| Author | Message | ||
     Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 62.255.207.128 |
Just been into London and saw Sondheim's "Sweeny Todd" at the Adelphi theatre, Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton in the lead roles. It was absolutely, without question completley brilliant. It is dark, dark, dark, funny, blood-spattered, perfectly staged, an absolute masterpiece. See it if you can. Cheers Terry | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.183.124.205 |
I saw this many years ago at the National and it was brilliant, with Julia McKenzie in the role you saw Imelda Staunton in, Terry. Just checked and it was in '93! Argh - nearly twenty years ago! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.183.124.205 |
PS Alun Armstrong was Todd in the version I saw. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.18.174.156 |
I absolutely love the Tim Burton film version. The best musical of the modern era, imo, and I notoriously hate films of musicals. | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 216.232.188.106 |
We saw that version too, Mick! It was brilliant; Dennis Quilley played the Judge, if I recall. We saw a matinee performance, and ran into McKenzie in the lobby afterwards; she was very friendly, and we had a nice chat with her. It was a stripped down version, orchestra-wise, although not as stripped down as the version we saw on Broadway a few years back, with Patti LuPone as Mrs Lovett and Michael Cerveris as Todd. There was no orchestra, or chorus, even; the main cast members - who had obviously been chosen as much for their ability to play instruments as for their vocal talents - provided all the accompanying music. The conceit was that the show was being staged by inmates at an asylum, and it worked wonderfully. The stage was almost completely bare, blood was depicted by a vivid red scarf being pulled from a galvanized steel bucket, and once a character was despatched the actor playing him or her - who of course had to remain on stage to provide music - donned a red-stained lab-coat, which looked striking against the stark black, grey, and white set. | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 216.232.188.106 |
Here's a link to the cast performing during the Tony awards show in 2006; it gives some idea of what they did with the production. Plus Neil Patrick Harris introduces it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7UOTuntLMk |