Well, I'm practically echoing everyone else in this thread, but my favourite portrayal of Lovette comes from Helena, but there are a number of reasons for this.

The first makes me the most bias, as she was the first actress I heard sing the role. I find her performance is gentle and subtly - she portrays a scheming but tragic woman who is in love, and because of this is easier for viewers (I suppose *especially* new comers) to empathise and like her. I can't really describe her sound vocally...but it's very soft and sweet. I'd agree entirely that it wouldn't function on stage - and without the movies it would have been a very underwhelming performance (from practically all the cast). Nevertheless, I really enjoyed her Lovett, but I would agree I'm terribly biased.

I've heard some clips of Lansbury, and I'm impressed with her also. Her timbre is thicker, and her pronunciation is more proper, establishing a far more wicked and deliciously evil character. I'm hoping I can get the OBC soon! The only performance I don't really like of the role is LuPone, mainly from the Broadway Revival 05. Although I've never seen her in person, she sounds bored, nasal, and tired. All in all, it's just the regular gloomy voice of LuPone.

Have you seen the 1980 tour video? I doubt HBC will still be your favorite Lovett after watching it.

I think that interpretation is completely opposite of the correct one. She is supposed to be broad and funny and evil, like a grotesque Dickens character, and should not me empathised with. She is supposed to to be personification of amorality.

Yeah, I agree with you entirely (from what I've read). I think, in some aspects including certain interpretations, the movie doesn't cater so much to the fans of the musical as it would for the fan base for the Burton/Depp/Carter fanbase. From just going of the movie I'd view her as a fragile, unhappy and deeply unsatisfied figure you'd empathise with, but I'm basing this assumption purely on the movie and the soundtracks, as I haven't gotten around to buying the touring video yet.

I'm always going to have this problem of being exposed to the movie, now I'll always perceive Lovett with a softer, higher, thinner timbre and not as wicked and unpredictable. Oh well, here's to moving forward! =D

I love both Angela and concert!Patti. Very different but equally deep and well-built.

From what I've seen I LOVE the LuPone concert version, but also the HBC film one, although only in the film...

The timbre of the actress' voice isn't that important. It's just Lansbury's performance and interpretation that's so perfect - she basically is Lovett (and she wasn't even the first Lovett I was exposed to).



Lovett is not in love with Sweeney (although I suppose it's debatable). This is what I fear about fans of the movie. Carter's performance (which I actually quite liked) is so subtle that people just didn't get how relentlessly evil Lovett is.

It certainly is debatable. I mean, I know you could claim 'subtext', but the lyrics of "Poor Thing", "My Friends", "By the Sea" and the "Final Sequence" seem pretty clear to me.

So you think she actually loved Sweeney? Well I suppose everyone has their own opinion and interpretation, but I always thought of it as an obsession/fascination rather than love. She's using and manipulating him for her own gain.

I agree. I guess one could call it love (there are so many ways to love someone), but she's definately not loving him in a way that is not for the sake of her own benefit, as she is completely amoral and selfish. I guess I'd say that she loves Sweeney because he is someone who can supply her with material goods

I agree with that 'interpretation' of love. I mean one of obsession, selfishness, using etc......not like a kind of romantic genuine, "do what's good for the other person" kind of love.

I mean I don't know if I'd think her Lovett is consciously manipulating him..i.e. if someone asked her if she knew what she was doing, I don't think she'd say yes. AT LEAST, from the point of "poor thing", I mean I've heard theories where some people think that's the beginning of her 'plot' to use Sweeney etc..but I think if she was 'using him' here it was for love-purposes, not like PRIEST where she might consciously be thinking "I can get him to kill people so I can cook them and make money off it".

Does this make sense?

Basically, I don't think Lovett's "using" is as simple as her consciously, knowingly using Sweeney for her own gain.

If I have interpreted you correctly, I believe I completely agree. Lovett is acting purely on instinct. She has no moral, so she's just reacting the ways the benefits her, completely without moral quibbles. Thus she is not consciously evil, because (in my opinion) that requires some sense of what is right and wrong.