Stage to Screen: Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Chad’s Grade: B-

The Broadway musical underwent a fascinating metamorphosis in the 1970s as several sophisticated and controversial productions pushed the art form’s boundaries. One of my favorites was A Chorus Line, a meta-themed show that blurred the lines between stage and reality as performers shared their true-life stories. Bob Fosse’s Chicago was more than a showcase for his wife, Gwen Verdon, but a cynical view of our justice system dressed down with its grimy, vaudeville-style staging. And then there was Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice’s double dose of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, rock operas that featured humanistic portrayals of their larger-than-life figures.

1n 1979, composer Stephen Sondheim unleashed his new musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou. In a way, Sweeney Todd could be seen as the finale of Broadway’s 1970s creative experimentation. While Sweeney Todd won widespread acclaim upon its premiere and dominated the Tony Awards, winning Best Actor, Actress, and Musical of the year, it also was greeted with controversy due to its bloody, throat-slashing subject matter. 

Sweeney Todd was an unusual story to musicalize, much like the Victorian-era serial killer Jack the Ripper. Todd was the original Freddy Krueger, a far more violent figure fictionalized in the “penny dreadfuls” (Victorian-style comic books). But Sondheim became a fan of Christopher Bond’s 1973 play that humanized and gave a sympathetic backstory to the vicious “demon” barber. Sondheim then teamed with writer Hugh Wheeler and director Harold Prince (who also staged Evita) to craft a Grand Guignol-flavored, almost operatic musical. The result wowed Broadway but also shocked audiences with its blood, gore, high body count, and morally black characters. In a sense, Sondheim and company created the first slasher musical masterpiece.

The following decade would be a fertile time for Sondheim as Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods would further cement his musical legacy. But Sweeney Todd still stands as one of his more masterful works. And make no mistake, there would be no Phantom of the Opera or Wicked without Sweeney Todd. Yet Hollywood was interested but cautious about adapting this bold piece of theatre to the silver screen.

Sondheim was understandably nervous and overprotective about adapting Sweeny Todd as a film. After the Oscar-winning West Side Story, his work in Hollywood was spotty at best. One of the first directors to approach Sondheim was Tim Burton, who fell in love with the London version of the show. But Burton got sidetracked by such tiny projects like Beetlejuice, Batman, and Edward Scissorhands. Another attempt was made by theatre/film director Sam Mendes, hot off the Academy Award-winning American Beauty, with a script by John Logan and Russell Crowe (yikes!) attached. For various reasons, that version never materialized.

But Sondheim always hoped that Tim Burton would return, more convinced that his unique style perfectly matched the material. And Burton did circle back to the project, despite his nervousness about doing a musical (Burton has gone on record that he’s not a musical fan). He retained the screenplay adaption by John Logan (who would go on to create Showtime’s excellent Penny Dreadful series) that heavily excised and trimmed the musical sequences.

The film version closely resembles the Broadway show but with a much shorter run time due to the excessive cuts. Benjamin Barker, who now goes by Sweeney Todd, has returned to Victorian-era London after 15 years in exile with plans to exact revenge on the enemies who wronged him. The focus of Todd’s wrath is the corrupt Judge Turpin, who falsely accused the barber of a crime so he could lay claim to his beautiful wife, Lucy, and their daughter Johanna. The diabolical Turpin abused Lucy to the point where she kills herself, and Turpin has raised Johanna and plans to marry the now 15-year-old girl. Todd soon opens a barbershop and teams up with the mischievous café owner Mrs. Lovett. They unleash a murderous rampage where Todd slices and dices, providing Lovett with fresh “meat” for her pies. But complications arise when young sailor Anthony falls for Johanna and enlists Todd’s help to free her, along with rival barber Pirelli, who knows Todd’s true identity and threatens to expose him.

To fully appreciate the movie incarnation of Sweeney Todd, you must separate the film from the stage show. Sondheim, who approved the changes and collaborated closely with the filmmakers, considers Burton’s movie a companion piece to the Broadway production. This isn’t the staged show being filmed but a movie version of the musical. Screenwriter John Logan takes an (ahem) butcher knife to the darkly operatic score, jettisoning many popular tunes like The Ballad ofSweeney Todd (that was to be sung by Christopher Lee and Anthony Stuart Head) and trimming others down to resemble a traditional musical. And the romance between Anthony and Todd’s daughter Johanna has been scaled way back to broad brushstrokes. Another key change was reducing the age of Toby to a 10-year-old from the naïve, simple adult in the stage version.

With a reduced musical score, this allowed Burton to cast his favorite leading man Johnny Depp in the title role. Depp was at the height of his fame in 2006 thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and he gives a snarling, ferocious performance, bringing rock-star energy to the classic score. You see the pain and pathos fueling Todd’s monstrous acts in Depp’s hands. He’s not a trained singer, and it shows (more on that later). Still, he acquits himself well, particularly serenading his beloved blades in My Friends and giving a proper theatricality to the famed “At last, my arm is complete again!” beat.

As Mrs. Lovett, Helena Bonham Carter was also a Burton regular since she was romantically linked with the director at the time. Carter’s Lovett is a complete 180 from Lansbury’s dowdier, Tony-winning turn and just as much a monster as Todd. Decked out in black and grey outfits, she’s like a silent film star with a mischievous smile that masks her brand of evil. Sadly, Carter has a reed-thin singing voice, but she more than makes up for it through her acting. And her and Toby’s sweet Not While I’m Around number is a standout, as Lovett’s motherly warmth turns cold to the realization that she must sacrifice this innocent boy to protect her beloved “Mr. T.”

