Read an off-site Synopsis of the show on Musicals.Net.

This is one of the absolute best musicals ever written. My hat is permanently off to Stephen Sondheim. I fell in love with this show after watching the live concert on PBS (which appropriately aired on Halloween, 2001) starring George Hearn and Patti Lupone. I immediately got my hands on this OBC recording which features Len Cariou in the title role and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. I love this CD. It does not go into its case. It lives a nomadic and uncertain life, journeying from room CD player to car CD player to Discman and back again (frequently swapping places with that other nomad, The Scarlet Pimpernel OBC, LOL).

Len Cariou is fantastic as Todd. I don't know how he was onstage, but I bet he was phenomenal. By the time they made the video of the National Tour in 1982 (read my review here), George Hearn had taken over the role. So this CD is the only part of Cariou's performance that is preserved. Since Hearn was my first Todd, I will forever compare everyone to him, but Cariou's performance is very different. The role really can only be great when played two ways. Todd can either be a loud, over-the-top maniac, which works with the right kind of actor (George Hearn!). OR, he can be a subtle maniac. Someone whose craziness is never quite apparent but is always there - just below the surface, just where you can't see it, but waiting for the right catalyst to set it off. This is really hard to do right, and from all reports Cariou did it perfectly. He certainly does it perfectly on this CD! He gives me chills.

Angela Lansbury is really wonderful as Mrs. Lovett. It took me a while to get used to her, I admit, but it has nothing to do with talent. The fact is, I was raised on Disney's Beauty and the Beast… so I kept hearing Mrs. Potts. It is very difficult to get into Mrs. Lovett singing about putting people into meat pies when you keep getting a mental image of a singing teapot. But that's me, not Lansbury, and I'm glad I broke through. She's wonderful! (I need more good adjectives, I'm running out.) When the song requires it (and even when it doesn't), she's hilarious. And it takes a really good singer to sound off-key while being right on. The part of Mrs. Lovett is really difficult to sing for that reason, I believe – many of her sung lines are written in a dischordant strings of notes that are supposed to represent the shrill, tinny voice of the character. With a bad singer it would sound like they hit ten wrong notes in sucession; Lansbury does it perfectly. She also knows when to let her voice go into the gravelly, shrill character mode, and when to let her real voice shine through. It takes a good singer to purposely sing badly, just the same way it takes a good actor to play a bad one. The role of Mrs. Lovett also requires a strong actress, because it is of paramount importance that the audience fall in love with her during her first few lines ("The Worst Pies in London"), or else they will hate the show. You have to have a strong Sweeney, too, because the audience does need to be totally sympathetic with him; but first you need a strong Mrs. Lovett. It's she who makes the audience settle into their seats to enjoy the whole show, because I for one was not at all impressed by "There's No Place Like London." So at that point I'm sitting here going, should I turn it off? And Todd walks into the meat-pie shop, and Mrs. Lovett does her thing, and I go, hmm… this could be pretty good! I like this! I really think Mrs. Lovett is the hook of this show. She keeps you in your seat long enough to hear "My Friends" and some of Sweeney's other numbers, which capture us for good.

Anyway, back to Angela Lansbury. I've just been explaining in a very lengthy manner how difficult the role is, and now I impart to you that Lansbury rises to the occasion. Actually she rises waaaaaaaaay past it. Allow me to metaphorically explain that if the occasion was at the top of a very high tree, Lansbury has ascended much higher than that and you will find her somewhere in the vicinity of the moon. Get it?

The supporting cast is great too. Victor Garber is a nice Anthony. Anthony tends to annoy me, but I do like his songs. The version of "Johanna" on this CD is great. Edmund Lyndeck is really good as the disgusting, perverted, dirty-old-man Judge Turpin. This CD includes "Johanna (Judge's Song)" in which the Judge alternately peers through Johannna's keyhole and flagellates himself. This is incredibly disturbing and was later cut from the show, but it's well-played and well-sung; it's disturbing because it's so real, in fact.

The character of Johanna does not appeal to me at all, but Sarah Rice is pretty good. "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" is very nice, as are her bits of Kiss Me. But am I the only one that was rather annoyed by Johanna and Anthony, and occasionally wished that Todd would just do them in while he was at it?

Ken Jennings makes a good Tobias. He's sweet, but more hardy and street-smart than Neil Patrick Harris in the concert. His voice isn't the greatest I've ever heard, but it's still darn good. I was surprised by the difference in the two portrayals of the character. Neil Patrick Harris is really too old (and too tall) for the role, I think. I got the impression that Toby was in his early twenties, but severely retarded, which certainly works nicely with the plot. However, Jennings makes me think he is supposed to be a young boy – his intelligence isn't really up to par, because after all he's an uneducated London street urchin whose been abused all his life by Pirelli. But he's not retarded – just young and a little socially naïve, for all his street smarts.

All in all? This is one of the greatest CDs ever made, and one of the greatest musicals ever written. One thing about this CD – and I've heard other people say this, too – is that there's not a single song that isn't good. Most shows have a one or two really great songs, a few good songs, and the rest is just filler. And a lot of times there's a song or two that's really terrible. But every single song in this show is at least good, and most are great. Every song is necessary.

Well, after this really long review… if you're still here BTW you deserve congrats! The bottom line is if you like satire, you will think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. But be forewarned, it's pretty sick humor. Really it's Sondheim. If you like Sondheim you will like it. If you don't, you might still like it, but you might not. This is not POTO or Les Mis; it's not for everyone. There are no falling chandeliers or obsessed policemen (don't get me wrong, I love POTO and Les Mis!), only real people presented so realistically that they are satirical.

All fans of musicals should defintely hear this CD once. What you do after that is your call.

Also see my review of the Sweeney Todd Live in Concert CD and National Tour Video.

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Canzonetta Sull'Aria was launched on July 14, 2003 by Laura.
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