Sweeny Todd Debacle

I'm sorry - don't lay into me! I think it's VERY important! I replied to a Sweeny Todd post... and now I'm worried that it won't be seen! It should be seen by EVERYONE! EVERY person on this board should be FIRED UP! If we let this happen to the Sweeny Todd film - then it will happen to a LOT of musicals transfered to film! Tim Burton thinks (and clearly the studio backs him up) that he can just totally RE-THINK Sweeny Todd! Do you think that's okay? I'm hearing (nothing factual, mind you) that the film is only 90 minutes and has LOTS of dialogue. I've never SEEN Sweeny Todd on STAGE, but from what I've HEARD - on stage it is about 2 3/4 hours and has very LITTLE dialogue!
Straighten me out if you can. I think it's the beginning of the end. Musicals on stage turned into something QUITE less once they reach the BIG SCREEN! I'm a Tim Burton fan, but he's about to piss me off big time with his take on Sweeny Todd. What are you thinking about it all? I'm VERY curious.
ORIGINAL POST:
What are we even TALKING about here? I've already heard that the FILM is 90 minutes or so (CLEARLY cut WAY back from the original 2 3/4 hour of the play). I hope I'm WRONG - but this MAY be the case in which we have to REJECT what the "studio" is willing to GIVE us! Let's not just give them the "okay" to take a great musical and turn into something "amazingly visual", while they CUT OUT a LOT of the music! Please JOIN ME in REFUSING that film musicals (based on Broadway versions) need to be cut-down and mainstreamed for some kind of IDIOT audience that the studios apparantly feel is TOO musical (Sweeney Todd is almost ALL music). OMG - I SWEAR to God - if they start making musical plays into films that (regardless of how elaboratly filmed) are cutting out the MUSIC part of it - I'm so TOTALLY out of here! They ALREADY cut out songs, no doubt - just look at some of the past ones. Are you guys seriously going to sit here and let this happen? I don't even know where to start voicing my complaints! Sweeny Todd is pretty much finished - so I guess there's nothing we can do about it! I'll ask those who have SEEN the show on STAGE... HOW, exactly do you feel about a MOVIE version that is CLAIMING to be BASED on the MUSICAL.... yet, reduces the screen time by about an hour (maybe more), and turns a LOT of the originally SUNG dialogue into SPOKEN dialogue? DAMNIT!
What are we even TALKING about here? I've already heard that the FILM is 90 minutes or so (CLEARLY cut WAY back from the original 2 3/4 hour of the play). I hope I'm WRONG - but this MAY be the case in which we have to REJECT what the "studio" is willing to GIVE us! Let's not just give them the "okay" to take a great musical and turn into something "amazingly visual", while they CUT OUT a LOT of the music! Please JOIN ME in REFUSING that film musicals (based on Broadway versions) need to be cut-down and mainstreamed for some kind of IDIOT audience that the studios apparantly feel is TOO musical (Sweeney Todd is almost ALL music). OMG - I SWEAR to God - if they start making musical plays into films that (regardless of how elaboratly filmed) are cutting out the MUSIC part of it - I'm so TOTALLY out of here! They ALREADY cut out songs, no doubt - just look at some of the past ones. Are you guys seriously going to sit here and let this happen? I don't even know where to start voicing my complaints! Sweeny Todd is pretty much finished - so I guess there's nothing we can do about it! I'll ask those who have SEEN the show on STAGE... HOW, exactly do you feel about a MOVIE version that is CLAIMING to be BASED on the MUSICAL.... yet, reduces the screen time by about an hour (maybe more), and turns a LOT of the originally SUNG dialogue into SPOKEN dialogue? DAMNIT!

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Your typing style makes it VERY hard to read or comprehend anything you're attempting to say.

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I, for one, appreciate your passion. But of course the film has yet to be seen so, you may be pleasantly surprised. In the mean time, maybe filmakers (studios) will realize that many of the shows-to-films trying to remove much of the score and speak lyrics that were originally sung are less successful critically as well as at the box office, as opposed to perhaps something like Hairspray (which unapologetically opened with song and stuck to the accepted traditions of musicals throughout). Sooner or later they'll probably get the message that trusting the audience isn't so risky.
peronista, up far too late...

