OP-ED: Sweeney Todd is Far Better On Broadway Than On The Silver Screen

Sweeney Todd is a Broadway classic by Stephen Sondheim, and an adaptation of the original play of the same name created by Christopher Bond. It tells the story of barber Sweeney Todd on his return to London, seeking revenge on an evil judge who lusted after his wife, and who led to both his banishment and her death. Once in London, Todd reunites with someone from his past–Mrs. Lovett–and together they create an unlikely partnership while he schemes against the judge who wronged him. 

Recently, I was lucky enough to get to see the musical on Broadway, starring Josh Groban as Sweeney Todd and Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett. It was an exceptional performance and I don’t expect to forget it anytime soon. Groban and Ashford had such good chemistry together, as did the rest of the cast, and that’s why the musical was so memorable. 

In 2007, Tim Burton directed his own version of the story, titled Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, featuring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the leading roles. After seeing the current version on Broadway and falling in love with it, I decided to give the movie a try, hopeful that it would hold up to the live show. It did not, and I was surprised at how much I had disliked it. Having time to think about it, it wasn’t as terrible as my first impressions were, but I still have to say the Broadway play is far, far superior. 

Sweeney Todd is a musical first and foremost, specifically adapted for Broadway in 1979 by Sondheim. It’s only common sense that the actors cast in it can sing. Helena Bonham Carter cannot sing; Johnny Depp can only kind of sing. So my question is, why on Earth would those two be cast in the main roles for a musical adapted to the big screen? Especially considering the fact that 80% of the dialogue is sung; only 20% is genuinely spoken. Helena Bonham Carter was Tim Burton’s muse, and he cast her in everything. Both her and Depp were and still are big names, which would admittedly draw in an audience. Regardless, neither of them can carry a tune well enough to play their given parts.

 Surely there were other people in Hollywood that could sing and act that would’ve given a better performance? Just because an actor is famous, popular, and talented doesn’t mean that they are well suited for every role they’re given. Helena Bonham Carter feels breathy and her voice sounds like it keeps breaking, and Johnny Depp spoke more of his lines than he sang them. Their inability to sing well feels like an oversight. Listening to the movie soundtrack, I think it’s clear what I’m talking about (for those using a school chromebook, unfortunately Spotify is blocked by GoGuardian so the link won’t work). 

Luckily the rest of the cast, save for maybe Alan Rickman, can sing. Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony, Jayne Wisener as Johanna, and Ed Sanders as Toby all sing very well–though they don’t quite make up for the mistakes in the casting of the two main leads. 

Everyone in the 2023 Broadway production had amazing voices, perhaps surpassing my expectations for a Broadway performance, which were already high. The show soundtrack can be found here (again, Spotify is blocked on school electronics). 

Josh Groban, who plays Sweeney Todd, became famous in the first place for his musical prowess as a singer and songwriter. He’s been nominated for both a Grammy and a Tony in the past. Annaleigh Ashford, who plays the female lead Mrs. Lovett, has snagged herself a Tony for You Can’t Take It with You in 2015. Both Groban and Ashford are perfect for their roles and can most certainly sing well enough to be the main characters. 

The New York Times article Review: The Many Thrilling Flavors of a Full-Scale ‘Sweeney Todd’ heralds the production as one of the best versions of the play created, and specifically highlights Groban’s singing. The article describes him as a baritone (he has a deep, rich voice) who “perfectly encompasses the range of the role, and [his] technique makes sure every word is bell clear” (NY Times). 

Arguably, one of his best songs is Epiphany. It’s a pivotal moment of the play where Sweeney decides he’s going to kill anyone and everyone who comes to get a shave, all because he had the judge in his clutches, but he got away. It’s a personal favorite of mine because his voice and the orchestra backing are amazing, but also because of how manic Groban plays it. Lashing out at Mrs. Lovett, and barking out lyrics like “I want you bleeders” while inviting men in from the street to his shop. It’s one of the most iconic songs of the production–it’s very well done and consists of a dramatic change to the plot, which then helps transition the play from Act One to Act Two. 

Epiphany doesn’t feel the same in the movie. Where’s the drama? The pure mania that Sweeney exudes? It feels watered down; diluted. Where Groban belts out the lines, Depp speaks his in a semi-monotone fashion. He ‘sings’ lines like “We all deserve to die” without enough conviction to make it work and make the audience feel the crazy. 

An attempt has been made, but Johnny Depp cannot provide the emotions behind the words. In the song, there’s a few distinct switches between him lashing out at the world and then feeling sorry for himself over his wife and daughter that Depp doesn’t give us–can’t give us. That humanity feels very important to Sweeney’s character. He’s doing these things for a reason. With Depp’s version of the character, I don’t feel the desperation and the hurt. I don’t feel the blatant instability he’s facing, where once again his life feels like it’s come crashing down around him–he almost got what he wanted but failed to make it happen. This instability is what leads him to decide that nobody benefits from life, that “death will be a relief”. 

