Cast: Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd), Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs. Lovett), Alan Rickman (Judge Turpin), Jamie Campbell Bower (Anthony Hope), Jayne Wisener (Johanna), Laura Michelle Kelly (Beggar Woman), Ed Sanders (Toby)
For complete info on this great cast, see IMDb's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street page.
As a huge fan of musical theatre, any time they're making a great musical into a movie (even if it's one that was already a movie, like The Producers), I worry that they might not do a good job. I go into them with open minds and have really loved what they've done with Rent, Hairspry, and many others. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is Sondheim, though... this raises the bar some, since I think Sondheim is probably the best musical theatre composer ever. His scores are always complex and many of the parts in his shows are challenging, which makes it more difficult to find a good cast for any production of one of his shows. I've always loved Sweeney Todd, though I've never been able to see a live production. I've seen the Original Broadway Cast on video (thank goodness they recorded it!) and that's it. I was very excited about the concept of Sweeney Todd as a movie.
I think they did an amazing job with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street! I think that even those who don't generally enjoy musical theatre can appreciate the movie, but those who love musical theatre will really like this movie. I'll definitely purchase this one on DVD as soon as it comes out and I'm going to buy the CD, too. The cast is wonderful, the make-up, costumes, and sets were all very well done... Sure, a lot of stuff had to be cut out musically. That's always the case with a musical made into a movie, since they don't want to alienate the non-musical theatre lovers. The only song that I really missed in the movie version of Sweeney Todd was The Ballad of Sweeney Todd. They played the music from it at times, but never actually played the song. I expected them to use it in the credits (as they did with my favorite song from Hairspray, which they skipped in the movie), but they just played orchestral music, nothing with lyrics. Oh well, since that's the only thing I truly missed in the movie and I understand why it wasn't there, they did a great job. I'm glad that Johnny Depp got best actor for a musical or comedy in the Golden Globe Awards and that the movie won the best musical or comedy. The movie is wonderful and they deserve to be recognized.
If you haven't seen this, try to catch it on the big screen. It's still playing here at almost all theatres. Check it out before it goes away!
Grade: A
Labels: 2007, Alan Rickman, crime, drama, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, movie, musical, Stephen Sondheim, thriller
Reviewed by Kat at the 5:33 PM show | 0 screams