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From: wyou17
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  • How can anyone dislike this? Just remember....everyone shaves. You'll be added into the plenty of flavors jar. >:)

  • God I love this show, was in it a couple of times. Saw Lupone and Cerveris in the 2005 revival and it was fascinating, with characters acting as the orchestra (as was done earlier in Company)

    In the original B'way cast audio recording, Len Cariou is beyond compare. George Hearn is wonderful in the role, but I would dearly love to see Cariou's acting. Any existing video of Cariou in the original production.

  • 19 people didn't get it

  • 1:56 haha, love it.

  • I'd just like to say that those who have come to this through the Tim Burton film version (which I like, but it does take some song liberties), this is a fantastic show, and though this song's basically about two awful people who are going to kill people and cook them, there's more to the story than the song, and Stephen Sondheim is truly incredible. AL & LC doing this are fantastic and in some ways it's not about the voices, but the performance. And how they remember the words is a mystery!

  • Len Cariou obviously doesn't have the same voice anymore (not surprising, after so many years, and I don't mind really), but I was surprised what a great voice Angela Lansbury still has. Amazing. As someone who first knew Sweeney Todd through the Burton movie (which I still love), and only after that watched the recorded Broadway version, Angela Lansbury simply is Mrs. Lovett for me. The schizofrenic voice, the mannerisms. Incredible.

  • I feel demented laughing at a song about cannibalism!

  • El original, mereces un adward por este video man...XDD

  • To the 20 people who disliked it... How about a shave? I WANT YOU BLEEDERS.

  • Love it!!!!

  • Angela definitely is the quintessential Mrs. Lovett.

  • Oh, she is just too ... I can't seem to find the word ... I want to say cute but with this dark humor, that wouldn't fit at all! The relationship between these two is a little more innocent (and I use that term lightly) than that of the revival cast, which is infinitely more sexual, but I actually don't have a favorite between the two!! Both renditions are fabulous, as are the actors who portray them!!

  • Being a rabid fan of the Tim Burton production, I gotta say... Carter and and Depp have NOTHING on these two.

  • @CrowSongProductions I've tried a few times, but haven't yet been able to make it more than a few minutes into the movie (got as far as a little way into "Worst Pies"). It's just so awful in so many ways already, & I can't stomach more. Sometime I'll grit my teeth & just plow through it. I really feel they wasted the chance to make a good movie of SWEENEY, & it breaks my heart a little. I'm a fan of Burton & Bonham-Carter, & a big fan of Depp, but they done wrong on that one.

  • Oh I love this song <3

  • The original will always be the best for me . It also takes a lot more to get on stage and sing live. They have aged but still are brilliant. Angela Lansbury rules my world.

  • WOW. this. is. AWESOME!!!!!

  • I like George Hern better!

  • @AskAlice24 Agreed. But I love Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou's chemistry on stage better.

  • Wow, this is pretty amazing! They still have it!

  • wow he aged badly

  • I know the description for this video mentions 'minor flubbing' and the fact that Len Cariou doesn't carry the voice he was commanded, but you know what... I never even noticed! I was too sublimely enraptured by the performances. That's surely the sign of two true greats. God bless, and long live, Lansbury and Cariou!

  • All her singing talents blend to her acting one (just remember Gaslight, Jekill & Hyde, Samson and Delilah, The Three Musketeers, Harvey Girls, The Manchurian Candidate just to mention a few) to reach the highest tops of entertainment

  • Anyone Can Whistle, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music Sondhem + Lansbury ALWAYS rules and steal the show! Angela played many roles on other composers like Jerry Herman, performed R&H shows, Coward plays and of course we'll always remember her for being the lovable Mrs. Potts and the wonderful Eglantine Price but for me she gave her best performing Sondheim musicals!

  • dont be fooled, these old people still got it. they can still kill you and put ya into pies! ;D

  • It's like the difference between Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger as the Joker. They are both excellent actors, they just portray different character types. People are going to like one over the other because they lean towards the personalities they prefer in villain characters. I prefer psychotic/crazy villain characters, not the calculating kind. So Naturally, I lean towards George/Len and Angela. All of both casts are very talented, it just comes down to your personal preferences :)

  • Brought a tear to my eye. Haha, I love the story of Sweeney Todd, and who better to play the roll than Len & Angela? Bravo!

