The video of the Lansbury/Hearn Sweeney Todd is now available to stream in iTunes, I was pleased to discover, so I watched it again for the first time in years. Wonderful to have it available this way, and the performance still lives up to its legendary status. BUT: I guess I hoped, slightly, that they would have improved the video quality over the old DVD release. They didn’t. That doesn't matter as much as the sound, which is also still not good. Does anybody have the old VHS version? I would be interested to confirm that for the DVD (and now the digital) version, they edited the sound in order to eliminate audience laughter and applause that were manifestly there on the VHS tape. Who knows why? Part of the fun of watching a live theatrical event on TV is feeling like you’re part of, well, a live theatrical event. Compare, for instance, the end of Act I, when Lovett suddenly has a bright idea pop into her head. I swear that on the VHS you heard a laugh from the audience. On the DVD and the digital download, you do not. Same at "Good, you got it."
My suspicion is that in the course of filtering and altering balances to get rid of audience noise, they also removed much of what we should hear from the orchestra. For a good example, listen to the very end, just before Sweeney slams the door. It should thunder, but there’s no bass and no body in the sound. Tinny and underwhelming. Is it better on the VHS tape? Can we hope for a restored version sometime in the future that brings back the audience reactions and lets us hear the orchestra? Or am I misremembering and is the original just as bad in this regard?
joined:11/29/14
joined:
11/29/14
Posted: 1/2/18 at 1:23pm