Attend the Tale of Johnny Depp

[filkertom]

Tim Burton's making a movie of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.

Who else would you cast in it? The first face that leaps to mind is that of Orlando Bloom as Anthony, although I could make a case for Elijah Wood. Kate Winslet or Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett could be fantastic.

And Rupert Grint as Toby. :)

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Keep with the classics and get Lansbury back as Mrs. Lovett!

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched anything recent by her (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001450/) yet so I don't know. Maybe I'll pick up Nanny McPhee (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F1IQNM/ref=imdbpov_dvd_1/103-8796733-4771033?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130) (Ok, you caught me - I was going to get it anyway) and see her in that.

Damn. Sweeney Todd makes yet another DVD (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005JL6V/ref=pd_sim_d_1/103-8796733-4771033?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130) I have to spend money on eventually. :-)

Regardless she made an excellent Mrs. Lovett and I'll second the motion to see her back in that role again.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

The 1982 video version with her and George Hearn is great, marred only in my opinion by the excessively lame performance of Ken Jennings as Toby. I've always tried to figure this out, because Jennings' performance on the Original Cast Album (with Len Cariou as Todd and Victor Effin Garber as Anthony) was outstanding.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

$diety I don't even recall half of that performance but I do recall seeing it aired on PBS when I was in Junior High. (The same way I recall The Lathe Of Heaven being aired on PBS - very foggily.) It was one of those things that just captured my imagination and attention completely at the time but like so many things back then was ephemeral. (I do remember asking my mother jokingly after that what the beef pot-pies were made of.)

This is the exact sort of thing that make my quirky mind spend too much on things - now I'm going to have to buy the DVD this week and watch it again. ;-)

[mannoftalent.livejournal.com]

One of the big issues with Sweeney is that it requires trained voices in the supporting cast. But assuming a sufficient vocal skill level, here are my suggestions.

Recent Mrs. Lovett's have included Patti Lupone, Christine Baranski, and Emma Thomson could pull it off. Maybe Helena Bonham-Carter? She's quirky enough and one of Burton's regulars- this is assuming she can sing.

I'd put Victor Garber as the judge actually, he's certainly grown into the part. Barring that, perhaps Colm Feore.

I could see Rupert Grint as Tobias, but only if his voice us up to the task. I could definitely see Jamie Bell who was in Billy Elliot and King Kong as Tobias. Or maybe Billy Boyd or Dominic Monaghan.

Hmmm... Maybe get Hugh Jackman for Anthony? He's definitely a singer.

I hated her in Phantom but I suppose Emmy Rossum could do Johanna if someone teachers her a second facial expression.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I had considered Rossum for Johanna. Judging her acting based on Phantom is like judging Hayden Christensen's and Natalie Portman's acting on the Star Wars prequel trilogy: blame the director.

And Jackman is on my short list for Anthony as well.

I hadn't considered Garber for Judge Turpin, but that's a really good choice. Possibly also Terrence Mann. Or Tim Curry. :)

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Possibly also Terrence Mann. Or Tim Curry. :)

Either of these would be fantastic. As would Philip Quast.

[mannoftalent.livejournal.com]

Actually if they're lowering keys. i could totally see Tim Curry as Pirelli. Terrence Mann is a good possible judge as well, but unfortunately less known outside of Broadway.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see Jackman, but it's iffy how much I'd buy an Anthony so clearly over 30. He can certainly do goobey-lovestruck, tho. With Burton at the helm, I won't be surprised to see Ewan McGregor, but I don't know if he has the high notes.

I would ADORE Emma Thompson. Another random thought is Allison Janney, though I have no idea of her singing ability.

Johanna's much more technically tricky than Christine. (There's a reason Betsy Joslin sounds so strained on the video; she had some serious vocal fatigue toward the end of that tour, when it was filmed.) "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" is a lower-passagio-sitting nightmare. I don't think Emmy Rossum has the middle register for it. Maybe a delayed gratification for Anne Hathaway? (I remain convinced that the PotO folks cast Rossum for the resemblance to their first choice, who was chained to her Disney tiara at the time.) Although she seems to be trying to get away from the ingenues.

Frankly, I'll just be happy to see anyone who doesn't do it as a wispy pop soprano. That's getting seriously old.

I can totally see/hear Billy Boyd. Also wouldn't object to Neil Patrick Harris -- I thought he did a terrific job in the concert, and he's certainly used to on-camera. Either is older than people might immediately think of, but Tobias can work very well as a childishly simple adult.

Much as I'd love to see Garber in there somewhere, all the maturity in the world isn't going to make him a bass. :-/ I'd say Shuler Hensley for the Judge.

Sarah Jessica Parker for the Beggarwoman? Or put Bonham-Carter there. Actually, that's probably where Burton will think of her (as you said, assuming she can sing). She could easily pull off both the "present" and the innocent young Lucy of the flashback.

I'll probably think of more later.

[mannoftalent.livejournal.com]

I could see Anne Hathaway as Johanna, assuming that she does sing.

As far as the judge. Mark Jacoby's a tenor and he's doing in on Broadway right now. Shuyler Helmsley is brilliant but he's so big you'd need a beadle the size of Andre the Giant to match him.

I don't know if Bonham Carter has the notes for the beggar woman. I think you'd need her as Lovett which is more charactery.

