Search - Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury, Cris Groenendaal :: Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979 Original Broadway Cast)

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979 Original Broadway Cast)
Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury, Cris Groenendaal
Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979 Original Broadway Cast)
Genres: Pop, Soundtracks, Broadway & Vocalists
 
  •  Track Listings (21) - Disc #1
  •  Track Listings (8) - Disc #2

A Classic Stephen Sondheim Musical Available Now at a New Low Price! Features bonus tracks, digitally remastered and new liner notes.

     
1

Larger Image

CD Details


Synopsis

Album Description
A Classic Stephen Sondheim Musical Available Now at a New Low Price! Features bonus tracks, digitally remastered and new liner notes.

Similar CDs


Similarly Requested CDs

 

Member CD Reviews

Joe D. (designafficionado) from LOS ANGELES, CA
Reviewed on 3/31/2013...
This is my all-time favorite Broadway production. Every song is amazing and the performances are top-notch. This is one of the few musicals that melds the musical and horror genres successfully. So if this of interest to you it will not be a disappointment!
1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

CD Reviews

The Operatic Masterpiece of the American Musical Theater
Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 09/18/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

""Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is closer to the operatic world of Verdi and Donezetti than it is to Rogers & Hammerstein or Lerner & Lowe, and there have been times when it has been performed in opera houses as well it should. This show is replete with arias and quintets, duets and chorus numbers. More than any other American "musical" I can think of, there are different characters singing different things at the same time, just what you would expect to find in an opera. Besides, like an opera, most of the main characters are dead by the time the curtain rings down.This is Sondheim at his best, coming up with some of his most beautiful melodies in a show where the "hero" and "heroine" cut people's throats and bake them into pies. Consequently while you have "Not While I'm Around" sung by a poor boy to his surrogate mother and "Johanna" sung by young Anthony to his intended, you also have "My Friends" sung by Todd to his set of sharp razors. Sondheim has always delighted in such ironies.The highlight of the show/CD is the trio of numbers that ends Act I. From the sweet duet between Todd and the Judge ("Pretty Women"), to the savage intensity of Todd's "Epiphany", concluding with the ghastly humor of the Todd and Mrs. Lovett in "A Little Priest." Angela Lansbury is a wicked delight as Mrs. Lovett, and a revelation to those who do not remember that she was always a strong performer in musical theater ("Mama," "Gypsy"). The appropriateness of her voice was driven home to me when I saw a road production of "Sweeney Todd" with June Havok (yes, the original Baby June, older sister of Gypsy Rose Lee) who had the great timing of the vaudeville stage but who sang everything about an octave lower than originally written.However, it is Len Cariou who steals the show. "Epiphany" is a dramatic tour de force made all the more wonderous by the fact that it is being sung. If only I could sing, this would be the role I would most want to perform and "Epiphany" the song I would most love to sing.One of the joys of this 2-disc set is that it includes the song "Johanna" which was cut from the show, which has the Judge (Edmund Lyndeck) flagellating himself while sneaking a peak at his young ward through a keyhole. Similarly, the entire original version of "The Contest" is presented. Warning: in this production a steam whistle is used, primarily when Sweeney draws his razor across somebody's throat, in a particularly effective bit of stagecraft. If you listen to the opening song with the volume up too high, you are going to get blown away."
One of the best, most entertaining musicals ever
Patrick G. Varine | Georgetown, Delaware | 04/14/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Stephen Sondheim is my hero for scoring this musical. "Sweeney Todd" is most definitely one of the top five musicals of all time, if not THE top musical, at least in my opinion.The blackly humorous and gruesome story of a barber who goes berserk with revenge after being wrongly imprisoned is one of the most original stories I've ever heard. I don't want to spoil the musical for anyone who hasn't seen it, but let me just say that the method by which Sweeney and his accomplice (Mrs. Lovett, played with tremendous hilarity by Angela Lansbury) dispose of the bodies is horrid and hilarious at the same time.The music is truly inspiring. Sondheim's score consists of sweet love songs, frightening ballads of redemption and overall great music, all puncuated by the deafening pierce of a factory whistle (which sounds each time Sweeney claims another victim).Len Cariou played Sweeney almost to perfection, balancing the tender man who loves his daughter to no end with the homicidal maniac who can't wait to get his hands (or his razor, rather) on the Judge who put him away (As the Judge sits down on the barber stool, Sweeney tells him the shave will be "the closest I ever gave").This is an utterly fantastic musical, and if you are into Sondheim this is the ultimate treat. Check it out."