Sweeney Todd track/music links

[amanuensis1]

Here's a couple of links I was delighted to find:

The track listings for the complete album of the Sweeney Todd soundtrack.

Without spoiling it for those who don't want to click, I read that list and I'm relieved, yeah. And here's something else:

Helena Bonham Carter singing "Wait"

Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter singing "My Friends"

(The links are streaming audio of the full songs, not just clips as they are on the Amazon site.) And again, I'm relieved. Carter's no stage belter, and she hardly displays any vibrato, but you hear the intimacy in her performance and her tone is true--I won't prefer her recordings to Angela Lansbury's any time soon, but I think it'll work for the film, I really do. Depp, on the other hand, sounds marvelous. His vocal phrases in "My Friends" gave me shivers, and he's got a gorgeous subtle tremolo that he pulls out at just the right moments. I am so looking forward to this!

Sweeney Todd's been my favorite musical since I was a teen. I tell everyone I only designate musicals as favorites if there's at least two deaths plus an onstage rape, which means the only other musical on my list is Man of La Mancha.

Comments

[filimonovna.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the links! I can't wait to see the movie! :D

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*bounces*

[phantomminuet.livejournal.com]

I don't generally care for musicals, but I'm looking forward to this one.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Film musicals are tricky. I love musicals but on film they sometimes fall flat--even the most ardent musical lover can dislike a film version. *hated hated hated the Phantom of the Opera film adaptation*

[christwise.livejournal.com]

And Johnny Depp was going to be in a film of Man of La Mancha except that it got mired in production hell. Hurrah!

Only one person dies in that though, as far as I can remember.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

They drag some hapless subject of the inquisition away screaming and I count that as an offscreen death. ^_^

[gruyere.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was a fairly odd adaptation of the original Don Quixote. Nothing to do with the musical.

[piratesmile331.livejournal.com]

Sweeney Todd is awesome. Saw it on Broadway a couple of years ago with Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone. It's the most macabre thing I've ever seen.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, you saw that production! I've heard the recording of that one and it's great. Still love the original best.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

We "accidentally" saw the John Doyle production in London the year before it hit the New York scene, and were blown the fuck away by it. We bought the tickets half-price at the last minute, thinking "Oh, Sweeney Todd, cool". And then we spent the entire evening just mesmerized. When we found out it was coming to Broadway, we made a special trip to New York to see it in previews. I loved the rawness of it. I know people complained about missing the big orchestrations, but for me it worked so, so well. :-D

[fictualities.livejournal.com]

*bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce*

Thanks for the links! OMG, I can't WAIT!

When I was a kid my parents took me to the Len Cariou / Angela Lansbury production on Broadway. Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite things in the UNIVERSE, and a Tim Burton movie of it, with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter PERFECTLY cast . . . gah! There are no words to express how perfect that is. It's like a chocolate orgasm. Except better.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, to have seen the Len Cariou version onstage! And that means you saw Victor Garber play Anthony, too!

[floweringjudas.livejournal.com]

gngh. Seriously, I CANNOT. WAIT. for this movie.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I've been filled with worry and wonder since I knew it was coming, though I've been optimistic; now I'm downright eager. ^_^

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

*flails*

I loveloveLOVE Sweeney Todd so much, and I am SO excited about the film! I can't wait to hear Alan and Johnny sing Pretty Women and to see how they film the murders and to hear Helena sing The Worst Pies in London and OH! Not While I'm Around, which is such a gorgeous song, and GAH. Sondheim -- so much love!!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Sondheim is so freakin' amazing. Not all of his musicals have hit me just right, but enough of 'em.

[mosrael.livejournal.com]

Whoa... I didn't know about Helena. That's going to be dynamite. Although the first thing that came to my mind on seeing her name was that she was obviously the beggar woman - in the production I saw, that crazy prostitute stole every scene, so it seemed only natural. :)

[mosrael.livejournal.com]

HOLY SHIT ALAN RICKMAN IS IN IT

*ahem*

I mean, hooray!!

