After hearing of Stephen Sondheim's passing, I had to watch this taped performance of his 1979 masterpiece SWEENEY TODD, filmed in LA in 1981 towards the end of the national tour.
SWEENEY won eight Tony Awards on Broadway and this won three Emmy Awards. Despite a central flaw, it remains essential to any musicals fan as a record of Hal Prince's original production.
The central flaw is that tv director Terry Hughes doesn't adapt performances for his medium, so while the actors are pushing energy to the back of the balcony, the camera is only a few feet away. Oddly enough, the women are the worst: Johanna's hydraulic soprano and the Beggar Woman's caterwauling are eventually irritating.
Angela Lansbury's Mrs Lovett, already a Music Hall grotesque, tips into sheer mugging; however she is so charismatic that you have to surrender to her. George Hearn's underplaying as Sweeney works a treat.
Shelf or charity shop? Of course, it's a shelf. Despite the over-pitched performances, it's great to see due to the quality of the production, Hugh Wheeler's marvellous book and, of course, Sondheim's magnificent score. As I have
often said, the final 20 minutes of the show - if done right - should be
one of the most relentlessly scary things you can experience, even if
you know the show It has an internal motor that if stoked properly
keeps gathering pace leaving dead bodies in it's wake and an icy, clammy
grip on
the back of your neck and here you get that as it should be.
The 50 shows that have stood out down the years and,
as we get up among the paint cards, the shows that have become the cast
recording of my life:
First performed: 1983, Palace Theatre, NY
First seen by me: 1986, London Palladium
Productions seen: four
Score: Jerry Herman Book: Harvey Fierstein
Plot: Georges and Albin, a middle-aged, long-term gay couple who run a Riviera drag club, find their public and private worlds clash when Georges' son falls in love with the daughter of a homophobic politician who wants to close the area's gay clubs.
Five memorable numbers: I AM WHAT I AM, SONG ON THE SAND, WE ARE WHAT WE ARE, THE BEST OF TIMES, LOOK OVER THERE
The 1984 Tony Awards for musicals were seen as a clash between tradition and modernity as the two most obvious nominees were Jerry Herman's musical comedy LA CAGE AUX FOLLES and Stephen Sondheim's more austere SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE. SUNDAY was to lose out - apart from the Design and Lighting awards - to the LA CAGE juggernaut. When Herman scurried onstage to receive the Best Score award he crowed that it put paid to the rumour that "the simple, hummable show tune was no longer welcome on Broadway" - a not-so-subtle dig at Sondheim. That certainly coloured my opinion of the show when I saw it's UK premiere at the London Palladium although I certainly enjoyed the delightful starring performances of George Hearn (recreating his Best Actor Tony-winning role as the flamboyant Albin) and Denis Quilley, as well as the fantastic drag chorus 'Les Cagelles' which spotlit performers like Scott St. Martyn as Chantal and Andy Norman as Hanna. That production famously closed early citing it's failure on the public worry of AIDS; I never bought that reason as the show ran on Broadway for four years - I still suspect that the Palladium was just the wrong house for it. It was only when I saw Terry Johnson's more intimate - alright, smaller - revival at the Menier then also when it transferred to the Playhouse - that the show's charm really showed. It's sheer relentless optimistic tone can eventually be wearing - the second act really doesn't know where to go - but with the right performers, Fierstein's book can still make you laugh and Herman's self-referencing score can still charm. I last saw the show when the Menier production transferred to Broadway and Harvey Fierstein played Albin. Despite LA CAGE's longevity - the only Broadway musical to win Tonys for Best Musical and then Best Musical Revival for each of it's two subsequent incarnations - Jerry Herman has never written another original musical. And where do I stand on the LA CAGE versus SUNDAY face-off? Watch this space...
There
is fair amount of video on LA CAGE but here is Denis Quilley from 1986 on the stage of the London Palladium introducing 'Les Cagelles' for the great opening number "We Are What We Are" - I first saw the show on a pro's matinee with West End Legend Nicola Blackman and I still remember the sheer excitement of watching this for the first time...
Originally shown on the BBC's Omnibus, this documentary covers the lead-up to two concert performances of Stephen Sondheim's musical FOLLIES at New York's Lincoln Center with the Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sondheim and record producer Thomas Z. Shepherd were unhappy that the 1971 cast recording of FOLLIES was severely edited to fit on one album so in 1985 they had the opportunity to record two semi-staged concert performances of the full score.
We see them nervously rehearsing quickly-learnt songs in the few days leading up to the concerts and sharing their thoughts on the resonance of the material as they are all contemporaries.
A touching, entertaining tribute to the show and it's cast.
