Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

But wait! Hasn’t everyone who was going to watch Sweeney Todd already seen it? Why no, no they had not!

Overall? It was all right. I’d never heard or seen the play, so everything about it was new to me. The dénoument caught me by surprise, what with hacking and slashing going on bloody everywhere, but mostly because they didn’t show what happened to the daughter and the guy she runs off with, or the little boy. Most of the spoilers were pretty obvious, though. When the beggar woman comes on and does some exposition at the beginning, I thought, “Oh, wouldn’t that be funny if she was…” and low and behold, it was so. When the two partners in crime danced at the end, “Just wait, he’s totally gonna…” and yep, he sure did.

Most of the characters I ended up having a distinct dislike for by the end of it. The title character’s single-minded and without the cleverness or honor of some other heroes after revenge (Count de Monte Crusto, anyone?) quite happy with cutting up random strangers off the street. Mrs. Lovett’s got no moral compass either, which I guess works, and will do absolutely anything to glean some kind of affection from the man who probably couldn’t have cared less. The judge and his igor are horndogs with a generous helping of a power trip. Anthony, the young sailor, is all starry-eyed and though he’s traveled the world, seems to have less of an idea of how it works than the girl he falls in love with – prettier, too. He also seems to have no sense of timing: “Oh, I see you’ve got the source of all your misery right in your hands. Allow me to burst in and blather on about my plan to kidnap the girl in his care.” Or how about the gem that is, “Now, I know you’ve been locked up all your life, but can you just wait as I leave you all alone in a dark and scary place for a while?” But while Johanna’s character wasn’t really explored, she seemed like she had a good, if shaken, head on her shoulders. Personally, I hoped she dumped his too-gallant pretty boy a** when they got out of the city. The little Toby was pretty cool, though, he must’ve been one of the most honest and well-meaning characters there. Seemed so tragic his innocence and affection/crush? for the baker were met with almost no response.

I’d say the music was pretty catchy. I’m not very familiar with musicals, so I must say the almost peppy rhythm at which they sang about cooking people took a while to get used to. Sacha Baron Cohen was jawesome, and I was impressed at his speaking voice until I reminded myself that the guy’s British, that’s probably his normal accent. Still, good acting, good stuff. Toby was adorable, and pretty moving as he basically pledged his loyalty. The big stars were quite good as one would hope of anyone of their caliber - Alan Rickman’s bass had my eyebrows raised, I was quite impressed. And I’m sure I would’ve been wowed by Anthony Stewart Head’s singing if he hadn’t been cut down to a single, unaccredited cameo >:{ Talk about being a tease, guys, thanks. Of course, maybe I should get over it. The man did, after all, go on to star in a bloody musical of his own, starring as someone who also cuts people up with a small, sharp tool of the trade…and is obsessed with his dead wife…and has a teenage daughter kept locked away. Huh. Interesting how that works out.