137 - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (feat. Josh Sawyer)
Added 2024-05-08 06:00:04 +0000 UTCJosh Sawyer (Pentiment, Fallout: New Vegas) and the lads grab their razors and complete their arms as they attend the tale of Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 barber-ic bloodbath: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Topics include the show’s horror film origins, the unimpeachable score, and the long term ramifications of using Sweeney Todd as a gateway drug into the wild world of musical theater.
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Josh Sawyer: Twitter // Tumblr
Media Referenced in this Episode:
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
“Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes” by Stephen Sondheim, Penguin Random House. 2010.
“Stephen Sondheim: The Story So Far” Podcast. Masterworks Broadway.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “Epiphabee” Music by Stephen Sondheim, Lyrics by Dr. Samuel Bultch, D.D.S. feat. Eleanor Philips as “Mrs. Hornet”
Comments
That is fantastic.
NowhereMan661
2025-09-04 18:20:48 +0000 UTCSurprised that there was no mention of the 2014 Lincoln Center "concert" with Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson which began with the actors wrecking the stage and ultimately staging the musical with improvised props. Honestly, one of the coolest openings to a musical that I've ever seen.
Vesperus
2024-11-08 12:34:56 +0000 UTC3 months late but your Sondheim eps are always a delight! 1) A beadle was a parish (local government) official who might be responsible for public order, policing, poor relief, workhouses, pest control and whatever else needed doing. What public services existed were all funded by the parish, but roles like beadle were almost always unpaid, so the guys filling them were generally local business owners chosen by their rich and middle-class neighbours. 2) I had no idea Sweeney Todd drew on Hangover Square! Also that the film sounds completely different to the novel lol 3) AJ should be shot for "feel my fuzz"
Nemo
2024-07-29 18:38:38 +0000 UTCI think the common root is something like "guy who carries out orders", so basically a Smithers
Nemo
2024-07-29 16:37:23 +0000 UTCI was in Sweeney Todd with my youth theatre group when I was 13, I played a Flower Seller (Ensemble, with a flower in my hat) BUT I'm now a drag artist and last year I sang The Worst Pies In London at the opening of a cabaret show, with glued in vampire teeth. You think diction is hard until you glue plastic vampire teeth over your canines.
Mariana Trench
2024-05-28 21:52:24 +0000 UTCOh yay! Is therAnything in particular you like to ask them to play? It is such a good time with like-minded people!
Elizabeth Power
2024-05-19 20:41:51 +0000 UTCjosh goes to marie's every month or so
The Worst of all Possible Worlds
2024-05-19 03:15:14 +0000 UTCI’m only at the beginning of this episode but Sweeney is probably my favorite musical so much to the point that I wrote my college thesis about it. I already know the background information that you’re going to explain about the string of pearls, and ‘Christopher bond. I am so psyched for this episode and to hear your analyze and make fun of one of my favorite things ever. Also, I just went to New York last week. Relevant to this episode, I went to a bar called Marie’s crisis where you can sing show tunes with random strangers while someone plays the piano. I sang Joanna quartet and Epiphany with five or six other people and it was cathartic. Have the lads ever been to This bar? Brian and Josh might be confused but AJ would have just as good of a time as I did! A
Elizabeth Power
2024-05-18 21:04:43 +0000 UTCthis production is gonna tour so you might have another shot
The Worst of all Possible Worlds
2024-05-10 23:48:21 +0000 UTCI can't believe how much this episode made me regret not going to see sweeney todd while it was still happening. I saw it as a kid (you didn't mention the 1989 circle in the square theater production where all the music was synths, but that's the one I saw) and I remember i was disappointed because I was hyped on scary theater and it didn't live up to my kid brain, but I think I would have appreciated this one. Oh well.
Al Fair
2024-05-10 21:35:05 +0000 UTCBass-Baritone representation 😭 thank you for standing up for us
iamonceagain
2024-05-10 11:12:20 +0000 UTCOkay where the hell is OSHA on these orchestra pits? I don't care if it clashes with the set or obstructs the view, we need bright yellow warning lines and guard rails around these things
Jimmy McMillan
2024-05-10 03:38:34 +0000 UTCThe high school I work at is putting on Sweeny Todd and my student asked if she should audition, I was a little apprehensive. This came out like an hour later and I was flooded with all of the cool shit that is in the opera and I had to revise my position on it today.
Jordan Y Clementi
2024-05-10 00:32:46 +0000 UTCThe very first professional stage musical I saw was Sweeney Todd which really set unrealistic standards for future shows
John Leavitt
2024-05-09 01:00:10 +0000 UTCThis Eleanor Philips + Sam Bultch collaboration has proven extremely fruitful. Broadway is back, (boss) baby!
Gorbant
2024-05-08 20:05:26 +0000 UTCBesides Pirelli in Todd and Zangara in Assassins, are there any other broad Italian accents in Sondheim shows? I'm working on a theory.
BarFly
2024-05-08 19:28:01 +0000 UTCThe word “bödel” in Swedish means “executioner”, so I assume “beadle” is from the same root even if it doesn’t mean the *exact* same thing.
Max Johansson
2024-05-08 18:14:33 +0000 UTCHaving not heard the musical before, the way you talk about how much it's about the industrialisation of murder , makes me see the clear influence the the piece has on amnesia: a machine for pigs , a game that's not that good but has great writing and tone, unless you look too deep where they clash with the simplistic gameplay
S-lappin
2024-05-08 16:56:58 +0000 UTCOne of the few musicals I genuinely love, which is to say that more musicals should be way more fucked up. Also the movie rocks.
Grouchiest Marxiest
2024-05-08 16:12:30 +0000 UTCAlso a weeb for British things is a teaboo
Dergon
2024-05-08 14:15:25 +0000 UTCfirst time I saw the movie version I was eating meat lover’s pizza. mistake.
kegna
2024-05-08 13:47:50 +0000 UTCThe raw musical talent and workmanship was on an absurd level I've never seen replicated again. Sweenies daughter playing the cello solo during her solo song and nailing both was outstanding. I don't know how they managed to cast the show. If any recordings exist of it I can't recommend it enough
MNinc
2024-05-08 12:39:47 +0000 UTCI had the privilege of seeing the 2006 Broadway run of Sweeny Todd where the entire cast were also the pit orchestra, and it was such a stellar production I don't know if I can ever see a traditionally done version. Seeing Mrs. Lovett play the tuba and other cast members hop on and off the piano mid bar was insane.
MNinc
2024-05-08 12:36:27 +0000 UTCTwosh. Two. Josh.
Dergon
2024-05-08 11:46:30 +0000 UTCI suppose no one will ever make a podcast episode that appeals to someone like myself, who played Fallout over and over as a kid and got into musicals through hearing Sweeney Todd. Let me just open Patreon to verify that there's nothing in there for me--
Kyle Cassidy
2024-05-08 11:40:10 +0000 UTC
