Sondheim tonight!

Broadway's Henry Miller's Theatre officially becomes the Stephen Sondheim Theatre this evening with the lighting of the marquee on 43rd Street.

A group of Sondheim devotees made the renaming possible with a donation to the Roundabout Theatre Company, which operates the venue, in honor of the composer's 80th birthday.

Unfortunately, I can't be there for the ceremony but as a fan, I'd like to add my congratulations on this long-overdue recognition. I can't wait to see my first show at the Sondheim.

I have many favorite Sondheim songs and musicals but I'm very partial to Sweeney Todd and I love the clever wordplay in "A Little Priest." Despite the grim subject matter, I can't help but smile at Mr. Sondheim's wit.

Patti LuPone - definitely not a diva

At the risk of shocking my tens of readers, I'll admit that up until a couple of years ago I was only vaguely aware of Patti LuPone's immense talents as a singer and stage actress.

I knew that she had starred in Evita on Broadway. But I knew and loved her mainly as Libby Thatcher in ABC's Life Goes On, where she coped with the trials and tribulations of being a wife and mother, including raising a child with Down syndrome.

So I've really only started to play catch-up on her career and luckily, I have Ms. LuPone herself to fill me in. Yesterday, in an effort to make a dent in my immense and ever-growing backlog of unlistened-to podcasts, I clicked on her 2008 appearance at Times Talks.

Wow, can she talk! It's a great interview.

She covers her tuba-playing childhood on Long Island and putting that skill to good use in Sweeney Todd, (I wish I could have seen it!) being in the first group of Juilliard drama students, how it felt when Mandy Patinkin got a bigger round of applause at the Evita curtain call. Plus, the sound effects - especially when the conversation turns to Sunset Boulevard - are priceless.

I'm learning all sorts of valuable information that will stand me in good stead should I ever be fortunate enough to meet her. (I did get her autograph after seeing her in Gypsy as part of City Center's Encores but there were so many people we didn't get a chance for quality time.)

This is the kind of thing I'm talking about, her reaction to the word "diva:"

"I think that word should be reserved for the operatic female singer. That's where it originated and that's where it belongs. It should not be relegated to a newscaster or anybody on Broadway or somebody behaving diva-ish. I just think it should stay where it is. I don't like the word diva applied to me, I do not think I am a diva."

I did not know that! And I do not want to incur Ms. LuPone's wrath, as my fellow blogger Robertianish found out with his unfortunate face-to-face encounter.

So Patti, I love your singing and acting and I can't wait to see you on stage again. But you are not now nor have you ever been a diva. Or at least, you didn't hear it from me.

Sweeney Todd - the movie

Roxie at Stage Left, House Right and I must have had a Vulcan mind meld last weekend, because we both watched the movie version of Sweeney Todd. Like Roxie, I really enjoyed it, despite having to shield my eyes during the more gory parts.

This was my fourth time with one of my favorite Stephen Sondheim scores. I've watched the stage version, with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn, and the concert version, with Patti LuPone, Hearn and Neil Patrick Harris, on DVD. Last fall, I saw the revival, with actors playing all the instruments, on tour in Boston.

But starting with the computer generated scenes of a dark, sooty, grimy Victorian London, the movie version is by far the creepiest, most horrific, most Dickensian Sweeney Todd I've ever seen. There's no soft-pedaling the violence the way there is on stage, where you can get by with only a hint of blood to show Sweeney dispatching his victims. In the movie, it's very much in your face. I've read that Sondheim's intention was to create a musical in the style of Grand Guignol, macabre horror stories that contain graphic violence. Well, this Sweeney certainly seems close to Sondheim's vision.

Helena Bonham Carter is fine as the demented piemaker Mrs. Lovett. I'm a big fan of Bonham Carter from those exquisite Merchant-Ivory period pieces, with their gorgeous locations and genteel characters, like A Room with a View and Howard's End. But I don't think she holds a candle to Angela Lansbury. I just think Lansbury has a wonderfully comic, daffy take on the role that makes songs like "The Worst Pies in London" and "A Little Priest" so memorable. I have to admit, I did miss the humor. There aren't many laughs in this version of Sweeney Todd.

