the mob wants their Sweeney
Sep. 18th, 2012 12:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
incandescensOne awesome thing about the production of Sweeney Todd I saw on Saturday (and there were many awesome things about it):
In a production or two that I've seen before, the opening chorus number ("Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd") is delivered directly to the audience by the assembled chorus, as a warning and a thread. (I realise this may not always be the case, but that was how it was done in the single previous stage performance that I've seen, and in the Hearns/Lansbury version.)
Here, the chorus were wandering around the stage at various everyday tasks, and the lines of the number were delivered from one to another as they met on the stage: it was an urban legend being passed around and embroidered on, with details being added in order to improve it.
As the song continued and strengthened, it wasn't just an urban legend. It was a hymn. It was a wish. Sweeney with his razor and his vengeance was what the chorus wanted, to bring down bloody mayhem on the people above them, the hypocrites, the virtuous, the judges, the beadles. All of them.
---
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.
He served a dark and hungry god.
To seek revenge may lead to hell,
But everyone does it, and seldom as well
As Sweeney,
As Sweeney Todd --
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!
In a production or two that I've seen before, the opening chorus number ("Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd") is delivered directly to the audience by the assembled chorus, as a warning and a thread. (I realise this may not always be the case, but that was how it was done in the single previous stage performance that I've seen, and in the Hearns/Lansbury version.)
Here, the chorus were wandering around the stage at various everyday tasks, and the lines of the number were delivered from one to another as they met on the stage: it was an urban legend being passed around and embroidered on, with details being added in order to improve it.
As the song continued and strengthened, it wasn't just an urban legend. It was a hymn. It was a wish. Sweeney with his razor and his vengeance was what the chorus wanted, to bring down bloody mayhem on the people above them, the hypocrites, the virtuous, the judges, the beadles. All of them.
---
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.
He served a dark and hungry god.
To seek revenge may lead to hell,
But everyone does it, and seldom as well
As Sweeney,
As Sweeney Todd --
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!
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Date: 2012-09-18 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-18 08:43 am (UTC)