Attend the Tale Of Sweeney Todd
After at least ten years of patient waiting, I finally got to see the cinematic version of “Sweeney Todd.”
Before I discuss the movie, let me say that I think it’s one of the most genius pieces of musical theatre ever written — it is, after all, the musical Leonard Bernstein once admitted he was quite jealous he hadn’t composed himself — and I had the great privilege of playing the female lead, Mrs. Lovett, in a 1994 production (Good Lord, was it that long ago!?). I adore the score note for note, and I thought it would bother me a lot that neither of the film’s leads could sing and that so much of the score would be edited out for (I suppose) reasons of pacing and relevance. After all, a six minute song about baking people into meat pies, so charming and rolicking onstage, would just […]