"...but really this film was never made for die hard fans and anyone who thinks it is, is deluding themselves"

Well then that just SUCKS! I'm not a Die-Hard fan - but I'd like to SEE for myself what it it "was/is" all about! I think that BOTH film versions of RENT and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA gave movie audiences EXACTLY what the stage versions were about. They pretty much STUCK TO THE SCRIPT! For God's sake - at least let ME make the decision! I guess it's just too "risky" anymore (God forbid should we let some teenage BOY be dissapointed!) I'm not far FROM a teenage boy. Dear Lord - PLEASE let me see FAITHFUL movie versions of Broadway musicals!

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It's HARD to read what YOU'RE talking about WHEN you randomly capitalize STUFF and don't do paragraph BREAKS.

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Lizzie just throws up if you tickle her.



And she has great aim.

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I'm hearing (nothing factual, mind you) that the film is only 90 minutes and has LOTS of dialogue. I've never SEEN Sweeny Todd on STAGE, but from what I've HEARD - on stage it is about 2 3/4 hours and has very LITTLE dialogue!

Wait. You have NEVER seen the show??? It has been taped on stage and that is out on DVD. RENT IT! It runs 147 minutes (including credits.) And it is about 75% sung. There is a lot of spoken dialogue in it as well.

As for rumors of the running time, we won't know for sure until it gets released by the estimate as that it would be 1:45. So yes, that will be about 35-40 minutes shorter than the stage show but film is a different medium and can communicate more visually. Even the best film versions of stage musicals (WEST SIDE STORY, SOUND OF MUSIC, PAJAMA GAME) did make changes to the source material.


Musicals on stage turned into something QUITE less once they reach the BIG SCREEN!

Hello? Hollywood has been doing this for years. In the early 1930s they would buy a hit musicals (GOOD NEWS, ANYTHING GOES) junk most of the score, replace with new songs by studio hacks, and rewrite the stories.

It wasn't until the 1950s that we started getting reasonably faithful screen adaptations. By the 1960s many film were so slavishly faithful that they seemed embalmed.

Want an example where a film completely reconceptualized a stage piece and made it into something even better? Look at the film version of CABARET. It's NOT the CABERET we see on stage but as a film it's brilliant.

Wait until the film comes out and then do your rant. Oh, and be sure of your facts before you do.

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Your post is too long and to be honest I can't be bothered to read it.

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The Washington Post is reporting this morning that the film is now 160 minutes.

"I think that BOTH film versions of RENT and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA gave movie audiences EXACTLY what the stage versions were about. They pretty much STUCK TO THE SCRIPT!"

I've been a die-hard Phantom fan since I was twelve, and I was appalled by the monstrocity they produced. The Phantom and Raul got in a sword fight... enough said.

I would say, don't start getting freaked out until you see it. And if you're worried about ruining it for yourself, perhaps you should take advantage of the numerous resources out there and watch a performance (George Hearn and Angela Lansbury, George Hearn and Patti Lupone- although it's a concert version with some staging), then go see the movie. I know it's easy to get freaked out, but I can't really understand why you would be so upset if you've never seen the show, and you have admittedly not made any effort to see any version (live or not) of the show... Do your homework, THEN give an opinion...

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The film runs a little under two hours, last I heard.

Frogsfan is correct with his time approximations.

The stage version runs 2:30, with intermission. Cut out those 15 minutes, and it's down at 2:15. Cut out bows, etc, 2:10. Most of the songs are there, though shortened. About two or three, I've heard, are completely excessed. Round it out. 2 hours, maybe 1:50.


I don't understand the point of the first post. Hmm.

Let's have a bit of comparison:

CABARET, a brilliant movie, is very different from the stage musical, in fact, an entire plot line is gone.

RENT and PHANTOM, both stayed "close" to the original and sucked (and RENT, at least, did pretty poorly at the box office).

Which would you prefer?

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**Tim Burton thinks (and clearly the studio backs him up) that he can just totally RE-THINK Sweeny Todd!**

Just like Rob Marshal and Bob Fosse did with Chicago and Cabaret. It is possible to re-conceptualize a show and produce a brilliant film adaptation. So just because some songs may be cut or the running times shorter, there’s no reason to fear that the show has been butchered. There’s no way to judge Tim Burton interpretation aside from seeing the finished product.