Nah. I sympathize with him. He wants to do the right thing but he has a struggle between the man he wants to be and his natural desires. It's something all humans can relate to- mastering our temptations so that they don't master us. It's a pitiful sight. He's more of an anti-hero, but not a complete one. Yet he also isn't a complete villain either. I don't hate him. I pity him and his weaknesses that affect everyone around him.
@@asiyaheibhlin7297most people with a sex drive don’t rape others, including young girls they raised as their own. If you struggle with that, you need to be on a list
@@totalhufflepuff203 Actually sexual abuse between step-parents and their step-children is statistically common because the parent-child bond is weak or non-existant. It's even more true if the child is older when the relationship is established. I am not talking about having a sex drive. I am talking about have desires- those two shouldn't be conflated.
@@datroy3647 I'm pretty sure the full line "You'll deliver me, Johanna, from this hot, red, devil, with your soft, white, cool, virgin, palms" is supposed to imply, if anything, that he wants her to give him a handjob. I had to, sorry not sorry.
@@michaelwilliamybarra2409 Also him screaming god and holding his crotch is him jizzing in his pants. There's a reason this song's only on the album it got canned i think 2 previews in and to compensate Ed Lyndeck for having his only real big solo piece cut. I mean people were running out of their seats just from the full frontal throat slitting; Sondheim was really pushing it with Sweeney and this was written when broadway was still pretty snoot and pearl clutchery great stuff.
Tbh I actually have a theory that Javert is a closeted gay guy and he is obsessively attracted to Jean Valjean but sees it as wrong so blames Valjean for it and makes it his mission to punish him, so Javert becomes like Frollo and Stars is his version of Hellfire.
@@jjaniero In the show's libretto(and in the original Broadway production, before this song was cut in previews), it specifies that he's sings this while peering at Johanna in her room through the door's keyhole, while she's sowing(or reading, etc.) while not noticing him. Here's how this would play out with the original set, in this replica production done by the New York Opera in 2004: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gRwQNqwzui0.html
@@michaelwilliamybarra2409The film even had a nod to this, where Turpin looks at Johanna through the keyhole. (As well as singing a few bars of the song in his death scene)
Just to give a perspective, this song was cut from many versions of the play, including the original production from 1979 (The Cast Recording was recorded before the opening night) for being too disturbing and intense, something that royaly pissed of Sondheim. The earliest performance of this song I know of is the concert from 2002.
Mateus Cristian's Channel - I think they should have kept the song, and maybe dialed back the intensity. It’s entirely possible to drop the most disturbing elements without losing the song itself- and the valuable insight it gives into Turpin’s psychological character.
@@dmenor11ification It was also in the 1994 London revival, pesented by this BBC Radio performance: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QIM4Thj4zsE.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZCsxcDE3QWY.html
@@StoryMingI think if they removed the flagellation, they would have toned it down sufficiently. The lyrics are quite beautiful. It's the screams and the lashing that freak people out.
@@dmenor11ification I have the Angela Lansbury Sweeney and it is in that one...a bit shocking when not knowing what is coming but nonetheless powerful.
Philip did the best version of this. He gave it major energy. So many performers keep their eyes on the book or turn sideways from the audience or pull back at the orgasm. One guy literally sounded like he was coughing up a hairball. So good job, Philip Quast!
@@michaelwilliamybarra2409 maybe Disney can approach Quast one last time and ask him to sing one last time for the live action, since he has the perfect voice and background for Frollo. He starred as the antagonist in another play inspired by Victor Hugo and now maybe he can play in this one.
Hope it went well! How vulnerable you must make yourself as an actor in order to do this, knowing that this part serves the rest of the characters and story so well.
You are so lucky! I am a performer and this role has been on my wish list for a long time, so many actors I admire have done it! Call me a diva but I might not care to do the role if this song were cut (though I am afraid of it).
@@kennethwayne6857 This is my dream role also. I am not a professional, but I used to do a lot of musicals. I was always cast as the nice decent guy. Whenever I told my friends that this was my dream part, they always stare at me.
I also love how incredibly different Turpin and Javert are, but Phillip Quast portrays both states of mental distress and internal conflict so darn well. He is amazing.
Is it bad to say hellfire was less disturbing than this and I actually enjoy listing and sing it? Now that I think about it imma cleanse myself with hellfire right now.
these perverted lyrics have in contrast some of the most sublime music of the entire score - mr quast is wonderful but i don't know if anyone will ever surpass edmund lyndeck the original judge turpin on bway - the scene with him & johanna was done slowly, subtly, menacingly, and it was horrifying
It's an incredible acting song, but I'm not sure what it actually does teach us about Turpin? That he's an absolute slimeball who represents the "vermin of the world inhabit it" line that Sweeney sings? I'm genuinely curious because I have never understood what this song lends to the plot. I mean, it doesn't show me that the character has remorse. He seems to basically have an orgasm partway through. (Gross, but it makes sense with the character.) I guess the only way I could see that it gives a deeper meaning is in regard to the contrast and parallel between Sweeney Todd and the Judge. I guess having the Judge essentially want to consume the person who is essentially his daughter in a sexual way is a way of symbolically signaling that his appetite for his depraved sexuality is just as bad as the murders that Sweeney commits. Or perhaps, Sweeney's descent into darkness begins as a result of the Judge's evildoing. So I guess that would be the other way to read the song, the unlocking of depravity and evil. I'm still not sure what we really learn about the Judge other than that he one evil dude?
@@christophercobb249that he does feel some amount of disgust for his actions, if he didn't, I doubt he'd have adopted Johanna after driving her mother insane and be whipping himself over lusting after his adopted daughter.