  • @IrishRebel1879 The originals are always better!

  • People should really stop comparing two totally different mediums. There's no way HBC could do what Lansbury did on stage, but I also highly doubt Lansbury could've done what HBC did in the movie. Each (actress and medium) have their own strengths and weaknesses, which appeal to different people.

  • @Holagurrl25 Sorry, the movie was HORRIBLE. JD and HBC played their roles with NO humor and were utterly boring.

  • @thespiswolf One man's trash is another man's treasure. It's quite likely that I dislike something you enjoy, however that doesn't mean my opinion is above yours. And as a side note, in case you were here just to defend the theater version, I enjoy both versions.

  • 4:45...hmm. Angela's too much into the darkly humourous banter and catchy waltz to remember her lines. Awesome though! She will always be Mrs Lovett to me, although Patti LuPone runs a close second. HBC acted well (at times), but her singing sucked compared to those greats.

  • I got to see this show, so long ago. I think George was Sweeney then... GAWD! this brings back sweet memories!

  • Len and George MADE that role what it is. Depp couldn't hold a candle of he tried and Burton's film was a homage...at best.

  • Len Cairou and George Hearn are probably THE BEST Sweenys ever!

  • Brilliant! Love how Len is enjoying himself as well!

  • Sound as good as they did 30 years ago!

  • @fatheranthony4pope I know! Angela and Lou will always be Mrs. Lovett and Mr. Todd to me!

  • Oh Len Cariou!

  • God love 'em both - definitive! (As was Hearn...just different...).

    It's absolutely what TRUE actors can do with neither costumes nor props.Take notes Mr. Depp and Ms. Bonham-Carter.

  • Angela does A Little Priest so well. The "If you get it" is so cute!

  • Is there better Sounheim's achievement than soundtrack to Sweeney Todd?

  • Dear kata..a..whatever -

    First, it's Sondheim - not Sounheim.

    Second - it's wasn't a soundtrack. It was a live show. It was a score.

  • @garyokee whatever it was, you don't answer my question.

  • Umm... In my opinion, seeing Helena first is no excuse. I saw the movie first, and I still agree that Angela is better by far. Not that I'm bashing HBC, but she just didn't do t as well as Lansbury. Angela really fits the role, which I find really scary, because I'm a Disney Golden Age child - I first knew her as Mrs. Potts.

  • Angela is the ultimate Broadway queen and godess <3

    There isn't a grander talent

  • love it at 1:54 lens mysterious laugh!

  • Sondheim did write her, yes, but he wrote the character for Angela Lansbury. It was intended to be comedic and foil Sweeney, which Helena did not succeed in. Maybe it was the directing. Maybe it was that her voice wasn't strong enough. But Mrs. Lovett wasn't scary because she wasn't the typical chatty, boisterous mother figure with absolutely no morals whatsoever.

  • @poetoffire Or maybe it was that the movie sucked.

  • though i suppose she was told to sing everything without humour...

  • I prefer HBC as Mrs Lovett, but Lansbury is more comedic...

  • @missrowanb2009 Everyone's entitled to their opinion, of course, and while I thought Carter was certainly good in the film, THE Mrs. Lovett is Angela Lansbury. Carter was sort of humorless.

  • @jv92 Thing is, i saw HBC's Lovett first, so i prefer her version. Though on stage you have to be more obvious, and on screen you have to be more subtle, so there always was going to be major differences. It comes down to whether you prefer subtlety or if you like it more obvious.

  • if only toni colette had been mrs lovett in the movie as she wanted - she would have been as nutty and sublime as angela lansbury was

  • why did helena bohem carter (spelling?) even attempt this???

  • @leporello56 that's such a foolish thing to say. Helena said in an interview that she's always been a big sondheim fan, and that when she was a little kid she used to dress up and pretend to be mrs.lovett. getting to play mrs.lovett was a dream come true for her, and she channeled mrs.lovett in her own way. Angela didn't create her, sondheim did, and every actor that plays her differently. i thought it was brave of her to do mrs.lovett like she did, instead of doing it like angela.