I thought Johnny Depp brought a terrific sense of slowly boiling rage to his portrayal of the wrongly imprisoned Benjamin Barker, who transforms into the murderous and vengeful Sweeney Todd when he returns to London to find his wife dead and his daughter Johanna a ward of the amoral Judge Turpin. I think the movie kicks the evil up a notch from the stage. The close-ups of Depp make his descent into madness as the demon barber of Fleet Street seem more chilling. He gets more ruthless, his face and clothes bloodier, as the movie goes on.

I was really impressed with the choices director Tim Burton took in casting the supporting roles. I refuse to watch Borat, and I hate all of Sacha Baron Cohen's alter egos, but he was very funny in a small part as rival barber Adolfo Pirelli. Alan Rickman is so slimy as Judge Turpin that I could easily understand the revulsion that Jayne Wisener's Johanna feels after he announces his intention to marry her. Yuck! And Timothy Spall is perfect as the self-important beadle, who acts as Turpin's eyes and ears.

I thought it made perfect sense to have younger actors cast as Anthony, the sailor who falls in love with Johanna, and Tobias Ragg, the urchin Mrs. Lovett takes in. Edward Sanders is sweet and kind of cheeky as Tobias. He was 14 when the movie came out, but seems much younger. He's a little boy who looks like he should be in the cast of Oliver! but without the saccharine sweetness. Yes, 20-year-old Jamie Campbell Bower does have a somewhat androgynous look as Anthony, but I thought he brought an innocence, sweetness and puppylike eagerness to the role. I really believed that he and Johanna could have fallen in love at first sight. Other Anthonys I've seen have just seemed too mature.

My only regret is that because I didn't see Sweeney Todd in a theatre, with a big, bold surround sound, the music didn't seem quite as vital. On screen, there's so much to look at, so many special effects. It occurred to me that you could have had a perfectly good movie without the music. But on stage, from the chorus that narrates "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" onward, the songs are so integral to telling the story. I can't imagine Sweeney Todd without them.

Too much gore?

No, I'm not talking about Al, although he has been in the news a lot lately. I'm talking "Sweeney Todd."

Along with "Assassins," which I'm not likely to have a chance to see anytime soon, "Sweeney Todd" is my favorite Stephen Sondheim score. I've seen the Broadway musical on dvd with an awesome, hilarious Angela Lansbury as the twisted piemaker Mrs. Lovett. This fall, I had a chance to see "Sweeney" on stage, when I took in the tour of director John Doyle's imaginative production.

I'm not a big Tim Burton or Johnny Depp fan. (I liked "Ed Wood" and "Edward Scissorhands," but the Burton/Depp collaboration on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was a little too dark, and Depp's Willy Wonka was a little too weird for my taste). Still, I'd be looking forward to the movie version of "Sweeney Todd." There's just one problem: I'm very squeamish when it comes to violence. If there's not too much blood and gore, and it's not to graphic, I'll be fine. I can always take my glasses off and cover my eyes for a minute.

But I've had my doubts about whether I could take a realistic silver-screen version of "Sweeney Todd." After viewing the movie's opening credits on broadwayworld.com, I'm beginning to think I'll have to wait a few months for it to come out on dvd.

Ok, I know what you're thinking: exactly what did I expect? After all, it's a story about a barber who slits the throats of his customers and a baker who uses some unsavory ingrediants in her meat pies.

Well, it's not exactly the blood and guts that attracted me in the first place. Like I said, I enjoy the score, the Victorian England setting and the humor. And I admit that Burton and Depp's version may be closer to the Grand Guignol tradition of macabre, grisly entertainment that Sondheim envisioned.

I guess I'll buy the soundtrack and wait a few months to see Johnny Depp as Sweeney and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett. Until then, I have Angela Lansbury on dvd to keep me company.

Sweeney Todd

You can't be a serious musical theater fan without a working knowledge of Stephen Sondheim, musical theater's greatest living composer. Until now, my only acquaintance with the maestro had been from afar, through watching his work on DVD or listening to Broadway cast CDs.

