[Sca-cooks] OT & OOP: Sweeney Todd movie

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Thu Nov 29 14:55:09 PST 2007


On Nov 29, 2007, at 5:43 PM, Pixel, Goddess and Queen wrote:

> On Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
>
>> I think these people just aren't stage performers and for the most
>> part, never will be, and that this musical just doesn't translate  
>> well
>> to being shrunken down. All the post-1980 revivals have had to work  
>> in
>> smaller spaces, with smaller casts and smaller orchestras, and they
>> have invariably suffered as a result. Actually, the Burton thing does
>> seem to have a full, and rather rich-sounding orchestral background,
>> which will help a whole lot, but nobody in it has that booming stage
>> presence the show really needs.
>>
>> Except maybe the actor playing Tobias Ragg. ;-)
>>
>> On a side note, I had forgotten earlier to mention my other favorite
>> production of Sweeney Todd: about six minute's worth of the opening  
>> of
>> Act II appears in Kevin Smith's movie "Jersey Girl". 17 people on the
>> planet have seen it. Apart from gratuitous Ben Affleck as Sweeney,
>> it's actually an enormous amount of fun. George Carlin gets killed  
>> and
>> everything!
>>
> [snip]
>>
>> Adamantius
>
> I prefer to think of this attempt as a Sweeney Todd *themed* movie,  
> rather
> than a faithful retelling of the original.
>
> Did anybody notice that in the trailer they sort of totally gloss over
> what Mrs. Lovett actually *does*, and they totally ignore what  
> happens to
> the bodies that Sweeney seems to be scattering about?

Yes, until the very last second, until Mrs. Lovett says something  
like, "Yes, but wot are we gonna do about _'im_???", with the camera  
zooming in on a sinister-looking [large] trunk.

Much worse is that there is no recognizable Sondheim music more than  
halfway into the original trailer...

Adamantius



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