Sweeney Todd

Trish and I went and saw Sweeney Todd last night. I have to be honest and say that I've never been a very big Stephen Sondheim fan. I've also never had the chance to see a staged version of the musical. However, I must say that the movie version is absolutely delightfully wicked! I loved it! In fact, I think I may go see it again.

Tim Burton has really nailed the visual look. It is so colorful and deep in its absence of bright, cheery colors. From the way the camera moves, to the hair, makeup, costumes, and production design, it is absolutely brilliant and totally apropos for the mood and atmosphere.

The singing has been much discussed on the web and it is true that Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are no great singers. But what they lack in vocal acrobatics they supplant with wonderful characterizations.

Depp's Todd is dead on with a man unduly wronged and set out for vengeance. Carter is a wonderful Mrs. Lovett who is also sympathetic and amazingly wicked.

It seems odd that Burton would tackle a musical and one of the most celebrated American musicals at that, but he does a wonderful job with the direction in this work. He has set the right mood for this Victorian London in which we see Sweeney Todd planning his revenge and the steps he takes to achieve it. Burton is able to keep a terrifying musical terrifying which is no easy feat when one thinks about it. How does one keep a modern audience terrified when you have a bunch of people singing almost non stop through out the piece? Well, he does.

If you're in to good story telling or wonderful mood pieces, you should definitely check it out. And of course, if you're in to musical theater or Sondheim, you'd be a fool not to check it out.

ADDENDUM:

I was thinking about this after I posted this and there were two things that I wanted to add. The first is that this movie has a LOT of blood and it has several rather gruesome scenes. Those that know me, know the gorier the better as far as I'm concerned. And the gore was added with great dramatic effect.

The second thing I wanted to add was this: the more I thought about it, the more I felt that I wasn't watching a musical. That is not meant as an insult. In fact, it should be taken as a compliment both to Stephen Sondheim and Tim Burton. Sondheim really blends the spoken word with the musical numbers quite naturally and effortlessly. It doesn't feel like the typical musical in which you know that at a given moment it's going to be time for the actors to break in to song.

As I said before, this is my first exposure to this work and it's one that I'm going to have to investigate further. With a quick Google search, I discovered that there are a couple telefilms that were made from the original story "The String of Pearls: A Romance" by Thomas Prest in 1846. Christopher Bond's play, simply titled Sweeney Todd was the version that was eventually adapted for the musical version.

Wikipedia has an interesting entry about this story. I think I'm going to have to investigate it more. It seems that this story could be partially true with some nice urban legends thrown in to the mix.