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Summary: Hearn and Lansbury in the "Sweeney Todd" touring company
Review: I have been watching this 1982 production of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" for almost twenty years on videotape, so releasing it on DVD would be greatly appreciated. The cast features three of the original stars of the 1979 Broadway production: Angela Lansbury in her Tony Award winning role as Mrs. Lovett, Edmund Lyndeck as Judge Turpin, and Ken Jennings as Tobias Ragg. Well, you can also add to this list Cris Groenendaal and Betsy Joslyn, who play the young lovers Anthony Hope and Johanna, since they were members of the original company. Len Cariou had been replaced in the title role by George Hearn, who was still two years away from winning the Tony Award for his performance in "La Cage aux Folles." On Broadway Hearn played opposite Dorothy Louden before teaming up with Lansbury for the show's touring company and eventually this Showtime production of the musical. Stephen Sondheim has said that if people insist on putting "Sweeney Todd" into a category it would be black comic operetta, which is as good a way as any of defining its uniqueness. If you are going to have a barber who slits the throats of his customer team up with a woman who bakes the corpses into meat pies, then black comedy would be the way to go. But what makes "Sweeney Todd" so marvelous is that it mixes the dark comedy with chilling horror. For the most part the comedy is carried by Lansbury's Mrs. Lovett, starting with "The Worst Pies in Lond," while Hearn's Todd provides the chills, beginning with the hauntingly beautiful "My Friends," sung to his razors. Of course, it is "A Little Priest" that brings these two elements together, but while it is no doubt the show's signature piece it is not the supreme dramatic moment. That comes right before that glorious end to Act I when Hearn signs "Epiphany," which for me remains the song I would most like to be able to do on Broadway, although I can forget about matching Hearn's tour-de-force performance. When you consider that the last three songs of Act I are "Pretty Women," "Epiphany," and "A Little Priest," it is difficult to imagine a show having a stronger ending before Intermission. There is a sense in which Act II does not measure up, but that is become the bloody climax to "Sweeney Todd" rests more on action than songs. I can still remember watching it for the first time, in live performance fortunately, and thinking that they were reaching the point where things were going too far and the tragedy was about to become too complete. The only real complaint about this video production is that unlike the original cast album or what you are subjected to in live performance, the steam whistle that accompanies each slash across a victim's throat does not make your nervous system explode.
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Summary: Sweeney Todd (1982)
Review: The LA production that was filmed is electrifying, the performances staggering and the set mind-boggling. George Hearn is frightening, thunderous, and passionate in the role. Angela Lansbury is deliciously devious, and delectably unscrupulous, and gives comedy relief to an otherwise horrific subject matter. I've never seen Len Cariou play the role, but he's on the original cast CD. Hearn plays Todd with explosive, raging anger, while Cariou sounds like his Todd is more seething and brooding. Cariou is a lava flow compared to Hearn's volcano. Both are effective, but I prefer Hearn's Todd and would give an arm to have the 1982 performance on DVD. Not my arm, of course.
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Summary: There can be only one Sweeney, and it's George Hearn!
Review: Having watched this performance on PBS since I was a little girl, then having owned the video tape, I have been eagerly awaiting having this amazing experience on DVD. I have heard Cariou on the soundtrack version of Sweeney. He sings well enough and I'm sure turned in a fine performance. But I'm convinced that nobody can make you "feel" this musical like George Hearn. To me he is, and always will be, the only worthy Sweeney. The only one who can make the man deliciously evil, and yet totally sympathetic at the same time. Sweeney Todd on DVD will be just the best thing ever. If you like musicals, or horror movies, or both, BUY THIS DVD!
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Summary: Finally! The REAL Sweeney...Thank you Warner Bros.!!!!!
Review: Those who know and love SWEENEY TODD can now use the concert version DVD for a frisbee. This is the REAL "Sweeney Todd", the original (and finest) Mrs. Lovett, the incredible Angela Lansbury, and the equally wonderful George Hearn in his prime as a magnificent demon barber of Fleet Street. This is Sondheim's masterpiece as brilliantly staged by Harold Prince, and meticulously directed for television by Terry Hughes.
