Sweeney Todd PBS- Page 8

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 9:28am

I enjoyed the production. Was really glad that I was able to see it - thank you PBS.

Thought Terfel and Thompson did an adequate job. I wasn't reflecting how they weren't "other" Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett that we equate with these roles. That is an achievement in my book.

Although I enjoy Audra in many of her performances I am not an OMG throw a Tony at her because she opens her mouth. Her performance as the Beggar Woman was fantastic! Loved her! As for a previous comment about colorblind casting for this role and the younger white Mrs. Todd. Oh please...it was completely fine. I did not even give it a second thought. It didn't distract from the performance.

Borle...really don't like him. Think I just don't like he expressions and the attitude he tries to give off. They don't seem genuine to me. When I see him appear on stage I am immediately turned off.

Actually enjoyed Kyle Brenn as Toby. He was sweet but not as naive as I might have liked.

Really thought it was effective when the lunatics broke out of the asylum, jumped off the stage and ran through the audience. Reminded me of years back when the Circle in the Square did Sweeney Todd. That performance was SO intimate that you felt as if Sweeney were going to reach out to slash your throat. The performers ran up the aisles. It does add that little bit of fear when you are close for this show.

All in all - thanks everyone for the reminder to grab it on my DVR. Will watch it at least one more time.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 9:41am

Has anyone solved the riddle of what that was supposed to be on the side of Toby's head?

[canmark]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 10:32am

>> Has anyone solved the riddle of what that was supposed to be on the side of Toby's head?

He grows up to become the Phantom?

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 11:54am

I took the scar on Toby's head as an indication of the rough life this homeless kid has had. A sort of visual backstory.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 12:20pm

I took it as Pirelli is not just an awful barber, but possibly a dangerously awful one.

But I also wondered if it was some indication of Toby having been a workhouse boy. I tried digging around on that, and it seems that children's heads were often shaved for lice, but their entire heads would have been shaved, not just a portion.

[Cueball]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 1:25pm

I have the honor and challenge of playing sweeney in a community production next month. Our entire cast watched this pbs performance together. I felt each of the actors saw something new, no matter how small or subtle, to take away from that performance with the exception of myself. Pretty telling that Terfel offered nothing I felt I could use in my performance. He was off-putting and unwatchable. I hate to think such poor acting is acceptable in the major European opera halls.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 3:03pm

"I took the scar on Toby's head as an indication of the rough life this homeless kid has had. A sort of visual backstory."

"I took it as Pirelli is not just an awful barber, but possibly a dangerously awful one."

Yeah but this is a concert version where a blonde girl has a black mother and a dark haired Welsh father and when people die they get slapped in the face with a handful of blood. When did realism enter into this version?

Updated On: 9/30/14 at 03:03 PM

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 3:13pm

I would imagine that the patchy baldness is due to poor health, poor hygiene, lice, etc. The time wasn't exactly one free of diseases and filth.

Google: London, lice, hair, balding

There are lots of stories about why people wore wigs (falls in line with buying hair from the lunatics at the asylum, Toby wore a wig, Pirelli was selling hair tonic)

I think the bald spot on Toby makes sense.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 3:15pm

Well, then what the f0ck kind of answer did you want to your question, Goth?

Okay. A wizard did it. Is that better?

[Fan123]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 5:31pm

Regarding the "lark" lyric, I believe larks are proverbially regarded as being particularly associated with singing, so perhaps that's what Sondheim was going for with "not even my lark". The part I never quite got was the dialogue just prior about blinding birds so that they sing night and day without stopping. Sure, it's an eerie image, but... it hardly seems practical. Who wants a bird squawking in their house 24/7? (Though I guess if you start trying to be completely logical when it comes to Sweeney Todd...)

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 5:33pm

I thought that it was some sort of head injury. A similar idea was used in the John Doyle revival except it was a bandage.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 6:22pm

Forgot to ask this earlier. Did anyone else find the NY Phil surprisingly lacking? I thought they often sounded sluggish and even anemic compared to the original pit band. Also, am I crazy or was the organ sometimes way too prominent in the mix?

[ljay889]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 6:34pm

I think many of the tempos were too slow.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 6:39pm

I also missed the whistle. They used something else for that sound.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 6:53pm

Oh, God. That airhorn was so silly. I laughed so hard when Alan Gilbert had to use it at one point. Looked like he was a PE teacher trying to get control of an unruly class of preteens.

