Sweeney Todd

This, this and Les Miserables, me like.

One thing I notice, new to the film as I am, is that a long of the songs get reused, reprised in different ways, and I love that now that I've noticed it.

• No Place Like London gets reprised mid-song, from the kid's optimistic view to Todd's darker, more cynical one.
• Barber and his Wife, its melody, and some of its lines get reused throughout the movie. "There's a hole in the world", "Barber and his wife and she was beautiful".
• Worst Pies In London gets reused in 'A Little Priest'.
• Toward the end, a little bit of every song is reused far as I can tell.

I don't know what the conensus on Johnny Depp is, but I'm fond of this one. I've seen the George Hern version as well.

edited 22nd Dec '15 10:11:07 PM by Soble

Yep. That's Sondhiem for you. He reuses A LOT of his music several times to give emphasis of 'We've seen this before'. The Problem-Song and the Solution-Song will reflect each other with the same musical notes again. One character's thematic rift will be the same as another's, just in a lower/higher key as needed. Into the Woods does exactly the same thing multiple times.

Not just Sondheim, really, but a lot of musicals. I can't think of any offhand that don't.

Yeah, that's true. Broadway's current biggest hit, "Hamilton" reuses musical cues and lyrics throughout.

Still awesome to listen to though.

I remember when this movie came out and literally every scene kid in my high school was obsessed with it.

x4

Well, yes, almost every musical does it because Call Backs and other Character rifts are important for storytelling. Wicked does similar several times with "For Good" being played a number of times because that song comes up (Notably, the Wizard and I uses it with the line "I'll Make Good") and the Unlimited Rift is not only played countless times but its also the first six notes of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. But, I'd say he does it significantly more than any other to an extreme.

Let's look at Into the Woods, almost every line of dialogue, lyric, or small rift reappears more than once through out the show.

• "I Wish" (Used EVERYWHERE)
• Obviously Act 1 and Act 2's intros are almost exactly the same.
• Being "Good" vs. Being "Nice" vs. Being "Right" used in tandem (Little Red Riding Hood, The Witch, Cinderella, etc)
• "No One is Alone"
• "Passionate, Charming, Considerate, Clever" (Agony, Agony (Reprise), It Takes Two) It took me years to notice this one since it subtly explains the contrast between The Baker's Wife's interest in the Princes and her interest in the Baker.
• "Ever After" and "Your Fault" are incredibly similar and contrast each other perfectly
• The words Children, Giants, Witches, Wishes, Wolves, Spells, Right, and Wrong are repeated countless times and often with the same note or two each time. You could make a drinking game out of how often those are repeated

I could be here for a good hour or two if I pulled out the soundtrack and wrote down every time I heard a rift or verse repeated at various times to nudge the audience to connect the part of one character's story to another. Sondhiem really works his music into the narrative structure to create a massive web of connections where some others can feel a bit more disconnected with each number feeling like its own little number.

edited 31st Dec '15 6:55:02 PM by InkDagger

Honestly, Depp ain't the best singer and you can tell it was partly stunt casting, but he gives such a great melancholic and broken take on Todd that he still really works in the role.

Edited by AudioSpeaks2 on Dec 8th 2023 at 11:32:18 PM

From what I’ve seen of him in the role, he’s at least trying, even it’s debatable quality.