Sweeney Todd? Bloody Hell!

[sistermagpie]

CMC
> > It's not THAT icky! The blood is VERY red, as is not realistic. My 
8 
> year old daughter can handle it.
> 
> I'm as much a Sondheim purist as I am an HP purist, so I'm very 
> reluctant to see ST on screen, though I've generally enjoyed Tim 
> Burton's movies - are there any Sondheim fans on HP-OT who would care 
> to comment on this film?


Magpie:
I'm a Sondheim fan--not sure what to say about it. SS himself did the 
music for it. It was his choice what songs to cut--and there were a lot 
of them. He said he'd never liked the movies made of his musicals in 
the past, because the only movie musicals he ever liked were ones 
written for movies. Too often, he said, they keep things that work 
onstage but come across differently in movies.

So he chopped out a lot--any song that he felt slowed down the plot and 
wasn't necessary. So he'd cut things and then it would be done in a 
dramatic scene.

The singing isn't as good as your used to in this show--it's often done 
by opera companies. Joanna and Antony have good voices, but JD and HBC 
are more actors than singers (which SS prefers). I loved Toby and Alan 
Rickman is great--so is Sascha Baron Cohen.

-m