Sweeney Todd

As a musical -- successful?

I found the music and the singing atrocious...

Originally posted by Palynka
I found the music and the singing atrocious...

I would have taken a different approach, myself. The lyrics were fine, but the arrangements ... What style would you have preferred?

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
I would have taken a different approach, myself. The lyrics were fine, but the arrangements ... What style would you have preferred?

Apart from allowing JD and HBC to sing, I don't see the problem with the approach, but mostly the execution... What about you?

(I presume you're talking about the film here and not the musical that inspired it. I haven't seen the latter.)

Originally posted by Palynka
Apart from allowing JD and HBC to sing, I don't see the problem with the approach, but mostly the execution... What about you?

(I presume you're talking about the film here and not the musical that inspired it. I haven't seen the latter.)

The film. Didn't know there was a musical.

I think so. I'd have chosen music with simpler lines to complement the horror rather than drown it. Something more Brechtian, perhaps, like Tom Waits' theatre music (Black Rider, Alice).

Whose voices would you have substituted for JD & HBC?

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
As a musical -- successful?

I would have liked the film better if it hadn't been a musical.
Not that I thought their singing was attrocious, but I didn't like the songs.

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
The film. Didn't know there was a musical.

I think so. I'd have chosen music with simpler lines to complement the horror rather than drown it. Something more Brechtian, perhaps, like Tom Waits' theatre music (Black Rider, Alice).

Whose voices would you have substituted for JD & HBC?

What about Nick Cave and Patti Smith?

Originally posted by Palynka
What about Nick Cave and Patti Smith?

PJ Harvey, rather?

Yes, Nick Cave should do a musical.

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
The lyrics were fine

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit
and the vermin of the world inhabit it
and its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit
and it goes by the name of London.

Lovely.

Originally posted by Palynka
Apart from allowing JD and HBC to sing, I don't see the problem with the approach, but mostly the execution... What about you?

(I presume you're talking about the film here and not the musical that inspired it. I haven't seen the latter.)

Yeah ... if you were ever wondering who'd put Depp, Carter, and Rickman into a film and have them sing, well ....