Sweeney Todd -- 1982 telecast -- why no Len Cariou?

[YouDon'tClimbTrees?]

So I was re-watching the gem that is Sweeney Todd from 1982 with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn and I was wondering why Len Cariou wasn't in that cast. George Hearn was excellent and I could watch him in that role every day but Len Cariou, who I saw in the original Broadway production when I was a kid, was also excellent. I just thought it was weird that he wasn't in that telecast. Was there any reason for that?

[Smaxie]

The video preserved the national tour version, when it was in Los Angeles. Cairou did not do the tour. 

[Jazzman714]

I believe this was a videotape of the LA production.  Cariou had left the show by then and Hearn took over the role.

[YouDon'tClimbTrees?]

Ah, that makes sense! I thought it would be a more salacious story, like Len Cariou got on Stephen Sondheim's bad side. Thanks for your responses!

Also, whatever happened to George Hearn? I know he's in his 80s now but perhaps he's still performing?

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

^He was last seen on Broadway in Scandalous almost four years ago.

[YouDon'tClimbTrees?]

Oh no, he was in Scandalous? I might have actually gone to see that disaster if I'd known he was in that. Did you see him in it?

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

I don't live in New York, so I wasn't in the city while it was running.

[YouDon'tClimbTrees?]

Ah, okay!

Anyway, my love for Sweeney Todd was reaffirmed when I re-watched that telecast. It's funny, frightening, horrifying, sad, sweet, wonderful, there aren't enough adjectives for that production. Just everything about it is perfect.

[Smaxie]

In this recent interview, Cariou said his one regret is that he's not in the taped version of Sweeney Todd. He says, "If I had known that was going to happen, I would have done the tour."

https://www.everythingsondheim.org/2016/05/30/brilliant-stuff-cariou-saw-power-sweeney-todd-day-one/

[YouDon'tClimbTrees?]

Wow, interesting! I can't believe critics didn't like the show. It's truly a masterpiece.

[BrodyFosse123]

Wow, interesting! I can't believe critics didn't like the show. It's truly a masterpiece.

 

Huh?  Cariou mentions that the tour was shut down during its San Francisco run due to the critics hating it.  The next stop of the tour was Los Angeles, where the video recording was made.  He adds that he feels that the video recording suggestion was to entice the cast to return and continue the tour.  The critics negative reaction statement is solely referencing the San Francisco critics.  

[nsguy45]

In his NYT review of Scandalous, Ben Brantley never even mentioned George Hearn's presence in the show.

[Capeguy]

I recall reading an interview way back when, where Angela said that they apparently couldn't separate her from Mame. She was very disappointed. Having seen the original once in previews, twice more after it opened and at least a dozen more times in different versions -- I'm amazed with S.F. I would have thought they had more taste.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

That is a great interview with Cariou - thanks for sharing!

I also just realized that it is exactly twenty years ago this summer that I first saw the VHS(!) of the Hearn/Lansbury tour. As you can tell from my avitar (which is Timothy Nolen BTW), it had quite an effect on me!

[lovebwy]

I would swear in that video- there are times when they overdub certain lines with the original cast recording, and a few times when Cariou's voice is coming out of Hearn's mouth.

[YouDon'tClimbTrees?]

Interesting that Ben Brantley didn't mention George Hearn in his review of Scandalous, although maybe he did that on purpose so as not to soil Hearn's great reputation by associating him with that disaster of a show?

[YouDon'tClimbTrees?]

I actually saw Lansbury in Mame on Broadway. She was very different than in Sweeney Todd so I don't understand what the critics were saying. She was great in both shows and neither character reminded me of the other.

[wonderfulwizard11]

I've always wished it was Cariou on the recording. Hearn is in great voice, but I've always found his Sweeney a little too over the top to be truly scary. On the album, at least, Cariou is absolutely terrifying. 

[YouDon'tClimbTrees?]

I agree with you about Cariou. As frightening as Hearn was, I remember Cariou being even MORE frightening.

[beaemma]

I saw the original production of SWEENEY TODD many times in New York. DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles. While Angela Lansbury was the best known person in it and the biggest draw, as I recall, the main problem that some critics and quite a few audience members had with the show had more to do with the gruesome aspects of the story. It took a while for people to catch up with this masterpiece. It had been over a decade since MAME, and Miss Lansbury had done other roles since then. Some might have had no idea what SWEENEY was about and expected another MAME, but I don't think that was a very common perception. The subject matter was considered so unusual and shocking that it was quite well publicized. I knew a number of people who avoided the show because of it. Incidentally, I saw both Cariou and Hearn. Both were brilliant and I loved both performances, but for somewhat different reasons. I found Cariou more heartbreaking and Hearn more terrifying.

[Ranger Tom]

YouDon'tClimbTrees? said: "Ah, that makes sense! I thought it would be a more salacious story, like Len Cariou got on Stephen Sondheim's bad side."

Trees - you're watching too much Inside Edition and Access Hollywood.  It's not all drama  30 years from now there'll be a story about how Leslie Odom Jr. was kicked out of Hamilton because he got on LMM's nerves.  Wish I could have seen Cariou.  

 

 

[morosco]

 As frightening as Hearn was, I remember Cariou being even MORE frightening.

Indeed.  His performance in the theater was much more intense than it is on the original cast recording.  Not that I'm knocking the cast recording which I think is perfection.

[KnewItWhenIWasInFron]

The thing that sticks with me still, more than three decades later, is how beautifully that show filled the cavernous Chicago venue where I saw Lansbury and Hearn (who was great) in it. Was is the Arie Crown? I can still hear that whistle blowing and freaking me the heck out.

[beaemma]

Yes, it was at the Aire Crown. That huge, cold space almost seemed like an extension of the industrialized elements of the set.

[Smaxie]

I've said this before, but since we're on the subject, for me, Cariou played the character as the "Ballad of Sweeney Todd" lyrics describe him: "Inconspicuous," "quick," "quiet," "clean," "smooth," "subtle," "a perfect machine." Cariou had a brooding quality, with an element that he could explode at any second.  When he finally did, at "Epiphany," and came to the edge of the stage, even in the enormous Uris Theatre, you wanted to draw back from him. It was really terrifying.  Hearn is terrific in his own right, but for me, he's really playing the madness from very early on. He seems contemptuous of Anthony in the very first scene, and when reunited with his razors in "My Friends" is screaming in the street. For me, it differs in the concept of a "quiet subtle perfect machine" of a man who has been plotting revenge for 15 years. So, the payoff felt greater to me with Cariou, but Hearn gives such a committed performance, I don't begrudge anyone who has a preference for him in the role.  

[morosco]

I never saw a production that had the balls to have the factory whistle as loud as the original production.  I saw the show cold and had no idea about the whistle.  When it sounded.... it was terrifying!