I'm not sure where I can see what your saying, but I do agree that this concert as a whole looks weird from a set standpoint. I mean, they replaced the factory whistle with Sweeney pressing a air horn?!? I don't know what it's supposed to be theatrically, but it almost looks like he's begging someone to notice his murders already, rather than concerned in keeping them a secret. But that's what I thought anyway. :P
The original production came out before Disney's Hunchback, right? Ever wonder if they took a bit of inspiration from our lustful judge and his weird song about the object of his desire with heavy religious overtones for their own?
Five years too late, but I just wanted to add that the story of a prominent authority figure (usually a judge) trying to take advantage of a young woman, and debating the sanctity of their soul/trying to justify their actions, is a very old tradition in storytelling that is seen in literature going centuries and centuries back. Most notably, I think of Angelo from Measure for Measure. I just think it's interesting how certain stories are found in so many different genres, mediums, and literary eras.
I had no idea Phillip Quast did a version of Judge Turpin! That's incredible! I absolutely loved his Javert in the 10th Anniversary version of Les Miserables. Interestingly enough, I'm noticing that Judge Turpin's role in this scene is very much a reverse-Jean Valjean. In Les Mis, we see Cosette like Johanna begin to enter adulthood and become attached to an equally doting young man outside, and as in Sweeney Todd, her carer is perturbed by this and fears losing her. Only unlike Valjean, Turpin's fear is driven by a lusting jealousy, and also unlike Valjean he does not resist his fear adequately, and instead succumbs to it completely. And as if to make the comparison even more interesting, his story arc is also a complete parallel to another one of Hugo's works, Hunchback of Notre Dame, in Frollo's self-loathing frenzy upon pondering his lust for Esmerelda. I'm not a hundred percent sure of the chronology, I think Victor Hugo wrote Hunchback in like 1830s, and then Sweeney was 1840s, and Les Mis at 60s. I wonder if they had any influence on each other or if they just both were drawing from the same kind of cultural problems as each other. Regardless, they're all so incredible and they all have such great musicals inspired by them.
Victor Hugo did not write Sweeney Todd. An unknown author who is either James Malcolm Rymee and/or Thomas Peckett Prest. It was written in the United Kingdom in 1850
Would anybody be so kind to tell me if there is any way I can watch more of Philip Quast playing Judge Turpin? I'd certainly love to listen to him singing "Pretty Women".
Actually, this piece was a commonly cut song from this show starting from the original broadway production(though it is on the cast recording) since the director, Hal Prince, deemed it too disturbing for audiences at the time (Which explains why it's not in the professional live recording with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury). Now though, since audiences are now able to sit through a show with Sesame Street like muppets having sex(Avenue Q. of course!), another about staging "Springtime for Hitler"(The Producers), a hiphop retelling of one of our founding fathers, that successfully brings out the F bomb and re-censors it for comedic effect (Hamilton), and another in which two characters are hinted to being in a incestuous relationship(Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812), I think it's safe to say audiences can handle an old pervy judge, fixated and literally beating himself over his 16 year old ward, ultimately planning to marry her so she can give him a handjob. X'''''''''''''D
Ehhhhh... This is still more disturbing than those examples, I'd say. To be honest, it's not even the perving or flagellating that's the most disturbing thing, it's that there's no way of doing this scene without essentially forcing the audience to watch and listen to...shall we say a man reaching a pretty intense climax in the song. Sondheim even admitted that really the only reason for the song's existence was the fact that he wanted to be the first to portray that happening on a Broadway stage. It's still one of only two optional scenes in the show and relatively rarely gets put back in (the other I think being the second half of the contest and that NEVER gets performed).
@@armoniajoachim4128 And????? A lot of actors played the Phantom well in their 60s. Considering Philip's range is absolutely incredible. I think he would be a perfect fit for the role. VERY young 61 :)
@@armoniajoachim4128 Actually, Robert Guillaume, who took over for Crawford in LA was 63, and Flemming Enevold, the original Danish Phantom, recently reprised the role at the Copenhagen Revival at age 59. I think Bryn can also do the role. That is, if they tranpose part of the score for him
If anyone can find the sheet music/instrumental/karoake track to this song PLEEEEAAASE let me know where I can get it. I love this song and I want to perform it for thespian districts next year. Plz plz plz. :(
This song is deleted in most productions. I don’t think it’s even in the Hearn/Lansbury video recording. My professor explained a scene in the movie where Alan Rickman looks at Johanna through a hole in her door basically conveys the feeling of the song.
This is one of Sondheim's most brilliant character songs, exposing the tortured and evil soul of the deepest villain in a show the protagonist of which is a serial killer. Turpin has been consumed by guilt over his rape of Lucy, his lust for her having led to his exile of Benjamin Barker (who becomes Sweeney) to Botany Bay. But this time around, in his own twisted mind, he's going to do it right. No more rape at a costume ball, he's going to marry the object of his desire. I get very angry at directors who cut this number; doing so is like cutting Lonely Room from Oklahoma, denying the audience an understanding the psychology of the villain.
I think the interrupting parts of him praying is more of a genius portrayal of how stuck he is between his Christian morality and his sexual temptations. Johanna reminds him of her mother. I think it’s also an insight into how he has aged with the guilt of raping Johanna’s mother. He knows it’s a sin, but he also has the desire to repeat the same sin all over again. It’s melody is dark and creepy because of course, Turpin is both of those things. The dainty string music towards the end contrasts the whole piece as a way of displaying how he sees women. He loves the dainty and beautiful women, much like the little tune. Johanna is a gorgeous young woman, she’s in many ways the symbol of perfection for women of this time period.