Sweeney Todd Soundtrack

Genre soundtrack Publisher Nonesuch Records External Links Nonesuch Records

Tim Burton's adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's 1979 Tony-winning musical Sweeney Todd is grand guignol at its best: Burton has married Wheeler's gruesome story and Sondheim's brash score with his own visual imagination, and the result is a dazzlingly entertaining gorefest.

This tale of "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" stars Johnny Depp in a phenomenal star turn as the man wreaking vengeance following the death of his wife and his own exile, with Helena Bonham Carter in fine fettle as his murderous meat pie-baking accomplice, Mrs. Lovett. The movie benefits from deliciously twisted supporting turns from Alan Rickman (the evil Judge Turpin), Timothy Spall (his sidekick, Beadle Bramford) and even Borat himself, Sasha Baron Cohen (the quack Italian barber, Pirelli), and the most colorfully blood-spattered visuals, courtesy Burton's ace technical team: cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, editor Chris Lebenzon, set designer Dante Ferretti and costume designer Colleen Atwood.

The Nonesuch soundtrack to this Sweeney Todd shows off the lusciousness of Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations-conducted by the talented Paul Gemignani—which are more ostentatious than the original Broadway musical, but are also subtle enough not to smother the words, story and characters. They can be heard, in fact, as an aural complement to the eye-popping visuals.

Depp and Bonham Carter are not trained singers, and this has occasional drawbacks, i.e., in the sorrowful lament "Johanna," Depp's voice can't carry the full emotional strain of the loss of Todd's wife and daughter. Yet these remarkable performers use the music as another vehicle to further their varied characterizations; Depp, particularly, catches many nuances in Sondheim's songs. Rickman and Cohen also enliven their few moments in the musical spotlight.

For all its indebtedness to the English music-hall tradition, much of Sweeney Todd is unmitigated Sondheim, almost always a good thing, except when we hear the seemingly endless reprises of "Johanna" and "Pretty Women," along with a certain sameness to his minor-key tunes. Conspicuous by its absence is "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," permissible in this context, I suppose, but considering it's among the show's signature melodies-ominously sung by the townspeople, with added reprises peppered throughout the score-it's definitely missed.

Nonesuch has packaged the Sweeney Todd soundtrack with an 80-page booklet containing many color images from the film along with the lyrics, which makes a nice souvenir. Overall, it does not make expandable two terrific cast albums-the original with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury or the 2005 revival with Michael Cerveris and Patti Lupone-but this Sweeney Todd is a solid listen for Sondheim fans.