3 ways to approach a killer tale

From the stage to the screen and back, 'Sweeney Todd' adaptations prove versatility of Sondheim play

By Web Behrens

April 20, 2008

For at least a generation now, it's not uncommon to hear the assertion, "I hate musicals." One singular show serves as a fail-safe remedy to that misguided notion: Show them "Sweeney Todd."

"When those people who say 'I don't like musicals' come to see 'Sweeney Todd,' they usually walk away amazed," says Judy Kaye, who stars in a touring production that arrives Wednesday at the Cadillac Palace. Having channeled Mrs. Lovett in myriad productions over the last 20-plus years, she's seen the transformation happen time and again. "They like it a lot. They say, 'Wow! I didn't know it could be like this.' "

Nobody knew it could be like this when composer Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece debuted in 1979. The musical thriller stirred tragic drama, horror story and the blackest of comedies. Girded by Sondheim's soaring melodies, the audience somehow ends up rooting for the serial-killer protagonist, a man driven past the edge of sanity by a deliberately cruel world.

The show also further burnished the star of top-billed Angela Lansbury. She won her fourth Tony for playing the ruthless baker who converts the warm bodies of Sweeney Todd's victims into hot meat pies. She had played dark characters before ("The Manchurian Candidate"), but none quite like Nellie Lovett. The majority of Americans who only discovered the actress as the matronly detective of "Murder, She Wrote" in the 1980s can't begin to imagine the demented verve Lansbury attains in this role, which Sondheim wrote for her.

Almost 30 years later, Johnny Depp won similar acclaim for headlining Tim Burton's even darker, bloodier film adaptation. Rising to the special occasion offered by the material, Depp expanded the limits of an already diverse career and earned his second best actor Oscar nomination. The film was released on DVD earlier this month—and happily, it's not the only "Sweeney" around for viewing. In the early '80s, the Broadway touring company was taped while performing in Los Angeles. Broadcast years ago on PBS, Lansbury and company can be enjoyed today on DVD.

Another viewing option is the aforementioned tour of the 2005 hit revival. British director/designer John Doyle won a Tony for his radical reinterpretation of the show, which pares down the cast to just 10 players, performing as their own chorus and orchestra.

We tapped a panel of "Sweeney" experts to weigh in on three versions. In addition to Kaye, we polled Rebecca Finnegan, an award-winning Chicago performer who played Mrs. Lovett to universal acclaim in Porchlight's production four years ago; Ed Sanders, the 15-year-old East Sussex actor who, as poor Toby, gave Burton's bleak adaptation its human heart; and John Olson, associate editor of the Chicago-based Sondheim Review magazine. As their comments reveal, if we could cobble together the best elements from each into a single Frankensweeney, we'd have the ultimate version. As Kaye notes: "This is a great piece of art and, like all great pieces of theater art, it stands up to multiple interpretations. Three totally different versions of 'Sweeney Todd'? That's a party, as far as I'm concerned!"

Finnegan: "It's No. 1. It's brilliant. If I hadn't seen [the video] when I was in high school, I would not have gone into theater. That moment when George Hearn [as Sweeney] holds his razor aloft and bellows, 'At last my arm is complete again!'—awesome. And those thrilling Sondheim harmonies, when the chorus is inside Sweeney's head, make the hair on the back of your neck stand up."

Kaye: "I had seen the original on Broadway a few times. If people haven't seen the video, well—this is a feast! To say I'm a fan of the piece and of Angie's work is really understating it. It's filled with fun and frolic—and it was pretty bloody. There was fake blood in the razors; they'd hit a button and it would squirt." (Sadly, a combination of restricted camera work and conservative editing choices virtually eliminates this effect from the DVD.)

Sanders: "Onstage, everything is overacted because [the audience is] sitting much farther back. The ending's much different, as far as Toby's concerned. The sets are very clever: They have a twisting box that changes as you see each side."

Olson: "The original concept has a lot more black humor to it than the Burton film. The set is very memorable, with the barber chair that sends bodies sliding down to the bakeshop. It's great that we have a record of it, although taped versions of stage shows are always a little unsatisfying. There's something that never feels quite right, because they're acting for a live audience, not for the camera."

Kaye: "Comedy is so necessary to this piece. It would be unbelievably dark if it weren't there. Although I find humor in the movie, Mrs. Lovett's humor has been pretty much excised. You want big orchestrations? The movie is probably a double orchestra. Although a lot of the songs became underscoring, it sounds beautiful, and there's nothing cut from the screen that Mr. Sondheim didn't say OK on."

Finnegan: "It really bothers me that there's no choral singing, and it kills me that 'God That's Good' is missing. That's the song that shows you how people are eating. They want more pies! ... The thing that bothers me about Helena Bonham Carter is that she goes into deer-in-headlights mode when the singing happens. It took me out of the film every time. Johnny Depp is not really a singer either, but he's a fantastic actor and he kept telling the story when he was singing, so I believed him. I thought it was wonderful, the variety in how Sweeney slit throats."

Sanders: "There's much more of the villains in the film. The new scene makes the story line between Anthony, Johanna and the Judge that much stronger. There are much younger characters playing the parts, which I think is very clever—it makes it more horrific when they're planning to murder Toby."

Kaye: "I think the original's perfect, and I think Mr. Doyle thinks it's perfect, but he had to find another way to approach it. We have chamber orchestrations, so you might miss the orchestra, but it's beautiful. I'd done the role before; I know it very, very well—but to learn an instrument? I was afraid of hurting somebody else's performance with my poor accompaniment. Eventually I got over that fear; now it's just fun and especially rewarding. You play your scenes with all your heart, and instead of leaving the stage for a glass of water, you go to your instrument and support another actor."

Olson: "I don't think you need to see blood for the story to work. Doyle's version doesn't literally use any liquid, but he bathes the set in red light. It's a more symbolic representation. One of the real strengths of the Doyle version is hearing the score with entirely different orchestrations, [played] by musician-performers. It's very stripped down. For somebody who's so familiar with the show, it's really quite refreshing. It's like hearing cover versions of the whole score. It's not necessarily my favorite—but happily, you don't have to choose just one to listen to."

ctc-arts@tribune.com

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