Blind Prophecy

The last few days have been busy and fun. I’ll have tons of pictures to share once I get a faster connection. Lots of family time, and I’m not regretting any of it.

On Saturday, I got together with my friend David, who I wish I’d had more time to get to know before moving, and we ate sushi before going to see Sweeney Todd. 

My thoughts, well, it’s sorta like the movie version of Rent. Yes, the stage play is infinitely better. Go see the stage play (preferably along the lines of the original staging–not some crappy concept that scales everything down to a minimalistic actors-play-their-own-instruments mess).

That said, the movie did it’s job. It took a huge score, a huge story, and larger-than-life characters and packaged them for a broader audience in about half the time allowed on stage. The movie had to jettison some of the more subtle plot lines (i.e. Judge Turpin’s growing obsession over Johanna, including the masturbation/flagellation number), and I can understand why some of the songs had to be cut for pacing (i.e. “Parlor Songs” with the Beadle), but I really think it was a mistake to remove the chorus from the movie. Not only did it lose “the moral compass” as some critics have noted, but it also lost some of the deeper social commentary of the musical, the grandiose and operatic Victorian melodrama that defines the genre Sweeney Todd celebrates, and some of the most emotional moments in the show (in particular, the way the chorus of mad asylum escapees overrun the city singing “City on fire!/ Rats in the streets/And the lunatics yelling at the moon!/ It’s the end of the world! Good!/ City on fire!/ Hunchbacks kissing!/ Stirrings in the graves/ And the screaming of giant winds!/ Watch out! Look!/ Crawling on the chimneys,/ Great black crows screeching at the/ City on fire!” and the way it helps build to the sudden eerie silence that begins the endgame).

I won’t say Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were bad singers, but they weren’t served well by the exceptional casting of all the other roles in the show. Listening to Depp sing in duet with Jamie Campbell Bower was especially painful for Depp, and Carter wasted the golden opportunity when the first notes out of her mouth were a very pretty, slightly demure, and slow-paced ”Wait! What’s your rush? What’s your hurry?” Listen to Angela Lansbury sing those first three lines, listen to HBC sing those lines, and then tell me who has a better handle on Mrs. Lovett.

On the other hand, Sacha Baren Cohen was amazing as Pirelli and Ed Sanders almost stole the show as Tobias.

Bottom line, Sweeney Todd the movie isn’t as good as the stage production, but it’s worth seeing anyway. Also if you’re as phobic about blood as I am, be prepared to avert your eyes a lot.

After the movie, David and I visited Triangles where I bumped into a couple former committee members from Pride who wanted to bitch about this past year and doing Utah Pride without me. That was a nice boost to my ego (as if I needed it).

Anyway, I spent Sunday doing family things and not much else, but at least my niece Callie has finally decided I’m not too scary to hang around.

Filed under: Mi Familia, movies, theatregeekery, utah by Jere Keys