@@EditorOfSL Yes, Dame Angela Landsbury, an English woman who is familiar with the different dialects of her home country, the one who originated the role of Mrs. Lovett and chose to speak in a Cockney accent as that would've been the accent Mrs. Lovett would've had if she had been a real woman... is speaking in a stereotypical accent that all Americans think English people speak in (even though the densest American typically associates both the Cockney/Oliver Twist accent and the posh Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering accent with the English), because obviously when someone speaks in an *perceived exaggerated accent, they *must* be American, so Dame Angela is American by this "sound" logic. 🙄 *I'm leaving instances where American, or rather white people, speak in exaggerated accents as a means to make fun of poc races, as that is a completely different casually racist bag of worms. Your comment reeks of entitled white person really wants to convince everyone else that *they* (you) are the real victims and can experience racism (we can't, racism is a deeply systemic phenomenon that stretches far back to when the white Western European countries decided to colonize the rest of the world and "help" non-whites become more civilized like the whites and because Western Europe wanted to show off their Big Dick Energy to the rest of the world and prove that whites were the superior race) so you pretend that Mrs. Lovett, and the Muppet Show's Swedish Chef are offensive, and comparable to the racist non-white folx deal with on a daily basis. 🤷🏻♀️
That's what I love about the show. 100 percent waaay off the rails. Very extreme. And music and singing is great-- unexpected, unpredictable. You have to be at the top of your game.
@@TiffanyRay The problem with the Burton version is that the humor is almost completely absent, and the humor is what makes Sweeney Todd so much fun to watch - without it it's a depressing slog. Even the Priest song, a song in which the lyrics are made entirely of cannibalism puns, is played completely straight without a hint of mirth, and it just does not work for me. It's great if you like it, but I feel that the film did not do justice to the source material.
I don't think that Helena was too lifeless or Angela is too energetic. Thing is, they both played a different Mrs. Lovett, one that made the character their own. Angela gave us an erratic and funny Lovett, one we could laugh at and roll our eyes. Helena gave us a more reserved, sensible, serious Lovett that we could see really had no eyes for anything but Toby and Todd. Both are exceptional, but no matter who does it Mrs. Lovett is a psycho who popped people into pies and sold them. :)
I like both versions. I think Angela's erratic performance better captures the insanity required to love such a man. On the flip side, Helena captures the tragedy of her character and her honest (despite her actions) love for the man.
I think the it also is because both mediums are different. Stage shows you have to exaggerate your movements so people in the back/far away can tell whats happening where as a movie you can get close up and show more subtlety. Its why stage makeup looks so crazy in these close up videos too. It's meant for the audience far away to see more clearly.
The reason I prefer this performance of this song over the movie's is that there are closer interactions between Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney as well as intentional movements synchronized with the music. They're positioned next to each other here while in the movie they're across from each other, so here Mrs. Lovett is handing Sweeney the pie and picking bugs off it and in the movie she's across from him and stepping on them on the floor. It feels disjointed and awkward and harder to understand what she's singing about. The synchronicity with the music here also makes each movement have more meaning and each movement is towards Sweeney with the pie/ale, or away from him, with hiding nasty things about it, while in the movie Mrs. Lovett has less purpose and intention by the camera watching her alone, standing behind the counter or walking across the room. It feels like... wasted space vs. the play feels dense and rewatchable to catch every nuance of this scene because it matters.
While there are others who have "played at" this role, make no mistake - this is THE benchmark performance of this role. Perfect. Not only a fully-formed, pitch-perfect performance but even in a very charactery voice her intonation, variety & rhythmic integrity are astounding.
The brilliance of Lansbury's performance is that Lovett is actually worse than Sweeney is (He kills for revenge, SHE has the idea to feed the dead to people),but she makes you fall in love with her.
