This week musical theater fans can rejoice as Shout! Factory is releasing three live musical productions on Blu-ray. The first of these is the 2001 concert production of Stephen Sondheim’s dark masterpiece Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, performed by the San Francisco Symphony. Under the false identity of Sweeney Todd, Benjamin Barker (George Hearn) returns to London after a long time away. Almost 15 years prior, Judge Turpin (Timothy Nolen) and his sidekick Beadle Bamford (John Aler) had wrongly sent Barker away to an Australian penal colony on trumped up charges, so that the judge was free to pursue his wife Lucy. However, shortly after Barker left, Lucy poisoned herself, and the judge took Barker’s daughter Johanna (Lisa Vroman) as his ward. Johanna is now nearly a woman and the judge wants to marry her, but her heart belongs to sailor Anthony Hope (Davis Gaines).

As Todd arrives back in London, he reunites with less-than-successful pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett (Patti LuPone), who recognizes Barker. She explains what has happened to his wife and child, and gives him his old barber tools. Todd descides to open a barber shop above the pie shop and lure the judge and beadle there to slice their necks and get his revenge. However, he is soon recognized by rival barber Pirelli (Stanford Olsen), who tries to blackmail Barker. And so Todd claims his first victim in his chair, and gets a taste for blood. He decides to take his anger out on all of the bad people of London while awaiting his opportunity for revenge. But how will he dispose of the bodies? Well he and Mrs. Lovett quickly come up with a plan that is mutually-beneficial for both of them, “no wonder with the price of meat what it is”!

This concert version of the musical is not a full scale stage production. The “stage” consists of three thin parallel walkways intersected by a fourth walkway through the center. The rear walkway is primarily used for the chorus, while the orchestra fills all of the sections inbetween the pathways. The actors utilize minimal props and costumes, and the rest is left to the imagination. For the most part this works really well (though I must admit that I have seen this play several times and so that could also have been why I could easily fill in the blanks). The musical performances are phenomenal. Backed by the full orchestra and amazing chorus, Sondheim’s complicated overlapping tunes and lyrical runs really come to life. George Hearn reprises his Broadway role as Sweeney Todd, Patti LuPone makes an excellent Mrs. Lovett (a role that was originated by Angela Lansbury), and Timothy Nolen is so perfectly creepy as the judge. Neil Patrick Harris also makes a fun appearance as the street rat Tobias Ragg. I absolutely love this musical—it is a perfect mix of dark humor and tragic drama, and the songs always stick in my head for weeks after seeing a production.

This concert was originally produced for PBS and DVD in 2001 in the fullscreen standard definition format. Shout! Factory has upscaled the production to 1080i and recropped it to be in widescreen format (the original fullscreen SD version is also included on the disc). The result is a bit of a mixed bag. As the production starts, the opening titles look a bit stretched, and the darker scenes look like they have some sort of film over them. Fortunately this effect doesn’t occur during the rest of the show, but there are several somewhat blurry scenes throughout the production. In order to create the widescreen look, the picture had to be cropped. Comparing the two versions, it looks like this is primarily done by concentrating more on the upper bodies of the performers and chopping the lower portion of the picture and trimming the top of the frame closer to the tops of the actors heads. The audio track fares better. Since it is only a stereo track, all of the sound comes from the front and center channels, but the dialogue is clear and the performances sound very nice. The only bonus material included on the Blu-ray is a 10-minute behind-the-scenes with the cast and creators. This featurette also appeared on the original DVD release, but it looks like the same upscale and crop technique from the main production may have also been employed to this as well.

The Blu-ray is packed in a standard keepcase, and there is no slipcover.

What’s Included:

Film: (2:11:28)

• 1080i / Widescreen 1.78:1 (Upscaled High Definition)
• 480p / Fullscreen 1.33:1 (Standard Definition)
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
• Subtitles: English

Extras:

• Making of Sweeney Todd (11:57)
  Recorded in July of 2001 at Davis Symphony Hall in San Francisco, this is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the production with the cast and creators. Some of the topics include the conception of the Sweeney Todd musical, the challenges of mounting this symphony concert, the tight rehearsal schedule, working with composer Stephen Sondheim, and more. Includes interviews with lyricist/composer Stephen Sondheim, San Francisco Symphony artistic administrator Michael Bartlett, conductor Rob Fisher, director Lonny Price, and actors George Hearn (“Sweeney Todd”), Patti LuPone (“Mrs. Lovett”), Neil Patrick Harris (“Tobias Ragg”) and Davis Gaines (“Anthony Hope”). This feature was presented in widescreen but felt like it was recropped/upscaled like the main production.
• “Gypsy” Trailer (:52)

Final Thoughts:

Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite musicals, so I was thrilled to see that Shout! Factory was releasing this concert version on Blu-ray. The performance itself is really quite good, and it’s amazing how much the actors are able to convey with minimal props and no sets. However, I kind of wish this had been a full production—I would have loved seeing Sweeney Todd’s unique body-dumping barber chair at work! Also, it’s unfortunate that the video presentation is a bit of a mixed bag, though this is due to the standard definition source material Shout! had to work with. That said, I think this release is definitely worth checking out for those looking for an entertaining production of the source material. However, it may not be worth the upgrade for those who already happen to own the 2001 DVD release.