Sweeney Todd!!

Marty and I saw the new Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street yesterday.

I had known the play of old when my step-mother let me listen to the soundtrack when I was younger. Quite younger actually. Hmm, maybe this explains my slight bent to the Dark Side.

But I loved the singing. I remember that the most about it. Never mind the gruesome content. I mean, we are talking about a barber that cuts the throats of his clientèle and then his counterpart cooking the flesh of his victims into pies that she then feeds to the public of London. Yeah, never mind that.

Sweeney Todd is indeed a story of revenge. Sweeney, once Benjamin Barker, having been sent away to prison (Australia maybe) when a corrupt judge coveted his woman, returns sixteen or so years later to find his wife dead and his child reared by said corrupt judge. He reopens his barber shop where he previously lived, now above a Mrs. Lovett's meat pie shop who sells "the worst pies in London" and soon, in order to get his slicing hand into shape, so that he might perfectly take his revenge on the judge, begins practicing on his current custom, the various men of London, taking care to choose those who will not be missed. His barbaric barber's chair, a monstrosity of machinery, is built to allow the bodies to slide directly from the chair down to Mrs. Lovett's baking basement where she processes them and turns them into meat pies, which of course, then become the best pies in London. Various characters swirl around these main two, Anthony, the young seaman Sweeney traveled home with who eventually falls in love with Johanna, Sweeney's now grown daughter, the Judge and his crony Beadle. And an old dirty beggar woman who is the only one that seems to know there is more going on in the basement that meets the eye. And Toby, a young boy who, once the servant boy for a rival barber in town, becomes the servant boy for Mrs. Lovett upon his master's... ahem, untimely disappearance.

I have seen the original Broadway version on DVD, which was where the soundtrack I had heard came from so long ago. I think this version is the one people think of when Sweeney Todd is mentioned, with a fabulous performance of Mrs. Lovett played by Angela Lansbury. I saw another, rather stark (as if the thing isn't stark and dark enough) in San Francisco last year. The stage set was spartan and all the actors also played the instruments as well. But it was good, if not an interesting take and version.

And now, the movie, with Johnny Depp playing the titular role. Helen Bonham Carter is Mrs. Lovett. It was directed by Tim Burton who has always been a Dark Sider himself. I think Johnny Depp was excellent as Todd and I wouldn't have expected any less of him. He doesn't have the biggest range on his voice, but he did fine with the singing. He brought his usual Depp intensity to the role and I found him right fine chilling as Sweeney Todd. Although, I have to say, this just adds another nail in Johnny Depp's coffin of being able to be recognized by me. I really have no idea what the man looks like in real life. When I think of Johnny Depp, Captain Jack Sparrow comes to mind instantly and now, the Sweeney Todd look. Sigh.

I thought Helen Bonham Carter was too young of a choice for Mrs. Lovett and I wasn't so impressed with her singing. The thing for me that made Angela Lansbury's Mrs. Lovett so creepy and great was her indefatigable cheeriness while Bonham Carter's Lovett is melancholy and depressed, full of wistfulness and sad dreams. Which in a way does make you feel for her Mrs. Lovett, differently than Lansbury's.

Todd is blinded by revenge, Mrs. Lovett by Todd and her wish for something "normal", such as love and a family. But she wants this in a completely blind way. Again, never mind the meat pies!! Because she is just as guilty as Sweeney Todd and his bloody swath of revenge.

And speaking of blood... Blood has always been one of the signatures of this play and no less in the film. Probably bloodier in the movie due to the ability for uber special effects. The blood on stage is often represented by red cloth or scarves or even fake stage blood and usually looks like blood. The blood in the movie was a strange red color and strangely thick almost like melted crayons. Really red. Not the dark red color of blood but the red color some bright red lipstick. It was inhuman, which maybe was the point. But it spurts and stains and creeps along the floor in various steams and pools. Ick. Another really gruesome point of effect was when the bodies left the chair to fall down to the basement. I won't get into it. You can scar yourself in the theater.

The musical part of Sweeney Todd has always been my favorite. Indeed, I think the actual story would be quite hard to take if it didn't have the barest levity of the music. The songs are great, they are great to sing (remember, I say this content aside!!) and really add to the overall effect of the story in my opinion. Such as the song when Sweeney begins to sing to his razor blades in obvious adoration and obsession "These are my friends, see how they glisten!" Or Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney singing about the various types of pies you might get at her shop, such as priest or vicar (I think you get the meaning of this). One of my favorites is the sweetly sung "Johanna" by Anthony underneath her window upon seeing her beauty for the first time. It's probably the most positive song in the whole thing and even it has an edge to it, "I'll steal you, Johanna. Do they think that walls can hide you? Even now I'm at your window... I am in the dark beside you, buried sweetly in your yellow hair!" Can anyone say "Stalker!!"?

I think they did a great job with Sweeney Todd and I do recommend it. I would recommend getting the Netflix copy as well, that is the DVD of the original with Angela Lansbury, get a different feel for it. Don't bring your kids.