It's a beautiful performance, but I'm always worried when I hear it because she's gasping for air at the end of every phrase. Sondheim was brutal when he wrote Mrs. Lovett's parts :P
Right you are, but I also think this was just a lack of good phrasing. I think the "I should know, I make them, but good: no," should have been phrased a little better instead of breathing every three words like Lansbury did. That's why she sounds so gaspy; in order to breathe at all in such a quick interval like that she needed to do it quick. So it came out breathy.
SuperCulby She did it for years, and I'm not aware of her missing many performances! She was in her fifties by that point as well. I sat in the back of the mezzanine and did not miss a word.
Bootificial I was about to say. Sondheim is a dick when it comes to his composing! This show is a very simple show to learn, but the way he has the music written looks like Egyptian hieroglyphics. XD
Mrs. lovett is also meant to be a good cook (evidently by the rest of the play), she just has shitty ingredients cuz times is hard. That's really cool tho
I think most Lovett actresses play her more kooky or more conniving, but Angela had this perfect balance between “How much is just batshit crazy and how much is sinister schemer?”
She was absolutely brilliant in this role. The juxtaposition of such a sweet, grandmotherly lady making pies from Sweeney’s victims lightens the mood quite a bit, when needed. Such a talented actress. RIP😔🙏🏻🖤
I love how batty she is. I love how batty everyone is in this musical. And Sondheim is brutal on all vocal aspects. xDD See Epiphany for the male counterpart.
Happy Birthday Dame Angela. YES that is Mrs Potts. YES that is Jessica Fletcher from 'Murder She Wrote'. Yes, that is Angela Lansbury, who has been a star of stage and screen for over sixty years and has won Oscars, Emmys, Tonys and Oliviers (but not as many as she should have) and has made special contributions to the musical theater with Sondheim.
Such marvelous vocal acrobatics; I love every moment, and give Lansbury respect and love. She always gave her audience her best, whether she was the apprentice witch who takes in a trio of siblings in the Disney musical film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", or as the ambitious mother in the original version of "The Manchurian Candidate".
It sat so perfectly in her voice. She knew how to negotiate the belt and the head voice so amazingly that u felt she was just practically just talking and in the higher parts it's faux operatic.
Can you believe it?! Angela Lansbury voiced Mrs. Potts in the original Beauty and the Beast and Emma Thompson will voice Mrs. Potts on the upcoming live version and she also plays Mrs. Lovett.
She will be playing Mrs. Potts on the upcoming live action next 2017 with Emma Watson as Belle, Steve Dans as Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as Le Fou, Ewan Mcgregor as Lumiere, Ian Mckellen as Cogswarth and Kevin Kline as Maurice
Yeah and also the fact that they are following the original film and that they add two new songs. One song is for the Beast ( replacing If I can't love her from broadway) and the other one is called Home sung by Belle when she was thinking about her father when she was imprisoned by the Beast.
Saw the movie first and this song made absolutely no impression on me. Saw this version later and was blown away. HBC's performance was so rhythmically lax I couldn't really perceive the melody. With Angela I can actually hear it as a coherent piece of music.
Just amazing. I like this so much more than the movie version . . . but it is a different interpretation of the part. Helena in the movie sort of reminds me of Wednesday Adams grown up; so Goth. Angela's version has cat ears....she is an alley cat, a predator, a survivor. She's not a melancholy or poetic; she's very real and gritty and funny as hell.
That's what I love about AL's interpretation of this character: she's naturally likeable, she could be anyone's warm, pretty, good-humored auntie--and she uses that facade deftly. But those cat ears say a lot...Lansbury brings so many levels to her performance. She really nailed it, to say nothing of handling Sondheim's very difficult score...
