Sweeney preview part 2

In my previous post, I said that I wasn't impressed with what little I'd seen of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. Having now seen the rest of the clips, plus the associated behind the scenes videos, I think I have determined what it is that I don't like about Burton's Sweeney Todd.

Perhaps because he has moved from the stage to the screen, and perhaps because the songs in Sondheim's Sweeney are so difficult to sing, Burton has underplayed the singing tremendously. Many of the lines are spoken, rather than sung, and not all of the actors seem to be good singers. He has not given the music the same treatment, however. The result is a lush musical score that supports, and overwhelms, some very flat singing. The comparison makes the singing look very bad, to the point of being distracting.

This is unfortunate, as much of the rest of Burton's vision seems to be on target. I'm not nuts about his staging of "Epiphany," but I don't know that it could have been handled any better. "Epiphany," for all of its qualities, may not be translatable to the screen. The rest has real potential, but I found the disagreement between the music and singing to be too great a distractor. For a show like Sweeney, where almost all of the dialogue is sung, this is a major concern.

More as I have it.