#nilo2207

That’s a very interesting question, and it’s taken me a while to really process my thoughts on it.

What’s unique is that there have been a lot of role reprisals in the official cast recordings. Like, some of the big, well-known Sweeney Todd duos are:

Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury ->

Angela Lansbury and George Hearn ->

George Hearn and Patti LuPone ->

Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris ->

So, I guess it gives us a lot of room for comparison. 

I think that acting interpretations for both of those characters, actually, tend to be similar: it ranges from very subdued and non-emotive to dramatic, crazy, and over-the-top. So Sweeney will be played as either expressionless, (i.e. silent and scary, never smiling), or extremely emotional; lots of screaming and yelling, manic laughter, tons of passion and rage, etc. And Mrs. Lovett, ironically, can be played with a total deadpan, sardonic sense of humor, or to the point where she’s practically screaming all of her lines (more often the latter in her case).

What I’m building up to here is that I think whenever the two of them are at far opposite ends of the spectrum, their chemistry with each other does not work well (more on that later).

Let’s take Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou. Both of them are what I consider to be at the “over-the-top end” of the spectrum (although Len Cariou’s acting tended to vary throughout the evolution of the show imo). When they’re played like that, it almost makes them seem more human: for Sweeney, he’s more a woobie, reacting to all the pain in his life, and Mrs. Lovett comes across as almost lovable. During numbers like A Little Priest, they get this almost infectious sort of energy. They’re also really fun during numbers like “God, That’s Good.” The two of them seem like they feel a bit closer to each other, especially on Sweeney’s end.

Then take Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris. In the “Teeny Todd” production, their acting is a LOT more subdued (compare LuPone in the 2001 concert to her in this one - TOTALLY different). Actually here are some clips to show what I mean: 

Teeny Todd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7UOTuntLMk

2001 concert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz8J9EEixPo

When they’re both so downplayed, they come across as more these demonic sociopaths who are completely out of touch with reality. It’s not that they aren’t still funny, but Sweeney comes across as more menacing than wild to me, while Mrs. Lovett is more, I don’t know, sassy? Too cool for school? (I hope you know what I mean by that. Also, I am by no means an expert on this production but that’s kind of what I’ve gathered from it.) And I think that this can work, because their humor can still easily bounce off of each other, but it makes their dynamic a little different…they’re kind of less sympathetic, I suppose?

George Hearn is more in the middle to me. In my opinion he comes across as the saddest Sweeney: when he gets emotional writing Johanna’s name during the letter-writing scene, or when he’s yelling lines like “No I had him!” or “What have I done!” etc. Hearn/LuPone actually has some of the best chemistry to me, though I can’t exactly put my finger on why. I guess maybe it’s the scenes where Mrs. Lovett is calming him down? She seems almost nurturing to Sweeney at times. Lansbury plays it as more ditzy, imo, like she’s less attuned to his feelings. She almost seems like she’s talking to herself at points where she’s responding to him, lol.

***Okay, now for a case where I think the two don’t work at all, and I hope I don’t offend anyone because I know some people REALLY love this production!!!***

In the 2014 concert, Bryn Terfel takes the sociopath interpretation, Emma Thompson takes the over-the-top interpretation, and then both of them dial it up to eleven. With Terfel, I don’t get the sense that he cares about anything. Not Lucy, not Johanna, and least of all Mrs. Lovett. Without any facial reaction to anything at all, I don’t find him sympathetic or even really funny. I’ve seen some people share that opinion, but I’ve yet to see anyone agree with me on disliking Emma Thompson. Let’s just say that above, when I said “practically screaming all of her lines,” I had her in mind. Because they are on such opposite wavelengths at all times, I honestly get no sense of chemistry between them. Both of them are so annoying to me separately, and together I care about them even less. ***JUST MY OPINION***

I guess, bottom line, I think that for both of them there tends to be two discernible ways in which they’re portrayed, and there needs to be some balance in between them in order for them to connect.

Thank you :)

17. What genre would you like to see your favoriteactor in?

We’re going with older actors here even though this isn’t technically possible *sobs*. Well William Russell played a lot of preppy, good guy types when he was young in films and we’d have loved to have seen him as a evil villain in something in the 50′s or 60′s, maybe an intense character drama. Anthony Valentine was the opposite to William and played mostly TV villains but he didn’t do many films so it would’ve been really cool to see him in a romantic comedy or something with Christopher Strauli as his love interest. Think he’d have been really good in a comedy movie. He had a great sense of humour and he’d just be really charming in a romcom. Sighs.

18. What’s a movie that you think is flawed but youknow just how to fix it?

The early Raffles films, if they added more of the importance of Bunny and cut out the stuff about Raffles changing his ways to get married then that’d be cool! :D

19. How many movies does it take for you to fall inlove with an actor or director?

22. Your main fandoms throughout the year

answered!

23. The most missed of your old fandoms

i miss my Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. friends and philinda.

24. Fandom resolutions for next year

make many many tdbm posts (gifsets, fanvids etc)

25. Fandom predictions for next year

phil coulson is ALIVE.

Letztens hab ich auch eine Folge von 'In aller Freundschaft - Die jungen Ärzte' mit einem schwulen Paar gesehen, die hatten nach 20 Jahren Beziehungsprobleme und hatten die bis zum Ende wieder gelöst. Nur irgendwie waren das alles immer Männer - ein Schritt vorwärts aber längst nicht genug. Trotzdem hat es mich in ARD und ZDF doch überrascht. Oh und Bettys Diagnose hab ich letzte Woche durchgebinged, wenn jemand drüber reden will würd ich mich freuen!

I love Bill and Harry! I’ve never seen an ep of The Mentalist, but I ship Jisbon and Philinda will always be my OTP :)