Sondheim Talks "Sweeney Todd"

The Australian has a brief interview with Stephen Sondheim, Broadway composer and creator of Sweeney Todd, in which he discusses the film and the differences between it and the stage version of the story.

Plenty of blood after barber cuts
REEL TIME
Sandy George
July 11, 2007

"It has got a lot of blood in it and that's fine by me," says Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim of director Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. The film version of Sondheim's musical about the demon barber of Fleet Street finished filming in Britain a couple of weeks ago.

A self-confessed movie buff, Sondheim says writer John Logan asked him for his opinion on the screenplay. He understood that filming the whole musical would make the film too long: some of the cuts were judicious and some not. "There are songs that have been cut, and cuts within some of the songs, but generally it is pretty much the score," he says. He was speaking at Sydney's Theatre Royal last Friday. "The plot is very little changed ... It is pretty faithful."

Johnny Depp sings his way through the title role: the actor played in a rock band before becoming a star of television, then film. The cast includes Helena Bonham Carter (as Mrs Lovett), Alan Rickman (Judge Turpin), Timothy Spall (Beadle Bamford) and Sacha Baron Cohen (Signor Adolfo Pirelli).

Sondheim says he has never been tempted to write for film: "Film is a director's medium and I would not have the patience to direct even if I had the talent for it."