Groban gives us that instability. That mania. Even a brief stint of maniacal laughter. His performance is what Sweeney Todd should be like in Epiphany. He’s snapped because of how hurt he is, and it feels as though he truly believes what he’s singing. Because the show is on Broadway and on an actual stage, it doesn’t quite have the virtue of being able to convey things through visuals like how the movie is able to (though I think Depp’s acting lacks in this song as well). Almost all of the emotion in the scene has to be done through the music, which is a tall order. But Groban succeeds in using his voice. He was running around the stage like a rat scuttling around, but his vocals really do the work. His abrupt over-enunciation of words where he randomly shouts only one word out of a line helps to show his conviction to his cause. Again, it makes him seem pretty unstable and off-kilter, something needed when singing a song about how he’s going to become a serial killer. 

While Josh Groban is probably the best singer of the on-Broadway version, Annaleigh Ashford also deserves plenty of credit for her vocals. I don’t remember where I saw it, but I remember one review saying that Groban was chosen for his singing voice and Ashford was chosen more for her acting and presence on stage. While I do agree with this assessment, it diminishes how well she sang her parts. The ballad My Friends is mostly sung by Sweeney, but when Mrs. Lovett joins in she has some hauntingly beautiful lines, including the ones where they harmonize together. 

Ashford also does a very good job with Poor Thing. The line “Had her chance for the moon on a string” particularly sticks out to me. Later in the song when she’s describing Sweeney’s wife Lucy going to the Judge’s house, both her voice and the orchestra manage to feel frantic. It’s such a tense moment that they managed to create. The movie is only able to semi-recreate it with visuals, and Helena Bonham Carter’s voice definitely doesn’t have the same effect. 

Another complaint I have about the movie’s rendition is that it’s lacking comedically. The 2023 production was hilarious, and there were a lot of moments that had the whole audience laughing. It might seem a little strange that a story about “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is funny, but it works really well. The plot of a serial killing barber and his sometimes love interest who bakes and sells his victims as pies is a ridiculous situation. The article ‘Sweeney Todd’: A Comedy from the New York Public Library agrees, stating a cannibalistic pie shop “seems to evoke more laughter than goosebumps” (NY Public Library).

The musical works much better as a dramedy than the thriller Tim Burton made his version out to be. It felt like it was taking itself too seriously, and leaned too far into the Victorian Gothic aesthetic Burton specializes in. It made the visuals stunning, with the old, Victorian buildings, the vintage clothing, and the sickly appearances of the whole cast. The Gothic vibe he brought really succeeded in bringing the setting to life, but it ultimately hurt the tone of the story. 

The same article from the New York Public Library highlights a remark that the composer Stephen Sondheim once made, that the original play by Christopher Bond was very clearly meant to be funny. The article states that the story “is always, regardless of the adaptation, at heart, a comedy” (NY Public Library). Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) is barely a comedy, even at heart. It may share the same dialogue as the musical, which definitely features some funny moments, but it shouldn’t count because those moments aren’t embraced–the cast doesn’t use them to their advantage. 

A Little Priest is a song consisting of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett joking about serving their neighbors. It’s chock full of puns regarding the people they’re thinking of selling–like how they’ll only sell priest pies on Sundays, and how politicians would be too greasy. The lyrics in the movie are for the most part the same as the lyrics of the current Broadway production, though they significantly cut it down for time… which unfortunately cuts out a lot of funny content. What they do include feels underwhelming. They don’t seem to be amused by the jokes they’re making, so why should the audience? Sweeney even sings about how it’s such a “charming notion” that she can sell his victims as meat (please believe me, this is a funny show), but Johnny Depp doesn’t seem charmed. Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford were on the floor laughing, in her case literally spinning in circles, making it abundantly clear that this was hilarious to their characters. It looked as though they were having fun, and I recall that they were actually cracking each other up while performing this song, not just fake laughing. In order for this song to be funny, as intended, the actors have to at least pretend they find humor in it. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter don’t seem too thrilled. 

Really the only person in the film who brought any whimsy to it was Sacha Baron Cohen, famous for Borat, who played rival barber Adolfo Pirelli. He leaned into the role and was over the top with a thick and intentionally bad Italian accent and a flashy persona to boot. It seems like he’s meant to be the token funny character of the movie, when he should be just one of many. 

But I have to say the biggest letdown is Mrs. Lovett’s character, because of how much effort Annaleigh Ashford put into her version. For example, The Worst Pies in London is a song full of self-deprecating humor from Mrs. Lovett; between telling Sweeney her pies taste terrible after he eats one, and admitting she’s chased cats to try and put them in her pies–right after stating she could never–there’s so much material for humor. Helena Bonham Carter just doesn’t use it in her version. There’s no emphasis on the immediate “no” after rhetorically asking if her pies are good. She just sings it like there’s no potential for a laugh there. It feels wasted.

