Sweeney Todd 2005 Review Sweeney Todd is composed by the spectacular Stephen Sondheim. And this production was directed by John Doyle in 2005. This Musical is about a barber Benjamin Barker/Sweeney Todd who’s sent away by Judge Turpin because the Judge wanted Todd’s wife. Todd is told by his friend Mrs. Lovett that his wife died and his daughter Johanna is being kept by Judge Turpin who is planning to marry her. Todd vows that he will get revenge on The Judge. As Sweeney awaits to gain his revenge, he works as a barber and kills his clients while Mrs. Lovett runs a meat pie shop and uses the dead for the pies. I will be discussing the performances and the way the pieces are written. Thus I will not be able to talk about each track. “The
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This song is beautiful in the way it is written. The Number begins with Todd addressing the idea of pretty woman towards his wife who this entire revenge plot is for while the judge chimes in addressing the idea of pretty woman towards Todd’s daughter. This creates such an evil motive.
They both are singing such calm and soothing melodies when in fact they both are about to do such villainous acts. The performances by both the Judge and Todd are great. you can hear Cerveris’s both joy and pain recalling his wife then the judge At the end of the track Todd is interrupted by Anthony saying how he will be marrying Johanna. When the judge hears this he leaves in a rage. As this is happening, there’s a beeping noise in the background which sounds identical to a bomb. this symbolizes how Todd is going to snap and he does in the following number …show more content…
Todd fully becomes crazy in this number its shown through both lyrics and music. The Track shifts from extraordinarily heavy and livid to mourning and lyrical in just a few moments. This song incorporates a few different leitmotifs. The first one again is the Dies Irae. This starts after Todd’s lyric “but not for long”. The Dies Irae is clearly heard in the piano played very staccato. Another leitmotif is when Todd is singing the lyric “and my Lucy lies in ashes”. The melody that Todd is singing is the beggar woman’s theme. This means that Lucy is the beggar woman. This a gigantic hint that Sondheim gives to the listener. And he hints at it multiple times. In fact, he first hinted at it in the track Poor Thing. In this song Lovett is telling Todd that Lucy had been raped by the judge at a party and is now dead. When Lovett starts to talk about the party there’s a creepy waltz starts to play. The Beggar woman actually sings this in an earlier scene when she’s prostituting herself. This could easily spoil the show for an audience who has never seen it, however Sondheim does this so subtly it’s difficult to catch on the first listening. This track is definitely the hardest on a technical standpoint and an extremely difficult song to perform. Michael Cerveris gives a stellar performance in this number. You can
This song is beautiful in the way it is written. The Number begins with Todd addressing the idea of pretty woman towards his wife who this entire revenge plot is for while the judge chimes in addressing the idea of pretty woman towards Todd’s daughter. This creates such an evil motive.
They both are singing such calm and soothing melodies when in fact they both are about to do such villainous acts. The performances by both the Judge and Todd are great. you can hear Cerveris’s both joy and pain recalling his wife then the judge At the end of the track Todd is interrupted by Anthony saying how he will be marrying Johanna. When the judge hears this he leaves in a rage. As this is happening, there’s a beeping noise in the background which sounds identical to a bomb. this symbolizes how Todd is going to snap and he does in the following number …show more content…
Todd fully becomes crazy in this number its shown through both lyrics and music. The Track shifts from extraordinarily heavy and livid to mourning and lyrical in just a few moments. This song incorporates a few different leitmotifs. The first one again is the Dies Irae. This starts after Todd’s lyric “but not for long”. The Dies Irae is clearly heard in the piano played very staccato. Another leitmotif is when Todd is singing the lyric “and my Lucy lies in ashes”. The melody that Todd is singing is the beggar woman’s theme. This means that Lucy is the beggar woman. This a gigantic hint that Sondheim gives to the listener. And he hints at it multiple times. In fact, he first hinted at it in the track Poor Thing. In this song Lovett is telling Todd that Lucy had been raped by the judge at a party and is now dead. When Lovett starts to talk about the party there’s a creepy waltz starts to play. The Beggar woman actually sings this in an earlier scene when she’s prostituting herself. This could easily spoil the show for an audience who has never seen it, however Sondheim does this so subtly it’s difficult to catch on the first listening. This track is definitely the hardest on a technical standpoint and an extremely difficult song to perform. Michael Cerveris gives a stellar performance in this number. You can