Sweeney Todd
Broadway Revival Cast Recording
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler |
Issued 2006
Running time 1:28 - 26 tracks on two discs
Packaged with notes, synopsis, libretto, nine production photos and 10
recording session photos
Nonesuch 79946-2
List Price $21.98
Click here to read our review of the Broadway
Revival |
Click here to buy the CD
 |
In person, the revival that this recording captures is a "love it or hate
it" proposition. Not so the recording - it is simply a "love it" package for
anyone who appreciates the many virtues of what is generally regarded as a
masterpiece. That word, "masterpiece," is so overused that it may be
misinterpreted to simply mean a good show. Not so! Stephen Sondheim is, in
fact, a master at the art of composition and lyric writing for the stage,
and whether or not this is his greatest work, it certainly is one that
demonstrates his mastery to such an extent that there simply can be no doubt
about it. Thus, "masterpiece" is the precisely correct word - and with
Sondheim only a precisely correct word should ever be used. |
Storyline:
The inmates in an asylum play out the story
of a London barber who seeks vengeance for injustices done to him, his wife
and their daughter. The revenge goes awry, driving him farther and farther
from sanity as he teams up with the ditsy proprietress of a pie shop who
sees in the remains of his victims fresh supplies for her meat pies.
This revival opened on Broadway last November at
the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. It is the work of John Doyle, an English
director with a reputation for reduced versions of musicals utilizing the
actors as musicians. Here he uses that technique, reducing the cast of 27 to
just ten with no orchestra in the pit at all. The actors-as-musicians
approach is more than a gimmick, however, and certainly more than a mere
economy. Once you hit on something like that, if you do it well, a certain
artistry evolves all its own. You don't get the room-filling sound of
Jonathan Tunick's original 25-piece orchestrations, but you do get a
chamber-music sounding support that in context works very well and, as
recorded, serves the material beautifully. With the recording you are spared
the distracting visual excesses that cause those who do hate the revival
such pain - such as Patti LuPone pulling focus away from her colleagues at
awkward times with shtick involving a triangle or a tuba.
While on stage, Doyle makes a hash of the
marvelously inventive and normally effective book by Hugh Wheeler, but he does
treat Sondheim's score with the respect it deserves, and just as in the
theater, on the recording the score remains fresh, thrilling and very well
sung. The new orchestrations by Sarah Travis are simultaneously inventive
enough to accommodate the new approach and polished enough to retain the
musical essence of the original. That was no mean trick.
The role of Sweeney Todd is
one of the grand parts in American musical theater and here it is tackled
with intensity and verve by Michael Cerveris. He is everything you would
want in a Broadway Sweeney. His co-star as the pie shop proprietress who
praises her competition for harvesting the neighborhood pets ("popping
pussies into pies – wot I calls enterprise") was less satisfying the night
we reviewed the production as her enunciation failed to accommodate some of
Sondheim's fine lyrics. No sign of this makes it to the recording, however.
Here she is sharp and clear. The recording also captures the very good
supporting cast including the marvelously original approach of Alexander
Gemignani as the Beadle and Lauren Molina as Sweeney's daughter Johanna. And
on disc you won't even know that this production had no barber's chair, no
bodies sliding down chutes and no . . . well, it is a joy to have this
recording because it has all the good stuff and leaves out the bad. |