Annaleigh Ashford hits all the right moments and puts emphasis on the lines that should really be emphasized. There are so few bootlegs from this show, but I’m glad people have uploaded recordings of this song to TikTok (namely @mizzloon and @karissatok) because it’s one of the best parts, and it’s really the perfect introduction to her character. Ashford even full on throws herself to the floor during the song without missing a beat, and she touches herself up with flour when she sings about how she’s so alone. It’s almost hard to watch the movie version just knowing there’s so much potential there in the singing alone, and it’s disappointing that they didn’t go for it and take the opportunities that are obviously there, likely because they didn’t fit Tim Burton’s vision for the film. 

Another song that really lets Ashford showcase her humor is By The Sea, where she gets to sing about the future she wants with Mr. Todd, and manhandle him along the way. The best way to understand why she’s ridiculous during this song is to watch it, and luckily it’s been uploaded to YouTube; the song starts at about 9:20 in a video titled demon barber Slime tutorial. There’s also a clip on TikTok of it that is more zoomed in because the person recording was closer to the stage, but it isn’t the whole song. 

But the way that she just awkwardly climbs into Sweeney’s lap and makes him hold her in a surely uncomfortable fashion is ridiculous, and yet it feels perfect for her character. The whole show is full of Ashford adding in funny little quips and absurd motions, often vaguely raunchy. At one point she slid down the stairway that connects her and Sweeney’s shop on her butt, resembling a petulant child. There’s a whole TikTok video that’s just a compilation of her silly little moments, quite a few taken from By The Sea because of how much creative freedom it awards her. 

The New York Times article referenced above also has a perfect characterization of both Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett in this show, which is very apparent in that song. According to them, a lot of the show’s humor comes from Sweeney’s “growing resemblance to an impassive suburban husband whose job happens to be murder, as Ashford’s Mrs. Lovett tries to domesticate him” (NY Times). 

That sentence fully encapsulates their relationship. His motivation for much of the show is getting revenge, while she’s trying to make him pay attention to her instead. They’re only love interests in some versions, which include both versions I’ve discussed here, but I feel like it’s the best dynamic for the two of them. It gives her stronger motivations, and a lot of her actions make more sense when they’re in the interest of wanting Sweeney to be hers–particularly regarding the big revelation at the end (which is a spoiler). I am not a fan of romance for romance’s sake, but the dynamic between the two characters makes for a better story when there’s that element of possibly requited love. 

I also really like the fact that Sweeney hints that the affection is at least slightly reciprocated in the Broadway production. It gives more depth to his character by giving him a little more humanity, making him more real; it’s something the movie lacks, which can make Depp’s Sweeney feel one-note at times. But it’s interesting to see Groban’s Sweeney soften towards Mrs. Lovett over the course of the musical–albeit begrudgingly–and start being “domesticated” as the article said. In the same vein, it makes the end that much more heartbreaking (again, spoilers). 

The final major criticism I have regarding the movie is that it lacks an ensemble, who feel almost essential for Sweeney Todd. They provide backup for quite a few of the songs including Pirelli’s Magical Elixir, where they play the crowd who slowly turn against Pirelli’s assistant touting his sales pitch because of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett’s influence. The song feels slightly empty because there aren’t as many overlapping conversations, or, as the song progresses, people demanding their money back as a big united front. The assistant, Toby, getting more frantic and giving his pitch faster makes more sense when the audience can clearly see an angry mob on stage, in unison accusing him of selling “piss with ink”. 

However the worst crime that’s in accordance with cutting out the show’s entire ensemble is that not once is a version of The Ballad of Sweeney Todd played. It’s the most iconic song of the play–the first version opens the show, extra reprises play throughout, and another rendition brings the curtain to a close. 

Admittedly, the movie did have the instrumental versions played over the opening and ending credits, but it still feels like a miss because as good as the orchestral accompaniment is, the singing is the most important part. It’s the audience’s first introduction to Sweeney’s character as the lyrics detail his reputation as “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”. This song really sheds light on how the people he terrorized saw him and his business. 

The Ballad of Sweeney Todd is my favorite song of the entire show, because of its significance but also because of how well executed it is. They had an exceptional performance of the first version at the 2023 Tony Awards. It’s such a shame that the movie cut out the ensemble because it’s no longer the most compelling song of the show without their contributions. 

Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford are unfortunately leaving their roles in Sweeney Todd early next year, their last performances being on January 14th. Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster will be replacing them–a decision that has already prompted criticisms because Tveit isn’t a baritone like Sweeney is supposed to be, rather a tenor. 

I sincerely hope that they are able to fill the big shoes that the current leads are leaving behind. I’d hate for their potential miscasting to ruin such a successful show that has had so much work put into it, especially because that’s one of the things that ruined the movie for me.