[Borb]

Howdy,
First of all I am new here! I have been watching this website for a long time and finally decided to join. I am not too hard to get along with. I am very passionate about musicals and music in general.

I was wondering what you guys think of having a tenor Sweeney Todd?
After seeing the movie with Johnny Depp, I think it is a cool idea.

Tell me what you think!

[Joshua]

Bienvenue! Nous ne parlent pas anglais ici a le section de Sweeney Todd. Nous parlent francais, mais nous aiment le langue d'anglais!


Just kidding. WELCOME!!!!!

And I don't think a tenor Sweeney is possible because of the range of his music.

[Sweeney Hyde]

Well, while Johnny sort of has the tone of a tenor...or...whatever it is that he calls what he does...the role, when looking at the score, is clearly a baritone role. It goes fairly low but also goes up kind of sort of high.

I personally think that low voices are much scarier than tenor vioces...or that scary characters with lower voices work better for the character.

I really really prefer, for Sweeney, a deep and rich voice over a light and airy one. I don't think that the tone of the tenor voice works for the role. Depp sort of contorted it so that it did...but your typical tenor that you find in musical theatre...no.

[Pannic]

bassbassbassbassbass

Let's cast James Barbour as Jean Valjean while we're at it.

[Monsieur D'Arque]

A tenor? Maybe. A rock tenor-natural baritone? Probably. When I was in Sweeney, our sweeney was a rock tenor with a natural baritone. A much fuller, rougher sound than Depp, but by no means a Cariou or Hearn. And I liked it. For comparison, imagine, say, Norbert Leo Butz or, to a lesser extent, maybe even Adam Pascal singing Sweeney, but not like a rock song. More like a "My voice has been ravaged over the years" kind of way, with it ever so often becoming more rock-inflected, mainly in Epiphany, and the very end of Pretty Women. It was good.

[duchessina]

I think a tenor is pushing it a bit.

Sweeney Todd is a bass like Toby is a tenor...it's part of their characters.

[actor]

Sweeney is not a bass.

[Pannic]

The vast majority of his material falls perfectly in the bass range. "Johanna," "My Friends," his lines in the Ballad... easy bass stuff. The only time he really goes remotely high is during the Epiphany, and even that can be done by a good strong bass.

[Jekkienumber24601]

[Kragey]

[ilovebway]

I really don't like the idea of a tenor Sweeney.
It just doesn't click for me.

[Sweeney Hyde]

Actually, Pannic, he goes just as high in A Little Priest as he does in Epiphany.

I do believe that it works best as a baritone.
Basses have a different tone that is not quite right, imo.

[EponineBarker]

[Mistress]

I think Baritone works best, but e tenor could do it, if he had a big enough range, like Alex Gemignani, he would have to be a tenor since he played the Beadle in the Broadway revival before doing Sweeney on tour, where I saw him. I think I may also have heard a bass Sweneey on Youtube. It was a while back though, and all I can remember besides the fact that his voice was more bass than baritone, was that he was dark skinned, but mixed race, I think.

[Lazarus (Adam G)]

I think Depp is a light Baritone, not a tenor. I think a baritenor Sweeney would be...interesting. I could see Eric Kunze playing Sweeney Todd.

[Kragey]

[ilovebway]

[Kragey]

I definitely think a bass could have the proper tone, and a tenor MIGHT be able to do it. But I do prefer baritone in just about everything. =)

[Timmerbo]

Isn't Ceveris considered a tenor? He sang a lot of Sweeney's higher parts that most basses would sing at the top of their hungs in a very light airy voice. He also seemed to make a concentrated effort at times to 'darken' his voice (which occasionally caused him to veer completely off-key).

I saw Gemignani as Sweeney in Toronto and though he's been called a tenor, he didn't struggle with the lower passages at all. I would say he's probably more of a baritone with a very high top. His was definitely the most vocally controlled Sweeney I've ever heard... his 'Johanna' was amazing.

On the whole, I don't really understand why you would ever want to cast a tenor as Sweeney. It just works so freaking well with a bass-baritone.

[Lazarus (Adam G)]

I can pull of Sweeney, I'm a tenor (probably more of a baritenor), but the tone would never be right. Sweeney should have a deep, rich, and scary voice. Which is why Hearn will never be beaten...ever.