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List Price: $14.97Amazon.com's Price: $10.99 You Save: $3.98 (27%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0883929017683
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 15, 2008
Running Time: 139 minutes
Sales Rank: 3042
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1983
Editorial Review:
Description:
Times are hard in 1846 London and one must make do. So Nellie Lovett adds something extra to the meat pies she peddles on Fleet Street. The secret ingredient: freshly murdered victims of her partner in crime, barber Sweeney Todd. Composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim refashions a macabre tale into a musical masterwork in this dazzling performance of the 1979 Broadway hit originally staged by Harold Prince. In her Tony-winning role (one of eight the show earned, including Best Musical), Angela Lansbury plays Nellie. George Hearn turns his stage role of twisted Sweeney into an Emmy-winning triumph. The score coils around itself in ever-tightening spirals. The lines ripple with black humor and madness. Enter Sweeney's tonsorial parlor. Attend the tale.
Amazon.com essential video:
Stephen Sondheim's Victorian horror thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 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 (an 18th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber), and Angela Lansbury 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.
Continuing a fortuitous tradition of capturing the Sondheim legacy on video recordings, this performance was filmed before a live audience in Los Angeles during the 1982 national tour. 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 1982 version, complete with the clever staging tricks (e.g., the barber's chair) and as close to the original cast as we're likely to see. --David Horiuchi
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Movie is much better.
Angela is fantastic as always. She made me laugh will her portrayal of Mrs. Lovett. The costumes are very nice. The set is the pits with one piece that men come out and turn 90 or 180 degrees for different scenes. There is a very annoying air horn they blow every 15 minutes, I guess to wake up the audience. The cast do their best with the material. However, as Stephen Sondheim always does, the songs go from beautiful to God-awful. What is the point of a "song" with NO melody and people singing lyrics ... Read More
Rating:  - Excellent rendition of Sondheim's great masterpiece
It is a great privilege to be able to view this original incarnation of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (imagine if we were able to see the original productions of a Mozart opera?) This performance of a stage production with audience present is excellent - certainly demonstrating Angela Lansbury's wonderful abilities as a singing actress.
Sweeney Todd is one of the great masterpieces of musical theatre blurring the genres of the musical and opera. Those who find musicals shallow should enjoy this ... Read More
Rating: - Simply, Superb !
I never imagined watching Mrs. Angela Lansbury in a musical like this. I love this actress and I think her performance is remarkable as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Tood. She would have enjoyed so much the new version in cinema. I recommend this DVD as a tribute to her. The story is amazing as well as in cinema but I think is very interesting to see all the technical aspects of a live-musical in a theater as if we were there.
Rating: - A must own for any fan of Sondheim
this performance is a superb representation of sondheim's classic tale. Angela landsburry and George hern do a magnificent job of bring the horrifying charicters to life.
Rating: - A masterpiece
While the recently-released movie version with Johnny Depp, et al, has much to recommend it, you haven't really experienced the sheer genius of Stephen Sondheim's Magnum Opus until you have viewed this version. The movie version is able to show things not possible in the stage version, but the necessity to cut the time to an acceptable movie length leaves out much of the majesty. The chorus, the magnificent staging, and the performances of the leads are in a class by themselves.
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