Of the three Sondheim shows I've seen on DVD, "Sweeney Todd," with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn in the 1979 Broadway production, is by far my favorite. I love the setting, in a seedier part of 19th-century London, the themes of class division, injustice and the desire for revenge, and the score's mixture of humor and poignancy.

So I was excited about seeing the tour of the 2005-2006 Broadway revival that starred Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone, with the actors doubling as musicians. And I'm so glad I went. I had a great view and a great time from the mezzanine of Boston's Colonial Theatre.

David Hess plays Benjamin Barker, a barber unjustly imprisoned and exiled to Australia by Judge Turpin, who covets his wife. Upon his return, he is told his wife, Lucy, has killed herself and his daughter, Johanna, is now the judge's ward. Adopting the name Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street vows to get his revenge.

Hess, his hair looking slightly disheveled, is convincing as a man driven mad by what he has endured. When Sweeney, reunited with the tools of his trade, sings, "these are my friends, see how they glisten," then raises his straight razor skyward and proclaims, "now my right arm is complete," he is unhinged and scary.

Judy Kaye is Mrs. Lovett, the entrepreneurial maker of meat pies who comes up with a plan for disposing of Sweeney's victims. I loved watching her prance on stage with a tuba, and she has some funny moments. But she lacked the sense of eccentricity and great Cockney accent that makes Lansbury's Tony-winning turn so memorable. Kaye's character somehow seemed less of a character. I didn't find her quite as funny - or as mad - as I thought she should have been.

One of my favorite parts of the show is when Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett sing "A Little Priest," about some of the more unsavory ingredients in the meat pies. While I enjoyed Kaye and Hess, and I did laugh, their duet seemed to lack a little of the over-the-top hilarity that I remember from watching Angela Lansbury and George Hearn. Although the Colonial Theatre audience ate it up.

I didn't get to see Benjamin Magnuson, who played the role of Anthony in the Broadway revival, but his understudy, Edwin Cahill, is great as the young sailor who befriends Sweeney and falls in love with his daughter. Cahill's Anthony is brash and full of youthful enthusiasm and recklessness. Lauren Molina, reprising her role of Johanna from the revival, is wonderful and sings beautifully. She is so sweet as the judge's ward, a teenager frightened and repulsed at the prospect of marrying him.

Keith Buterbaugh as Judge Turpin and Benjamin Eakeley as the beadle wore more modern-looking clothes that almost made it seem as if they were in a different show. Turpin, with his silver mane and nicely tailored suit, is the respectable public servant whose urbane exterior hides something sinister. And the beadle, dressed in a black suit and white tie, comes off as a thug whose purpose in life is to do the judge's bidding, lawful or not.

When Turpin caresses Johanna, telling her that he plans to marry her in order to protect her, it's a truly creepy moment. In some ways, Turpin and the beadle are scarier than Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. (When I think about it, almost everyone in this show is a little bit mad.)

A lot of the unorthodox elements of John Doyle's production, including having the actors play instruments, worked well. In a way, the instrument seemed to fit the performer, from brassy Mrs. Lovett's tuba to Johanna's delicate, melancholy cello.

I'm more than a little squeamish, so I was a bit concerned that the show might be a little too gory for me. Luckily, I was fine. There's actually less gore in this version than in the original. And the sound and lighting effects when Sweeney does away with another victim are inspired. (Richard G. Jones designed the lighting and Dan Moses Schreier, the sound).

Doyle also is credited as the designer. I think the stripped-down set does cause the production to lose some of its connection to Victorian England. Things weren't quite as grim as I thought they should have been. But the vertical cupboard crammed with every type of knick-knack, photograph, and religious icon does evoke the cluttered, messy existance at Mrs. Lovett's meat pie shop.

I wish I'd been able to see Cerveris and LuPone in the revival (and of course, I would love to have seen Angela Lansbury in the original!) Still, I think this production of "Sweeney Todd" is a great introduction to seeing Sondheim on stage. I definitely got a sense of the menace and the humor that make this such a great piece of musical theater. And I love the score even more after hearing it live.

Sadly, there were plenty of empty seats in the theater. While the orchestra looked fairly full, the mezzanine, where I was sitting, was half empty. And there were even fewer people in the balcony. The Red Sox weren't even playing until the evening, so really what was the excuse?