Customer Reviews

Sweeny Todd - By: Mrs. C. Standfield, 03 May 2010
I was pleased with this dvd. It was the version I remembered from years ago. Previously I had bought the one with Johnnie Deppin & was dissapointed as nearly all the songs were missed out. The description on the web page was informative & the delivery was within a few days.

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Fantastic Performances - By: I. R. Scott, 23 Jan 2009
What a superb film. Anyone who appreciates Stephen Sondheim will enjoy this excellent performance. Hearn is the finest Sweeney ever & Angela Lansbury is brilliant as Mrs Lovett. There is not a weak linkin the cast. I would recommend this to anyone.

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Just Wonderful - By: H. Frohmann, 21 Jul 2008
Thank goodness this recording of the stage show is now available with its magnificent central performances from Angela Lansbury & George Hearn.

The show's triumphant mix of gruesome comedy, melodramatic lovers' subplot & final tragic depiction of what revenge does to a human soul is brilliantly acted & excellently sung.

This is the only version you'll ever need.

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Lansbury and Hearn make Sweeney Todd Sing...! - By: Katherine M. Griffis (Greenberg), 24 May 2008
This DVD is of the 1982 film of the theatrical production of Sweeney Todd shows the vision of Stephen Sondheimin make a "horror" musical about a legendary sensational character from English literature.

Hearns' performance as Todd is well-acted, but two-dimensionalin feel. He is either 'on' as the demon barber or merely standing about like scenery. Lansbury,in 1982, at 57, gives a great performance which often overshadows Hearn's. She is engergetic & loud, as I gather she would think a cockney Mrs Lovett would act. Yet, there's something somewhat "off"in her performance, as if she were playing a precocious teenager rather than a mature, but addled widowed woman left alone & pennilessin the world.

The Alms woman provides Cassandra-like pronouncements throughout the show, which keeps the sense of foreboding alive. The side story of the two lovers, Johanna & Anthony, while integral to the overall plot, often gets cumbersome & overly melodramatic as it threatens to engulf itselfin convoluted plot & scene changes. The villains of the piece, the Judge & his Beadle, are played with relish by the actors, but again merely as two-dimensional characters.

The character of Toby seems to provide some complex acting within the plot, & his song to Lovett, "Nothing's Going to Harm You Now," defines this character far more as a real human being than all other characters combined.

Don't buy this DVD if you want the Depp version - this is a stage version of the show, which means the intense close-ups of movie film just do not exist, which means the expression of feeling must be overacted and, as I suspect, what Sondheim specifically wanted of his characters at the time.

So, enjoy this version of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd for what it is - a first attempt by a director/writer to produce a playin the "penny-dreadful" style, which later he modified to a dark a brooding commentary on what life can do to create a monster, as seenin the Burton/Depp version (2007).

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No Place Like London! - By: F. S. L'hoir, 12 Feb 2008
Buy this DVD for the moving performance & the magnificent voice of George Hearnin the title role, as well as for the classic comic romp of Angela Lansbury, whose voice & splendid diction are also thoroughly suited to the complexities of the music. In "Sweeney Todd," Sondheim is at his most melodious. Although it is hard to choose my favorite among songs such as "No Place Like London," & "Not While I'm Around," the third ensemble of "Johanna,"in which the hauntingly beautiful melody standsin sharp contrast to the ghastly action onstage, ranks high.

Almost all the voices are equal to Sondheim's brilliant score, which belongsin the pantheon of grand opera. The exception is the girl playing Johanna, whose shrill soprano voice is forced to such an extent that it goes sharp; thus one loses not only the thread of the melody, but also the lilting beauty of the "Green Finch & Linnet Bird" song. As one who loves the audio CD,in which soprano Sarah Rice floats effortlessly through the aria, I was severely disappointed.

Fortunately, the rest of the cast is splendid: especially the Beggar Woman, Anthony the Sailor, & the boy Toby (The DVD edition has more or less toned down the extent of Judge Turpin's perversions, which are blatantin Edmund Lyndeck's incredible version of "Johanna"in the audio CD.). Unfortunately the DVD does not provide the cast list on or inside the box, so I shall have to go back to the end of the disc & see who'sin it besides the stars.

Nevertheless, the stars are shining brightlyin this dark comic opera over a London that seems more like Paris of the Grand Guignol, the horror spectacle which once sent shivers down the spines of Parisian theatre goers. Even though the horror of the plot is unlikely to thrill the jaded modern audience, the performance of George Hearn certainly will.

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Related Titles

Other DVDs related to Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [DVD] [1982] include:

• Sweeney Todd
• Company [DVD] [2007] [US Import]
• Into The Woods [DVD] [1988]
• Sondheim - Sunday in the Park with George [DVD] [1986]
• Sweeney Todd in Concert : Stephen Sondheim [2001] [DVD]