Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1982)

Get past the first five minutes of crap 80s focusing, and it gets good. Add Angela Lansbury at her peak vocals (at 57!) and it gets great. It's still the recording of a Broadway show so the visual isn't great compared to audio but audio is GREAT.

There is not much to say about this story. We all know it is a tale of miscarriage of justice, of sexual greed, of alienation and injustice, and of final revenge that turns sour. This is a typical Victorian story in the line of Jack the Ripper and so many other crimes of that type, and I should say multiple killers or serial killers one century before the FBI invented profiling.This particular production is special since it is a Broadway production of the musical that Tim Burton brought to the silver screen many years later. This particular production was actually brought to TV a long time ago and it is this TV version that they remastered and brought to us in this format. The sound is perfect of course since in the 1980s FM sound also call hi-fi sound was already arrived. The pictures are good though from a TV standard, probably professional, probably Betamax. The remastering was only used to clean up the sound and probably too to densify the resolution. So we can consider we have the best possible rendering of this old production.The interest is to have a stage production from Broadway and from a period when special effects were not yet the norm on the stage. The stage production was supposed to create emotion in the spectators and they mostly only had human means to do so. They only wrapped up the human means in a stage setting that could increase or decrease the realistic effect. They chose to break up that realistic effect with the systematic use of machinery visible to the audience. Constantly elements, some enormous, are moved on the stage, turned around more or less building up structures that are supposed to render the various locations and the various scenes. It is totally artificial and it works perfectly because of the other dimension which is used in the most genial way imaginable.This other dimension is the use of actors, singers and "dancers," in one word stage performers. The music is good but we do not see the musicians. The singers are not opera singers but musical singers and they are good not so much because of their voices but because they use their voices as one element of their performing. That performing is physical and the voices are part of this physicalness. The voices, the physical performing on the stage (movements and other physical contact or absence of contact) and the phenomenal body language and facial expressions, it all is extremely effective to create emotion and density. The situations are deep and heavy because of this performing qualities. It is what has slightly been reduced in the most recent period by the use of special effects. In those old days special effects were hardly available and the actors had to work with their bodies, voices and faces to create those emotions. And that was a time that has unluckily mostly disappeared.In this case we have a real masterpiece because everything is looking artificial and yet the emotions look extremely realistic. That's a stage directing choice that was more or less the only solution at the time if the stage director wanted to produce an emotional and powerful show. This is a real success along that line.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This is the Sweeney Todd to watch. I first watched the Tim Burton version back when it came out and I liked it; it wasn't one of my favorite movies but it wasn't a stinker either. It wasn't until a few years later I knew what I was missing.After watching this version, you can never go back to that Burton garbage. Would you eat at Taco Bell after tasting food at a REAL Mexican restaurant? No. The first time I fully-understood the story was with this 1982 taping. The Burton adaption was a jumbled mess with many things cut out and many miscasted actors (Helena Bonham Carter being the worst one). Sacha Baron Cohen actually did a remarkable job though.Anyway, this review IS for the 1982 version, so I'll stop trashing the newer one. In my opinion, George Hearn performs Sweeney better than Len Cariou originally did, but that's just an opinion. Angela Lansbury adds lots of character to Miss Lovett, making her weirdly lovable. Ken Jennings (not to be confused with the high-neck Jeopardy geek)also reprises his role as Toby from the original show as does Edmund Lyndeck as Judge Turpin. Everyone does a remarkable job, however I know a lot of people hate Johanna's singing. But if you stop and think she's asking the birds how THEY sing wonderfully when trapped in a cage....so I suppose she's not supposed to sing well. Cris Groenendaal is wonderfully cheesy as Anthony and was much more likable than that young prissy guy they casted in the Burton movie.This show is NEVER boring. If you found the Burton movie confusing, I suggest you watch this. It's truly a treat to watch; you'll see why this has an 8.5 score. Hopefully they'll release it on BluRay so we can attend the tale of Sweeney Todd in HD!

I saw "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway in 1980. It starred George Hearn and featured most of the other cast principals who appeared in the national touring company production, which was videotaped for TV in Los Angeles in 1982. Last night I watched the new DVD release of the Los Angeles production, although I have owned the videotape for many years. The production and the performances could have hardly been better but the original tape's age showed because both the audio and video quality are below modern standards, even on a newly pressed DVD. Nevertheless I still give it 10 out of 10 because of the greatness of the work and George Hearns's and Angella Lansbury's startlingly wonderful performances. Even today, my most memorable recollection from a live musical theater performance has to be Hearn's rendition of "These are My Friends." "You'll drip rubies," brrr.