon, but I've been out of it for a while now. I can't imagine what I'll be thicking when Tarzan goes through like 2 months of previews ha.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 8:04pm

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/theater/reviews/04swee.html

wow, he loved it Updated On: 11/3/05 at 08:04 PM

[MoonOnAstring]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 8:09pm

OMG! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I'm so happy. I was expecting a rave from him, but wow... not a single negative comment. Wow. This is good. Whew.

"The thrilling new revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," which opened last night at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in a production starring Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone, burrows into your thoughts with the poisoned seductiveness of a campfire storyteller who knows what really scares you. John Doyle, the show's ferociously inventive director and designer, has aimed his hypnotic interpretation of this 1979 musical at the masochistic child in everyone, the squirming tyke who wants to have his worst fears confirmed and dispelled in one breath."

Updated On: 11/3/05 at 08:09 PM

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 8:15pm

Hell f*ckin' yeah!

"Brace yourself. They're putting on one helluva show."

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 8:16pm

WOW.

That review will be enough to keep the box office going strong for a while (I hope).

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 8:27pm

"Cerveris is, in a word, magnificent."

Wow, I liked him, but never exected Ben to fall for him that drastically.

[MoonOnAstring]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 8:34pm

Me neither... but I am so happy he recognized Michael's spectacular performance.

[SingOutLoud928]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 8:44pm

I've seen it 2 times while it's been in previews and I have tickets for November 5th! Who's seen it yet? All I'm assuming. Miss LuPone is wonderous (as usual!) I'm just hoping it get's the credit it deserves!
Updated On: 11/3/05 at 08:44 PM

[Marguerite Chauvelin]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 8:56pm

I need to see this during my next New York trip. It sounds AMAZING. Also, its kind of funny the similarity in SingOutLoud's and MoonOnAString's avatars

[Isabella2]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:08pm

Oh my god.... I can't believe Matthew Murray! How could anyone be that stupid?? I mean for god sakes did his mother not love him or something?

I could tell from this review that the man walked into the show with negative thought about it. He just couldn't get believe that a producion like this could be good. I don't understand people like that. People who bash others mercilessly and without reason.
Updated On: 11/3/05 at 09:08 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:10pm

Has Murray liked ANYTHING?

[C is for Company]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:16pm

He makes it sound that when its set in a mental asylum, theyre actually acting this out in a mental asylum. His mention of them using razors and stuff makes it sound like its actually set there and acted out there. NO, it isnt, Toby IS there but the action doesnt take place there. What a fool, his review makes some sense in parts but otherwise so negative its grosser than the meat pies

[Isabella2]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:21pm

Also, the first time I saw Sweeney Todd was a month ago in this production, I didn't know any of the songs but understood EVERY WORD that the members were singing. Maybe he's just retarded.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:29pm

Thats one thing about this show that had improved immensely from the 79 production. I understood EVERY word. Patti, usually the queen of "what did she say" syndrome, was EXCELLENT with her speech.

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:32pm

Newsday.. Positive!

"None may have come closer to Sondheim's declared original impulse than the intimate, ghoulish, Brechtian vest-pocket edition that opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre last night. This one has just 10 performers instead of 27, and a black coffin for a centerpiece. The orchestra is provided by the actors, who play instruments onstage.

Is John Doyle's stripped-down, modern-dress production the only "Sweeney Todd" we need to see again in our lifetimes? Certainly not. Is it intensely musical, constantly surprising and bloody buckets of fun? Absolutely.

http://tinyurl.com/b5ccy

Updated On: 11/3/05 at 09:32 PM

[Isabella2]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:35pm

was she really like that? In what shows? I'm interested because i didn't know this about her.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:42pm

basically everything except evita and anything goes(sort of) that I have heard her in, she goes more for sound than actually shaping words into sounds. at least, thats how I've noticed it, I don't speak for others.

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:57pm

TheaterMania.. Very Positive

"How jaw-droppingly impressive is the 52-year-old Broadway newcomer's thorough re-thinking of the acclaimed piece? I don't have the space here to itemize the myriad particulars that go toward making this Sweeney Todd a new-fangled Broadway phenomenon. To do so, I'd need a chapter in a book, if not an entire show-biz tome. There, I could fully extol the chilling beauty of the well-nigh perfect Sondheim-Wheeler work and detail how director-designer Doyle has brought out every detail of it as if it were a drop of freshly spilled blood on a clean, white laboratory coat."

http://tinyurl.com/clrol

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 9:59pm

I'll do my best Margo impersonation.


TheaterMania is very positive

"Memorize this name: John Doyle. Now repeat it as a mantra while hurrying quick as the flash of a blade to the box-office of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where Doyle's production of the brilliant Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical Sweeney Todd is on view.
How jaw-droppingly impressive is the 52-year-old Broadway newcomer's thorough re-thinking of the acclaimed piece? I don't have the space here to itemize the myriad particulars that go toward making this Sweeney Todd a new-fangled Broadway phenomenon. To do so, I'd need a chapter in a book, if not an entire show-biz tome. There, I could fully extol the chilling beauty of the well-nigh perfect Sondheim-Wheeler work and detail how director-designer Doyle has brought out every detail of it as if it were a drop of freshly spilled blood on a clean, white laboratory coat.

Traditionally, there are two kinds of stage directors: those who skillfully draw out what's intrinsically valuable in a piece, and those who regard a play or musical as merely a foundation for layering on creative concepts. But Doyle can be placed squarely in neither of those categories; instead, he operates in both. With this Sweeney, he holds up the property up to be viewed in all its steely splendor -- much as the infuriated, homicidal Sweeney holds aloft his razors -- yet he has also reimagined the classic tuner according to his own unique vision.

----------------------------------------------------
Spectrally pristine in conception and execution, Sweeney Todd has only one drawback. The authors think that, within their lovingly gruesome tale, they've embedded a profound statement about man's inhumanity to man. But despite Wheeler's lacerating dialogue and the diabolical intricacies of Sondheim's lyrics and often underrated music, they're off the beam in claiming at the musical's finale that we're all akin to the title character. "To seek revenge may lead to hell, but every one does it and seldom as well as Sweeney," the cast trumpets while pointing into the auditorium. Truth is, not everyone does it -- seldom as well or not.

On the other hand, Doyle does what he does better than anyone else could possibly have done it, and has created one of Broadway's all-time best shows in the process.

By all means, attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. "





Review

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 10:07pm

Whoops didnt realize Tiny had it

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 10:12pm

Now I just have to get up to NYC to see it!!!!!!

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/3/05 at 10:12pm

I have a question, did they know how to play these intstruments beforehand or were they all taught? I mean, isn't that really hard, to learn to play the tuba in a couple weeks of rehearsal? Will all the upcoming understudies be taught stuff like this also? anyone seen pattie lupone's understudy yet?