[dolbinau]

Who was a worse Sweeney? I mean overall - singing and acting.

Yes, call it is a *palm in face*, n00bish and/or pointless post if you must. But I'm curious of what the 'general opinion' is (hence the poll).

[Yakko]

Well I like both of them, I thought they made great Sweeney's

[High-baritonne]

Me too, I like Depp's voice, it may not be perfection, but it kind of fits the part quite well. But there are some parts I don't like when he sings them, like Epiphany. Cerveris is also great, I've never seen his performance, but on the revival recording he sounds rather decent.

[Yakko]

Well High in a Sondheim show the voice is never perfect.

[Salome]

Cerveris was the single WORST Sweeeny Todd Ive seen. he needs major diction lessons. and a little bit of nuance to make his perofrmances work. he isnt untalented but he isnt wonderful at all.
Depp is a brillaint actor with a large range of emotions and texture.

[actor]

Johnny Depp's Sweeney was leagues ahead of Michael Cerveris'. I loved Cerveris in Titanic but he was terrible in Sweeney Todd.

[Kragey]

Michael Cerveris. I like him in other things, but he just didn't do it for me as Sweeney, whereas I really enjoyed Depp as Sweeney.

[mastachen]

Johnny Depp was a lot better than Ceveris.

Why Sondheim keeps casting him in his shows is beyond me. His Booth in Assassins was...laughable.

[Kragey]

[IndigoMedusa]

Why is it that guys who get cast as Tommy have a tendency to be sleazy, creepy-ass jerks?


When my theatre troupe went to a musical theatre competition, they decided to do a few numbers from The Who's Tommy involving people from each of the different casts that competed. The guy who was Tommy was sooooo creepy. He was 23 and really cocky about his voice. He kept groping high school girls backstage.

And someone I know whose friend is an insider on these things told me that Michael Cerveris is know for being a skeezeball during productions...go figure.

As for his performances, I liked Cerveris as Giorgio in Passion. Can't comment on his Sweeney Todd as I've never seen it, but I hate his fake low notes when it's quite obvious that he's a tenor who tried to extend his range. Sweeney Todd should be a real baritone.

[Pannic]

Cerveris seems to have played alot of baritone roles, though, hasn't he?

Sweeney, Booth, Thomas Andrews, Giorgio...

[EponineBarker]

I'm not gonna lie, Cerveris was never a favorite of mine, even before the movie came out. His voice (and the bald-headed look) never struck me as 'Sweeney Todd', it struck me more as some really creepy dude who liked to kill people. (At least, that's what I thought when I first saw the Revival at the Tony's. It's scared the heck out of me...and this was before I knew anything about the show.)

[High-baritonne]

I don't think either of them are bad, but the one on the tour DVD really annoys me. There's just something about his voice that I can't stand.

[actor]

How can you not like George Hearn's deep, rich voice? He is the perfect Sweeney.

[High-baritonne]

I don't know, it just did not appeal to me.

[Pika132]

Hearn>Depp=Cariou>>>>>>>Cerveris.

I loved Cerveris in Tommy, but I simply can't stand his Sweeney. He was an overemoting wreck who artificially deepened his voice to the point where subtleties such as real acting requires became impossible. The 2005 BCA isn't very good in general, IMO; most of the supporting cast (particularly Benjamin Magnuson...his "Johanna" isMUCH creepier than the Judge's) is sub-par, and even the usually magnificent Patti LuPone sounds restrained here. I read somewhere that for budgetary reasons they recorded a "highlights" version of the score with only a few takes per track, then discovered they had too much audio for one disc and not enough money to bring the cast back in. Stupid, stupid producers. Len Cariou was the original, of course, and the slightly hoarse, throaty quality of his voice adds a lot. Johnny Depp, on the other hand, is not a great singer but he acted the s**t out of the part; even if you didn't like the movie, that was a great performance and ideal casting (well, Heath Ledger would've been better, but he's dead) in what was really a different take on the whole show.
Then there's George Hearn. Well, he was the first Sweeney I saw (in a 1980 film of a replacement cast with Angela Lansbury) so I'm quite partial. But even when I saw hm again in the 2001 concert video, with the benefit of having heard three other Sweeneys...well, it changed my life. Spellbinding. Godly.

Wow, wall o' text here. I do think, however, that Sweeney is one of the greatest American musicals, so perhaps I can be allowed to rant a bit. Hell, I'm doing a report on the show for a class; I'm technically studying right now [/i]

[IndigoMedusa]

I like the cast overall and I like Benjamin Magnuson as Anthony, actually....I'm in the minority here. And I really didn't mind Cerveris. His voice wasn't right for the role but there were some nice moments on the recording. The only person in the cast that I couldn't stand was Donna Lynn Champlin's Pirelli....yuck.

[Mistress]

Magnuson wasn't bad, but he basically ripped off Cris Groenandaal's performance from the '82 movie with Hearn and Lansbury, so that wasn't very original.

[IndigoMedusa]

Really? I didn't think so. Their voices are both really different and his whole persona onstage just isn't like Cris.

To quote one of the other users, Cris was naive almost to the point of stupidity. Cris is too old to get away with being naive.

[Mistress]

I think you quoted me ...and IMO, Magnuson may have had a different voice (he did) but he still did Cris's "niave to the point of stupidity" act, although perhaps he was a tad lighter on the stupidity part.

edit: I've recently been pondering how Cris Groenendaal went from Anthony to Phantom in POTO...they're vastly different characters, and seems so weird to think about HIM doing POTO....IDK random thought for the night.

[EponineBarker]

[IndigoMedusa]

For me, they go in this order: George Hearn, Len Cariou, Johnny Depp, Michael Cerveris. Hearn is probably one of my favorite actors ever.




And as for Anthonys, I liked Ben Magnuson but Victor Garber beats all of them.

[Pannic]

[dolbinau]

George Hearn to play George in SITPWG ?

[Mistress]

[quote="Pannic]Well, Hearn went from playing a serial killer to a flamboyant cross-dresser.[/quote]

Oh I have to see this...pictures?

[Pannic]

La Cage Aux Folles. He played Albin, aka 'Zaza.'

[Mistress]

[quote="Pannic"]La Cage Aux Folles. He played Albin, aka 'Zaza.'

I guessed as much, But I was hoping to find some pictures...meh, I'll find them some other time...must go finish watching Oklahano! DVDv with Hugh Jackman <3333

[dolbinau]

[IndigoMedusa]

I love George Hearn but I think he would be completely wrong for Sunday. First of all, I don't think he has the voice range for it and the character is pretty much Hearn's antithesis: Subtle, introverted, emotionally distant.

[Pannic]

The part only has that range because Patinkin played it. Sondheim had originally intended to write the part as a bass-baritone, but then they cast Patinkin, who's a tenor. A low tenor, but 'Finishing the Hat' still has a train of G flats, topping with an A flat.

But again, that's just me being bitter because it's a great part in a wonderful show that I'll never be able to play it.

[High-baritonne]

I thought Mandi Patinkin always had a quite high tenor voice? I may of course be mistaken, but in Evita he sounds pretty high in many of the songs. But I am so glad that they made George a Tenor role! Because there are so many sondheim songs that are baritone.

[Kragey]

[Brock07]

He reminds me of Voldemort.

[DanUSGS]

Depp's emotional complexity and primo acting chops just barely made up for the fact that he lacked the vocal power to justice to the part.

[Buff Daddy]

Michael Cerveris. 'Nuff said.

Buff