Never before had Broadway magic been so well preserved for the ages as this production was in 1982 (Ironically, it was taped while the touring production was in Los Angeles!). Out of print on VHS for years, we now have a DVD to treasure, with visual images restored to perfection, and a 5.1 surround track. A million thanks to WARNER HOME VIDEO for bringing the greatest SWEENEY home for ever!
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Summary: Finally! Thank you, Image Entertainment!
Review: I had this performance of the L.A. Production on LaserDisc and alas, both of my LaserDisc players bit the dust! I've been emailing Image Entertainment for months begging them to issue this on DVD. (...) I just viewed the San Francisco Symphony "Concert Production" (with the participation of Sondheim and George Hearn) and it, too, is excellent, thought the theatricality on a symphony stage cannot match the staging even as done in the Los Angeles "road company". And THIS version has a true treasure of Sondheim -- for which he tailored the vocal role down to the NOTE, we hear -- the marvelous Angela Lansbury! I'm pre-ordering mine right now!
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Summary: Genius
Review: Sweeney is the most genius piece of musical theatre ever written. I am only 17 but I know a hell of a lot of shows and this is my favorite. Forget Rent, Les Mis, or even Mamma Mia or Wicked. This show should be the raison d'etre for musical theatre. This is the most captivating show ever. Not only is there spectacle (Hal Prince in his hey-day) but the music is just breath taking: scary, sweet, shocking (I love the ending- just listening to it gives me chills). Onto the movie, I watched it this summer at CMU and I knew the music, but never actually seen the show (knowing the music is basically knowing the show). The staging is perfect - the casting is near perfect (besides the mistake that is Johanna - but she can be overlooked) and I just love it. If you want to be considered a musical theatre buff: get this. Know it. Love it. BE it. Or don't - but it is genius.
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Summary: Love the musical, but...
Review: I love the musical. My favorite. However, this isn't a very nice version of it. It's a bit blury and the camera is at times unsteady. Also not my favorite cast.
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Summary: Good Production
Review: I am very glad this production is finally on DVD. It is probably the best rendition of Sweeney to hit the stage, and the DVD is definetly worth having for anyone who wants to hear a truly great musical.
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Summary: WELCOME BACK, SWEENEY!
Review: Like many devotees I long for a production of "SWEENEY TODD" that will truly do justice of this Sondheim masterwork. In the meantime this television production of the first touring cast serves as documentation of both Hal Prince's original direction and Angela Lansbury's delicious, Tony-winning performance. It's a joy to have this video reappear on DVD and my heartfelt thanks go to whoever managed to clear to rights in order to let Warner Brothers issue it. The glaring defect of this production is the casting of George Hearn as the title character. Like Blanche Dubois in "Streetcar", Sweeney is an everyman driven insane by circumstance and the awful realization of just how cruel people and life can be. It's a slow, painful descent into madness. Unfortunately Hearn chooses to play him as a full-blown looney from the gate so that not only is there no place for him to go with the character, but the pivotal "Epiphany" becomes nothing more than a grandstanding exercise in sceneary chewing rather than the onstage unraveling of a person's sanity that it should be. I only wish I could have seen the original Sweeney, Len Cariou, do this number on-stage. His delivery on the original Broadway cast recording builds from a slow rage to an almost orgasmic explosion of inner pain. One can only hope a director with the panache of Peter Jackson, Tim Burton or Rob Marshall will eventually set their sights on this work to eventually bring us a definitive film version. You guys listening?
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Summary: Simply the Best
Review: Argueably the most stunning work of our greatest composer; now, at long last, the definitive performance of Sweeney Todd starring George Hearn & Angela Landsbury is saved on DVD! The music alone is uber-worthy of your hard earned shekals...the real prize is George Hearn's smoldering, passionate portrayal of a man who life had been ripped away from him, & his quest for Vengenance. If State Fair is your musical cup of tea, then Sweeney might be too strong for your palate. It's a show as brutual & unforgiving as the Post Industrial Age London its set in...laced with dark, dark humor, powerhouse emotions & that astounding score. Aliens coming to earth, needing an explanation of "Theatre" need only view this DVD. They'll get it. You should too.
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