[promisespromises2]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 7:15pm

I have to say, the first time I heard the airhorn while I was there, I giggled uncontrollably. I was really confused. It's kind of amazing how this transferred to film. I was obsessed with it when I was there, and it wasn't one of those "show highs". I was raving about it for weeks. But when I watched it on TV it just didn't feel like the show that I saw in person. I wasn't at that specific taping, I was at the other taping with Bryonha Marie Parham as the beggar woman and I thought she did JUST as well as Audra did. Like I was saying before, I felt the taping of it was a little off. I kept feeling like there was more to it (I weirdly remember more with the beggar woman for some reason), and it might of been all of the close up shots. I'm SO glad it was taped and that everyone gets to see it, and I'm not trying to nitpick, it's just hard to watch such an amazing concert live and then see it come out like that on film! The only thing I found consistent was how much I disliked Terfel's voice/acting and Borle's voice.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 8:19pm

"Did anyone else find the NY Phil surprisingly lacking? I thought they often sounded sluggish and even anemic compared to the original pit band."

This!! Yes!!

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 8:37pm

I think that maybe it was the mixing of the orchestra that was so lacking. They undoubtedly sounded much more vibrant live.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 8:52pm

Yes agree re the mixing.

[Showface]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 8:56pm

I said I would review it, and I realized I didn't.

I thought it was alright. This was actually my first full viewing of Sweeney Todd (I've seen good/large portions, so I have enough to compare/judge by) , so that was exciting! Act 2 felt sort of slow to me...I'm not sure if that was a "book issue", or if it was just because I was just getting sleepy. But, I loved the story/plot!


Emma Thompson: Thoroughly enjoyed her!I thought she was excellent...she made me laugh in certain portions that were never funny (to me) before! I also thought her performance was pretty humanly. I could sense her love/devotion to Sweeney Todd. My favorite part of her performance was actually By the Sea and God, That's Good!

Audra McDonald: 'Nuff said.

Bryn Terfel: Left A LOT to be desired. Some of his dramatic line deloivery ended up being funny, and not serious!

The rest of the cast varied between great, or average for me.





Now on the Toby issue: I thought bald spot was just a result of a bad haircut!

[Showface]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 9:00pm

Oh....the Anthony was really good as well! And, I actually enjoyed Christian Borle's performance!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 10:18pm

My cage has many rooms
Damask and dark
Nothing there sings
Not even my lark
Larks never will, you know
When they're captive

Mysterious Growl, I'm assuming we agree to overlook the fact that Joanna is trilling away while insisting that nothing sings in her room.

But in terms of the lyric you mention, I think, as someone else pointed out, the "not even" is a rebuttal to the traditional association of larks with singing (see multiple Hammerstein references). She then follows with the explanation for the non-singing lark (captivity), a explanation that has particular meaning for her.

"Larks never will..." is simply an explanation as to why "not even" her lark sings. But of course it all leads to "teach me to be more adaptive", the point of the stanza.

As such, there really is no semantic contradiction.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 10:34pm

I have a very different take on it. CORRECTION: I have a friendly amendment to Gaveston's take:

JULIET
Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear.
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree.
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

ROMEO
It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale.

In Joanna's room, even the bird that greets the morning in song doesn't sing. This emphasizes Joanna's loneliness, despair, lack of optimism.

Why? Because of her wretched captivity. She cannot sing (even though, of course, she is singing about not being able to sing... quintessentially Sondheim.)

The analogy is not just the allusion to the lark. This is about to be a very R&J like scene. A sheltered young woman at her window, greeting her new lover (it is, after all, love at first sight; Antony is already enraptured by Joanna before she even sees him.... yes, just like Romeo when he sees Juliet at the ball), who is in awe of her below, and whom will be forbidden her because her "father" will not accept him and intends her to marry someone else; moreover, the young woman will face the father's wrath in resisting this match. When Joanna meets Antony she has the beginning of optimism. Not yet in the song which precedes, or half-precedes, their meeting.













Updated On: 10/2/14 at 10:34 PM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 10:45pm

How is that different, henrik? With all due respect, your interpretation seems entirely consistent with mine and even mysteriousgrowl's.

The issue growl raised was whether the passage as written contains a semantic paradox. I don't think so. I think the line about larks in captivity is merely an explanation as to why her own lark doesn't sing.

None of which contradicts what you say. I absolutely agree with you.

[PianoMann]

Posted: 9/30/14 at 10:55pm

I just have to say: GavestonPS, henrikegerman, and mysteriousgrowl, it's conversations like these that make me love BWW!