Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1983)

Movie is much better.

Angela is fantastic as always. She made me laugh will her portrayal of Mrs. Lovett. The costumes are very nice. The set is the pits with one piece that men come out and turn 90 or 180 degrees for different scenes. There is a very annoying air horn they blow every 15 minutes, I guess to wake up the audience. The cast do their best with the material. However, as Stephen Sondheim always does, the songs go from beautiful to God-awful. What is the point of a "song" with NO melody and people singing lyrics very quickly and over each other so you can't understand any of the words? It doesn't move the plot along or explain to the audience what is going on in the characters' minds if no one understands what is being said or sung. This happens A LOT in the show. It just stops the show and I don't mean that in a good way. Pity. November 12, 2008

Excellent rendition of Sondheim's great masterpiece

It is a great privilege to be able to view this original incarnation of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (imagine if we were able to see the original productions of a Mozart opera?) This performance of a stage production with audience present is excellent - certainly demonstrating Angela Lansbury's wonderful abilities as a singing actress.

Sweeney Todd is one of the great masterpieces of musical theatre blurring the genres of the musical and opera. Those who find musicals shallow should enjoy this as it has a little more bite. Fans of opera should also relish this as in it complex musical structures it resembles an opera. Sweeney Todd is bursting with melody, rhythmic variety, clever lyrics, interesting characters, and is quite unlike just about every other musical theatre production in its macabre storyline.

It's fascinating to compare this to the recent Tim Burton film Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Both are excellent in their own way but are completely different. This is very much a filmed stage production whereas Burton converts it into a real film. Sadly Burton resorts to unnecessary graphic violence which throws the film off-balance whereas the stage production is more suggestive and consistent with the tragi-comic tone of the work.

The quality of the sound and picture is excellent. Sadly there are no extra on the DVD.

October 17, 2008

Simply, Superb !

I never imagined watching Mrs. Angela Lansbury in a musical like this. I love this actress and I think her performance is remarkable as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Tood. She would have enjoyed so much the new version in cinema. I recommend this DVD as a tribute to her. The story is amazing as well as in cinema but I think is very interesting to see all the technical aspects of a live-musical in a theater as if we were there. September 13, 2008

A must own for any fan of Sondheim

this performance is a superb representation of sondheim's classic tale. Angela landsburry and George hern do a magnificent job of bring the horrifying charicters to life. September 10, 2008

A masterpiece

While the recently-released movie version with Johnny Depp, et al, has much to recommend it, you haven't really experienced the sheer genius of Stephen Sondheim's Magnum Opus until you have viewed this version. The movie version is able to show things not possible in the stage version, but the necessity to cut the time to an acceptable movie length leaves out much of the majesty. The chorus, the magnificent staging, and the performances of the leads are in a class by themselves. August 25, 2008

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