Actually got to meet Ms. Lansbury in 1969 when she was in an absolutely dreadful production of Dear World. It only ran about 130 performances. But as bad as the show was, Lansbury won the Tony for Best Actress. She was that good to be a star in an awful show. It was my first B'way show as a bunch of my high school friends wanted to go see the musical. There was something called "two-fers" back then which was for plays and musicals that were no longer doing well. You could get two tickets for the price of one. I think my ticket cost $8. We got there extremely early, and the stage door was near the audience's entrance. So we're just hanging out waiting for the doors to open, when one of my friends sees Lansbury arriving. We approached her, and see was amazing, talking to us for several minutes. Very upbeat and charming. Of course, I became a big fan of hers ever after. I next saw her on stage in the original B'way version of Sweeney (not this one) in which Sweeney was played by Len Cariou (who now plays the former NYC Police Commish and head of the family in Blue Bloods), not George Hearn, who's playing the lead role here. I definitely preferred Cariou in the role. And don't judge him by the 2005 RU-vid of Cariou and Lansbury reprising "A Little Priest". It's clear Cariou's voice was not what it was 25 years earlier. Listen to the original b'way cast recording instead, when Cariou's voice was at its zenith.
Because acting, no matter if it's drama, comedy or whatever, requires all of your energy. If you aren't exhausted after performing then you are doing it wrong.
If you're used to watching the stage first, the movie would be underwhelming. If movie first, the stage would be overwhelming. Movie actors are putting efforts to become realistic characters despite the absurdity of the characters itself. But people will call it underacting because you know theatre actors do it with bigger emotions. If you want big actions in the big screen, go watch live actions of animes and realize that big movements/expressions are unfit for movies
the issue i had moving from the film to stage is i loved the film and i still prefer johnny depps singing, but i don’t enjoy the film anymore simply because it was too tim burton. i wish the movie had still had those dark comedic elements. i think it would’ve translated really well if it’d been done by the right director.
@@em3952 I actually disagree about Depp's singing, he had no projection or power in his voice at all, even when the music really called for it. I also wish the movie had more dark comedy, which is part of what makes Sweeney so great.
Elizabeth sayinf “prefer” was wrong. i more meant i have a soft spot for it and i like how it sounds. he’s far from my favourite todd and i felt like this back when i posted that comment so i’m not sure why i put that. sorry haha
I love the way he’s about to walk out when she says “A customer!” Like he can just tell by looking at her that she’s mad and he should get out of there!
Thank you so much for posting this! Im 10 years late to this discussion but i think medium is important. Lansbury is projecting brilliantly for stage and being directed by Sondheim et al. She’s meant to be a mature and charming but extremely desperate woman. Bonham Carter is miked for film and being directed by Tim Burton, whose female leads are typically lost and willowy waifs. And they may have played up that dreamy amnesiac angle for film, to increase the mystery of whether Mrs Lovett was actually Lucy. She and depp are totally miscast for these roles in the prime of their lives anyway, but thats also a function of big budget movies.
Hal prince was a genius. Every revival of this and evita have been bores. Lansbury’s performance has to be on the top of my list of performances ever. Christine ebersole up there too as Edie Beale. Patinkin and lupone in evita. Ellen Greene in little shop. Raul Esparza in company.
All due respect to Bonham Carter, as Angela Lansbury is a very tough act to follow, but Lansbury's performance feels so much more lively, like actual energy was put into it, and, unlike Bonham Carter's performance, Lansbury doesn't sound bored out of her mind! (Though, she does certainly sound out of her mind. Which is kind of the point of the whole musical.)
I think Helena's version is meant to sound dejected with the world, completely resigned that nothing will change for her It adds to the dreary atmosphere of Tim Burton's version of London, which definitely isnt for everybody seeing as the original stage version is more lively
I have seen several versions of this play with various actors and the film version also. Yet this play with Angela Lansbury is by far my favorite. I hated the film version......dark and more of a horror film yet this play despite the subject matter was light, fun and by far better acted and sung...........
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: This just in. Dame Angela Lansbury passed away today at 96. What a legacy. What a life. Grew up watching this documentary. So iconic. Heartbreaking. We will miss you. Brava. RIP