Just a thought

[tonemangoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether this is good or bad. I love Burton to death (despite some of his films leaving me cold) and I HATE Sondheim with all of my might, similar to my hatred of Webber and Larson. Sondheim is a man who is praised for having "witty" lyrics, melodies, and constructions, and is ultimately a style-over-substance hack who hasn't written a memorable tune in his life. I even hate his lyrics for West Side Story, although Bernstein saved that. Let's just hope Burton can at least make this visual fun, and allow Elfman to write the incidental music, a la Chicago.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

A small difference of opinion, then. :) I think Sondheim is a frickin' genius, who's written dozens of memorable tunes.

[nuveena.livejournal.com]

He writes "the tunes that go bum-bum-bum-de-dum.. plenty of melody!"

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Dominic Monaghan as Toby
Charles Durning as Judge Turpin
Rene Auberjonois as the Beadle
Emma Thompson as Crazy Beggar Lady
and
Steve Martin as Pirelli

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Not bad at all. Especially Thompson and Martin.

[mannoftalent.livejournal.com]

I can't agree with all that. The judge is lean and hungry as opposed to the fat beadle. I'd rather see Auberjonois as the judge, and he does sing.

Steve Martin as Pirelli, it'd be weird and you'd have to keep a cap on his usualy antics... but...

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Where is it set in stone that the Beadle has to be the fat one and the judge be the thin one? I picked Auberjonois for Beadle because he's a tenor and the judge is a baritone. In fact, if you listen to the Beadle on the original Len Cariou album, it's almost the same voice. And he's oily!

Durning sings a good baritone and is an amazing creepy villain--anyone see him as the mailman in that otherwise forgetable scarecrow movie? It'd be Judge Sponge instead of Judge Spiker, but I'd say a good choice nonetheless.

Pirelli is more or less slapstick comic relief, or at least I'd wager that's how Burton will approach it. His part consists mostly of the fake elixir, the tooth-pulling contest ("Wait, boss! I don't have a toothache! "Shut-a-da up! Thwap! You a-do a-now!") , and the schtick where Todd keeps slamming the trunk lid onto his hand. Steve Martin would pull it off because he's over the top. I envision him in an outrageous fake mustache doing an outrageous Chico Marx impression, having more fun than when he did the dentist in "Little Shop of Horrors". Again, not the version you're used to, but honestly, do you expect the Tim Burton version to be what you're used to?

[ladysmith.livejournal.com]

Patti LuPone is doing a fabulous Mrs. Lovett on Broadway now. That would be cool. ;-}

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

She does very well on the 2002 In Concert DVD.

[nuveena.livejournal.com]

What ladysmith said. I saw the new production of _Sweeney Todd_ two weeks ago, and it ROCKED. LuPone and Michael Cerveris were just fabulous.

(And the staging was really, really neat, but obviously, that couldn't translate to the film. I didn't know Patti LuPone could play the tuba!)

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

I've listened to the cast album of the new Todd, and watched the medley that was done on the Tony broadcast this past Sunday. Cerveris is outstanding, and I liked what I saw of the staging, but I had problems with the recording. A number of the cast members, most notably LuPone, kept slipping in and out of their accents. That drives me crazy.

BTW, I saw a brief interview with Cerveris and LuPone on A&E's Breakfast With The Arts. LuPone mentioned that she'd last played tuba in high school, and had to essentially relearn it for the show.

[nuveena.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a bummer.. I'd been looking forward to getting the album for this cast.

[beldar.livejournal.com]

Depp has the feel of stunt-casting. I'm sure he'd be great as Todd (actually, I'm not sure, or I wouldn't be posting this) but I'm stumped as to who the answer to "Oh yeah, then who would YOU cast?" would be. Antonio Banderes? He can sing, and has stage presence, but Todd is supposed to be ghostly white and that would take a lot of makeup.

I vote for Bonham Carter for Mrs. Lovett (I'd eat her pies anytime!)

(Since I live with someone who has a major rant about how awful Lansbury was in the original and that was why she hated the show, I'm not about to suggest A.L. be recast)

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh.

The floor is opened for Toddcasting. (As opposed to NToddcasting (http://dohiyimir.typepad.com/).)

See, I think Depp is a superb actor, one of the very best alive... but I would cast either Terrence Mann or John Malkovich (admittedly not knowing if Malkovich's singing chops are up to it), with the outside selections of John Lithgow or... Bruce Campbell. ;)

[ddrussianinja.livejournal.com]

Depp acting-wise would be great, but Depp has also said himself that he can't sing. He may just have been modest, but if it's true, that's a rather large problem.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Particularly because the role of Todd is demanding both dramatically and musically.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

He's too baby-faced anyway. Todd has to look like a man hard-used by life. As a friend of mine just said in my journal, a man who was once an attractive young man, but after sixteen years of deportation and exile, and a shipwreck, he is now an unrecognizable wreck of a man.

I just can't see pretty-face Depp pulling that off.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

*jaw drops* Oooohhh...not my favorite Sondheim, but second favorite isn't bad. *picks jaw up off floor* FASTER, TIM BURTON, FASTER!

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Casting Todd? Bob Gunton, hands down.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

William Joyner (http://www.pinnaclearts.com/artist.php?id=546) for Adolfo Pirelli. He played the role in the first-ever amateur production of Sweeney Todd (I was in the pit). He has the voice, and the over-the-top-ness needed.

[signy1.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'd far rather see it cast with Broadway-caliber singers than Hollywood names with mediocre voices. If that means relative unknowns, then so be it, but if we can avoid another 'Phantom' catastrophe, I'd be grateful. Sitting through that botch job took a few years off my life.