Review of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982) by Rachel H — 11 Dec 2010

By far the best version of Sweeney Todd out there. Just to be clear, I saw this several times on youtube and I loved it so much that I feel the need to review it. Not only are all the actors much better than the Tim Burton casted actors, this just seems much more put together. Don't get me wrong, the Tim Burton version has its own merits, but I just like this version better.

George Hearn is truly the best Sweeney Todd out there, and by far the most manly. He just has the voice, acting style, and mannerisms for it. I liked Len Cariou and Johnny Depp too, and they both did okay, but George triumphs over them all with his great style and deep bass singing voice. The other actors did incredibly well in their respective roles too. Angela Lansbury was a tad annoying at times, but for the most part, she was a great Mrs. Lovett. I don't remember the actor's name who played Judge Turpin, but he did a wonderful job as well.

In terms of the supporting cast, they were fantastic. I don't care how many times that people tell me that Cris Groenendaal looks like a Ken doll, he was still a good actor and portrayed the meant naivete of his character, and Betsy Joslyn was a great actress with a great singing voice, even if she did slightly better once Anthony (Groenendaal) comes along. What I do find weird is that Betsy Joslyn was married to George Hearn at the time that this musical was out. So his wife played his daughter. That just seems weird.

Accolades should also go out to Ken Jennings as Toby and Sal Mistretta as Pirelli. I did not like that Toby was a child in the Tim Burton movie, however much of a cute kid or good actor Ed Sanders was. Toby is not meant to be a child, he is meant to be a young adult who is a bit "slow" mentally, and Ken Jennings is that perfectly.

The score, well what can I say about the score? It is quite possibly the best musical score that I have ever heard and that 60-70% of the music on my Ipod is from various versions of Sweeney Todd, all sung by different people. What really bugged me about the Tim Burton version is that Danny Elfman dumbed down the score for Johnny and Helena because they aren't trained singers, and that they cut out the song between Anthony and Johanna, which in my opinion was one of the best songs in the play. I have a few more continuity problems with Tim Burton's version, but I will rant about those in my review of Tim Burton's version, which will be coming out very soon.

If you haven't seen this, check it out on youtube. It's by far the superior version of Sweeney Todd and everything about it just works. It is definitely a must-see for fans of musicals. Check it out on youtube someday, you definitely won't be disappointed.