Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. (Angela Lansbury & George Hearn, 1983) DVD. Soundtrack remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1. Fullscreen, subtitled in English, Spanish, and French. 139 minutes.
Continuing a fortuitous tradition of capturing the Sondheim legacy on video recordings, this performance of Sweeney Todd was filmed before a live audience in Los Angeles during the 1982 national tour and first broadcast on Showtime in 1983.
Stephen Sondheim's Victorian horror-thriller is generally considered his greatest work, macabre but darkly humorous with a viscerally powerful score that has found a home both on Broadway and in opera houses.
George Hearn (who replaced Len Cariou of the original Broadway cast) plays the title character, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder, and Angela Lansbury (reprising the role she created in the original Broadway production) plays his partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett, who finds a practical business use for Todd's victims. This combination of horror and humor is echoed in Sondheim's score: brooding menace ("The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "My Friend"), achingly beautiful ballads ("Johanna," "Not While I'm Around"), clever puns ("A Little Priest"), coloratura arias ("Green Finch and Linnet Bird"), and intricate choral and ensemble numbers.
Almost 20 years later, Hearn returned to the role opposite Patti LuPone in an acclaimed concert production. But Sweeney Todd is an especially compelling experience in this 1983 version, complete with the clever staging tricks (e.g., the barber's chair) and as close to the original Broadway production as we're ever likely to see.