[thescarletwoman.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. I'm going to give a listen tomorrow when I'm not completely exhausted. I admit -- I'm very, very nervous about Depp as Todd... being the huge Sondheim-phile that I am.

I think I'm just a sucker for Len Cariou....

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I love no Todd even a tenth as much as I love Cariou's Todd. You are so right. But I'm happy to see what Depp does with it!

(awesome icon!)

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Have you heard/seen Jekyll and Hyde? Because really, oh I swoon on the concept recording. Its before Wildhorn got delusions of grandeur and rewrote the whole thing, and features miscellaneous murders, a dubious-consent sequence and a whole lotta whores :D

Mind you, I could list a dozen and one less popular musicals which are darker than the average show, because those are the best kind :D (see Dracula icon for details, where Jonathan is all but non-conned by an orgy of vampires, before being molested by Dracula)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear, oh, dear, my problem is I hated the concept recording of Jekyll and Hyde. 90% of it was whitebread pop love song--I think there might have been one or two bits of songs in a minor key and that was ALL; I was so disappointed in it.

Ooooh, what version of Dracula is THAT, then? I'm already in love with the Stratford Festival of Canada's 1999 production of Dracula: A Chamber Musical, because Juan Chioran was the sexiest thing imaginable in that. Eroticism from beginning to end in that one!

[gruyere.livejournal.com]

I tell everyone I only designate musicals as favorites if there's at least two deaths plus an onstage rape, which means the only other musical on my list is Man of La Mancha.

You should try to dig up The Fields of Ambrosia. The entire cast dies at the end, and there is indeed a rape. And it starred the dad from Silver Spoons. (He wrote the book and lyrics, too.)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

WHOA. Okay, if you say so, I'm going to see what I can learn about it!

[pauraque]

They both sound so delicate, I just don't know. Maybe it's better that way for a film, can't expect it to sound like a stage production. It's my favorite musical too, I just need it to not suck zomg.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

For a long time I didn't understand why people didn't like film musicals, why they couldn't suspend their disbelief over people suddenly breaking into song. I figured they didn't like stage musicals either. But then I, serious stage musical lover, started to see an abundance of film musicals that absolutely didn't work for me, that couldn't win me over. I think film musicals do sell themselves better when they're smaller and more intimate.

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

is it only me that keeps wondering when johnny and helena will give in and just start fucking like rabbits on crack?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Tim Burton might object. Or maybe not, I have no idea what Burton's fantasies are!

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

what about titus andronicus? or whatever the damn thing is called. wait, that's not a musical...damn.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Heeee, now I really want Titus Andronicus: The Musical!

[winter]

Here both from metaquotes and to remind you that fyrie said to e-mail me re: Elisabeth. That one has only on-stage molestation, but a ton and a half of Death and deaths, and I can also provide Tanz der Vampire, which has *counts* four on-stage deaths plus two in a dream sequence, two very forceful seductions and one rape attempt that proceeds almost to the conclusion before an umbrella becomes involved.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

--Wait, that's right, fyrie did say something about you having info about Elisabeth! I've been so eager to see that, in any language--can you email me at amanuensis1 AT earthlink DOT net about it? And about TdV?

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Wait...What about West Side Story? That has two deaths and an attempted rape....

I do love Man of La Mancha and Sweeney Todd, and they are definitely favourites, but not because of the violent content. I'm such a musical geek that I can't limit myself like that.

Oh, and Jekyll and Hyde has several deaths, plus at least one seduction (not sure about rape in that version). But then, I'm not sure anyone would put it on a "favourite" list...the music's too, um, meh.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

West Side Story counts! You are so right; I have to include it!

*giggles* I know exactly what you mean about Jekyll and Hyde--I haven't been able to tolerate that thing since the concept album ages 'n' ages ago. Ugh.

[drgaellon]

I am MASSIVELY disappointed by the absence of "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd." Depp's a little too tenor, and the close recording of film makes his performance on "My Friends" far more subtle and low-key than Len Cariou or Michael Cerveris... I'm still looking forward to seeing it. :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I saw it! I have stuff to say 'bout it, too, just have to make time to write it down...