The remaining cast does solid work, like the late Alan Rickman’s wonderfully cruel Judge Turpin and a young Edward Sanders as a scrappy and feisty Toby. Even Borat himself, Sacha Baron Cohen, who actually can sing, is a delight as rival barber Pirelli. He brings a much-needed dose of humor to the proceedings and watching him switch from silly to intimidating as he tries to blackmail Todd is impressive. Ditto for Jaimie Campbell Bower and Jayne Wisener (who has a sterling soprano voice) share genuine chemistry in the movie’s only hopeful moments as young lovers Anthony and Johanna.

But this is Tim Burton’s show, and his fingerprints are all over the film version. Sondheim’s instincts were on point, as Burton perfectly captured the musical’s gothic and grand Guignol sensibilities. The stylized set design of the grimy Victorian-era streets recalls the Hammer horror series. The monochromatic cinematography, along with the pale and sunken eye makeup of Depp & Carter, creates the aura of a silent film. Burton’s movies are always visual stunners, and he amps the macabre quotient here.

And it’s ironic that the famous director hates musicals, as Burton’s style perfectly captures the format’s sensibilities. You can sense the music guiding the camera in several numbers, like The Worst Pies in London. The film’s boldest and best sequence, A Little Priest, is a perfect cinematic translation of Lovett’s diabolical yet humorous plan to use Todd’s body count as ingredients for her disgusting meat pies. And in the lovely Not While I’m Around ballad, Burton’s camera cuts to a sly Mrs. Lovett as Toby sings, “demons are prowling everywhere,” not knowing the monster is the source of his affection.

Still, the musical’s cuts are deep and warp the narrative with its more compact run time. Burton is much more interested in the macabre story of Todd and Lovett, leaving little time for the supporting players. I wanted to see more of Rickman’s deliciously nasty Judge Turpin and his henchman Beadle played by Timothy Spall. Pirelli’s role is also significantly shortened, as his character brings some much-needed color and humor. And the sweet romance of Anthony and Johanna is criminally undercooked, as Burton leaves the fate of these two lovers in limbo at the film’s end. The director did underscore several of the excised numbers, like The Ballad of Sweeney Todd playing over the film’s opening credits. Still, one wishes the filmmakers embraced the haunting operatic material.

Sweeney Todd did middling business when it opened in December 2007. The musical gave Burton some of the best reviews of his career, and Depp received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. But audiences expecting to see the goofy “Jack Sparrow” singing and dancing were unprepared for the brooding R-rated gruesome material. Not to mention all the Broadway purists angered by the enormous changes to the show. As such, Sweeney Todd, like 2014’s Into the Woods, remains an underwhelming screen adaptation in the Sondheim musical canon.

OSCAR BAIT SONG:

Thankfully, Sondheim declined to compose a new tune for the film, as this would probably push theatre purists into convulsions who were still smarting from the massive cuts. And Sondheim already won his Oscar in 1990 for crafting Madonna’s sultry “Breathless Mahoney” songs in the underrated Dick Tracy.

ACTORS WHO CAN’T SING:

Since director Burton had little experience with musicals, he cast mostly non-singing actors in the leading roles. This is a shame since Sweeney Todd is one of Sondheim’s more vocally demanding scores. In fairness to Johnny Depp, who did his own vocal training, he does a solid job even if he sounds like he’s channeling David Bowie (now there’s a casting idea). Bonham-Carter, who’s so devilishly good as Mrs. Lovett, has the weakest singing. Since she had many more challenging numbers, she went through months of vocal training, but she sounds passable at best. Both Meryl Streep and Imelda Staunton were up for the role, and one wonders how they would’ve faired.

As for Rickman, he does a fair job doing the talk-singing style of Rex Harrison (in My Fair Lady), and his Pretty Women duet with Depp is a highlight. Fortunately, the supporting players of Baron-Cohen, Sanders, Wisener and Campbell Bower are all trained singers and do excellent work in their respective (if scaled back) musical sequences.

OTHER VERSIONS:

Sweeney Todd remains one of the more popular musicals, if not for Sondheim, but of all time. There have been many revival productions in the 43 years since its Broadway debut. There was a unique Broadway take in 2005 starring Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris that was staged with the actors doing their songs and playing their own instruments.

Fortunately, the original Broadway production with the amazing Angela Lansbury was filmed and can be streamed or bought through physical media. It would make for a fun (if macabre) Halloween double feature with the Tim Burton feature, as Sondheim originally intended. The movie score is also worth a listen, as it features a large and richly realized orchestration with many of the cut musical numbers underscored. But you can’t beat the iconic, original Broadway cast recording, which is widely available and is the only way to listen to this unique and darkly operatic musical.

RIP Angela Lansbury:

While writing this review, we lost the great Angela Lansbury, who originated the role of Mrs. Lovett. Lansbury left a long legacy in film, TV, and theatre and was one of our last links to the golden age of Hollywood. While most audiences will forever link Lansbury with the role of Jessica Fletcher on the long-running TV series Murder She Wrote, that’s just a tiny piece of her massive body of work. 

Please check out the clip below of Lansbury performing The Worst Pies in London from the original Broadway production. This is just a snippet of her performance, and I encourage you to see the entire production available to stream.