Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tim Burton’s adaptation leaves the chorus behind entirely. The choral ballad that opens the stage show and keeps returning is never sung here; an instrumental opening title stands in its place. Christopher Lee had been cast as a ghost who does not exist in the stage version and was dropped before he shot a frame; he said it was a shame because the lyrics were wonderful. Stephen Sondheim, interviewed near release, said the middle sections of Green Finch and Linnet Bird and of A Little Priest were cut, because on screen he wants the story to move quickly. What that leaves is a film spent inside Todd’s head with nobody on hand to comment on him. Helena Bonham Carter did not simply inherit Mrs. Lovett. She auditioned on video, waited five weeks for an answer, had her tapes approved by Sondheim, and has described training her voice for three months. Johnny Depp’s vocals were recorded at a separate London studio, under a producer credited to him alone. The film won the Academy Award for Art Direction; Depp and costume designer Colleen Atwood were nominated only. A good fit if you would rather no chorus stepped in to interpret the murders. Not for you if a throat being cut mid-number is the wrong kind of shock.