The history of the world, my sweet

[in_the_blue]

There's a new meme that's going around. When the hits start flying, you gotta get down.

Hmm. I don't know that I feel like doing the self-disclosure meme. I'm also not sure very many people read this journal these days, but if there's something you want to know about me, just ask. I might even answer.

Last night jexowian and I watched Tim Burton's version of Sweeney Todd (the International Man of Mystery isn't much of a fan of musicals, no matter how charming or dark). I can't tell if it was great, horrible, funny, or brilliant. My overriding opinion on it (and as usual I'm probably the last person on the planet to see it) was that the principal actors in it were so worried about singing convincingly that they forgot to do the acting part. I'm a big fan of the conveyance of emotion on film, especially with a tragic story like this one, and boy was I just not feeling it from Helena Bonham Carter. I think she would have been much better cast as the Beggar Woman. And so much of it was like Harry Potter Lite: hey, there's Bellatrix telling her long-lost crush to hide from Snape and Scabbers! That didn't exactly help.

My real issue with it is that I'm utterly spoiled. I saw the Broadway production in its first run with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou, then I saw the touring company in Boston with Angela Lansbury again and George Hearn, and both of those productions were so outstanding that it makes anything else pale in comparison. I mean, Angela Lansbury, come on. (So there really are lots of actors out there who can also sing, I'm just saying.) The luxury of growing up so close to the heart of musical theater in NY has made me a little bit of a snob about it, apparently.

Comments

[vivien]

Your International Man of Mystery is very much like my hubby. Heh.

I myself just enjoyed Johnny Depp singing while wearing period costume. HUBBA HUBBA.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

He was adorably miscast there. The kid who played Toby was phenomenal, though.

[alienchrist.livejournal.com]

Johnny Depp in period dress! My one of many true weakness!

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

I watched the George Hearn/Patti Lu Pone concert the same weekend I watched the movie, and I tell you it just made the movie seem more listless and annoying.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

I was almost afraid to admit George Hearn was even better than Len Cariou. They were both wonderful, but...

[skygiants]

[OVERANALYTIC BABBLING STARTS HERE]
The thing that made the film work less for me on a meta level, I think, is that even though I never got to see the original Broadway production I grew up on the soundtrack, and in that production (and in most musical versions, I think) there is this whole theme of creepy identification with Sweeney Todd - he's horrifying because he's understandable and sympathetic. (Len Cariou's version of Johanna is one of those songs that always, always gets me - it is so tragic, and so unnerving.) I think the Burton version was trying to switch that around - you're encouraged to identify more with Mrs. Lovett than with Sweeney Todd, who is pretty much just played as straight crazy, with none of the emotional identification moments that make the Broadway show work so well. And for me, that switch doesn't work - I kind of love how in the Broadway show Mrs. Lovett, with her cheerful petty evil, is in a lot of ways scarier than Sweeney himself.
[OVERANALYTIC BABBLING ENDS HERE]

Also Johanna looked basically like a twelve-year-old version of Christina Ricci from Sleepy Hollow, which was sort of unnerving.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

I AGREE WITH EVERY BIT OF YOUR OVERANALYTIC BABBLING! Even about Johanna looking like Christina Ricci. I thought that too.

If Mrs. Lovett was the one we're supposed to identify with, I don't think Bonham Carter did a very good job. All the acting seemed very... I don't know how to describe it other than 'plateau' - there was no depth to it from any of the principals.

What I loved most about the Broadway version of Mrs. Lovett is that it was clear she both did and didn't know the depths of her wrong behavior. It humanized her, while like you said filling her with cheerful petty evil. I think she was just so obsessed with Benjamin Barker (after all, she saved his tonsorial equipment all those years) that she couldn't see the wrong in anything she was doing. And the Broadway version of "By the Sea" was absolutely fantastic: we got to see Mrs. Lovett's real fantasies there, her real reason for doing everything she did. The movie version just left me cold, like there was absolutely no heart in it for her at all.

I could probably parse this for hours -- it's about my single favorite musical of all time -- but luckily for you it's late and I'm about to go to bed. \o/

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Nope, you can be the penultimate person. I still haven't seen it (I'd like to for the art direction, at least).

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Hope you enjoy it when you do see it!

[silveraspen]

I never saw the theater/Broadway version, but I am given to understand that I am seriously missing out by only having seen the Burton version. Ah well.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

But at least you get to hear the delightful score. It's beautiful and complex and intense and funny and smart, all at the same time. So any is better than none!

[batyatoon]

Helena Bonham Carter as the Beggar Woman -- now that I would love to see.

I saw the Burton film before I'd even so much as listened to the soundtrack of the Broadway version, and now I am really glad I did; I appreciated it a lot more before I had a basis for comparison. As you say, spoiled.

Though since you mention the kid who played Toby: my problem with both of the soundtracks I've heard (the original with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, and the revival with George Hearn and Patti LuPone) is that Toby sounds way too old.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

I honestly can't remember Toby from the original. I thought the kid in the movie was quite good, though!

Now Anthony, that's a different story. No matter what he sounds too... meh for me. I guess it's because I can do without the Anthony/Johanna subplot, but it's there for Dramatic Tension and to put in a pretty soprano, I guess.