[NEohioPAL] Re: brief unsolicited Sweeney Todd comment

[Thom Haneline]

"Sondheim Dismembers Sweeney" - From The NY Times:   








December 16, 2007

Slashing the Score 
By JESSE GREEN


What Mr. Sondheim called his cynicism about movies made from stage shows only whetted his appetite when the director Tim Burton expressed interest in adapting “Sweeney.” “Obviously one of the most enticing things in the world is to say, ‘That’s impossible to do,’” Mr. Sondheim recalled. “‘So let’s do it.’” 
After 20 years of directors and deals falling by the wayside, Mr. Burton and the screenwriter John Logan came along with an idea for retelling the story in more cinematic terms. First, there would be no chorus commenting on the action in song; the singing would be done entirely by the principals. This meant cutting or truncating all ensemble numbers, a major element of the stage production, which had a chorus of 18. Out went “The Letter,” “City on Fire” and two-thirds of “God, That’s Good!” Even the show’s opening number and recurrent theme, “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” which was to be sung by the ghosts of Sweeney’s victims as the movie progressed, was dropped just before filming. (Above, from the 2005 Broadway production; left, the movie’s opening.) Happily, the song’s “Dies Irae” climax and creepy, buzzing string figures — Mr. Sondheim’s tribute to the film composer Bernard Herrmann — remain as underscoring. 
The filmmakers also suggested cutting most of the sunnier songs that offered relief onstage but would be hard to film interestingly or would dissipate the desired atmosphere of unrelenting dread. Out went “Ah, Miss,” “Kiss Me” and “Parlor Songs.” To keep the movie under two hours (the stage show lasts about three) most of the songs that did remain were trimmed by about 20 percent, Mr. Sondheim estimated. In all fewer than 10 of the stage show’s 25 major numbers survived substantially intact.


 Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 
> Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 08:59:04 -0500> From: hlewelle at bw.edu> To: neohiopal at listserve.com> Subject: [NEohioPAL] Re: brief unsolicited Sweeney Todd comment> > Gory, yes. Unmitigated gloom, yes. Only 10 of the 25 Sondheim songs,> boo. Well-enunciated, no. Needing subtitles, yes. And I missed the> chipper, chubby, Cockney Mrs. Lovett who leavened the dour Sweeney. > Helena Bonham Carter was as depressing as her partner in crime.> > Hester Lewellen> > **> > >
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