  • @kaliiiine dude its just my opinion :) i did like helena as mrs lovett, I just prefer angela by miles. i heard her first i suppose so thats why i like her better.

  • They're just as good as in the original performance; meaning that they are awesome!

  • Saw them both in the original- Can't believe that 25 years later they can still rock it!

  • AMAZING!

  • Wow. These two are quite a pair! They sound awesome together! But the people in that audience are kind of annoying. I mean, are they high or something? I mean this song is funny and everything but those people are laughing like hyenas!

  • Gaww, I love Angela.

  • Lansbury was the voice of Mrs. Potts

  • Why... Why do I think of Mrs. Potts singing this!?

  • @javiere1990 Because she is ;)

  • Awesome.

  • 4:36 Len's cackle is fantastic. Love it! Love this whole performance!

  • Apparently, Len kakked his voice out over the first year of doing Todd, hence George doing the filmed version. According to a mutual friend, his voice never did come back the way it should have.

  • She is amazing, to think she had to be almost 80 when she did this! I really admire her. She is and always will be Mrs. Lovett.

  • @FrackasaurusRex I know!!! I SO WISH she played Mrs. Lovett in the Tim Burton film :(

  • @inthelimelight123 That would've made the movie sooo much more epic! Although, I like Helena because she is more Tim Burton's style.

  • It is so sad that this was not recorded. It was a magnificent evening of amazing performers.

  • This is just beautiful. 2 icons doing it all over. SImply beautiful. xx

  • 18 people go down well with beer.

  • @TheErock07 Now 19

  • *slaps the people who said dislike!!!!!*

  • Len Cariou was a much better actor than Hearn, though his voice wasn't quite as strong. Still, I preferred the original cast over the tour cast.

  • They skipped the fiddle player part... =(

  • 1:56 is one of the best parts, ha ha XD

  • I love how Len Caroiu just loses it.

  • this is amazing. they still sound as good as they originally did!

  • more priests should be put through a  grinder..

  • Thanks for that! They were the best in those roles!

  • incredible! ms incredible!!!! Angela Lansbury amazing... 

  • Angela is such a pro even when Len was cracking up she held it!!!! I love her!!!

  • Lansbury is a pimp ^_^ Loves her to death.

  • angela lansbury is incredible as lovett

  • How wonderful. This is difficult stuff and they're not youngsters. I loved it!

  • Oh my goodness!!! Did you film this?? GREAT footage!! Was this on television ... like PBS or something?

  • Oh my goodness!! Did you film this??? Wonderful footage!!!! Thank you SOO much!!

  • angela plays the part as if she actually is mrs.lovett

  • Aaaw she's sooo charming :D

  • Johnny depp is the perfect sweeney Todd and angela is the perfect mrs lovett

  • GOD I LOVE ANGELA LANSBURY SOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • They still got it! :D

  • mis idolos!

  • Best Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett EVER!!

  • I love angela lansbury!!!!

  • Hairbuns! She did the bloddy hairbuns! LMFAO

  • god i love angela lansbury--just look at her! amazing

  • they've still got it after like 20 or so years

  • The perfect Mrs. lovett indeed, also anamazing example of comic relief

  • Isn't this simply amazing!!! She's a few months short of 80!!! Mr. Cariou is still going strong. This would be considered a great performance at any age. They are both SO FUNNY!

  • @melbapatti Good God! EIGHTY! She's amazing!

  • Wow look how she's in character!!!!! Amazing!!!! She's one of the greatest actresses/singers in the whole wide world!!!!

  • when he laugh for the first time, and took a crap in my pants

  • .....Simply awesome. And I mean the actual definition.

  • This is so gleeful and wonderful!

  • i love this song but i never understood the trouble with poet line. explanations anyone?

  • It's implying that poet's are so quiet, uninthusiastic and depressed that they seem like they're dead all the time.

  • It's just a parody of the rhyme, "a poet who don't know it" so you get "the trouble with POET is how do YOU KNOW IT's deceased" :) just a silly joke x

  • I love how at the beginning the crowd just goes crazy after every line they have haha.

  • Angela Lansbury IS Mrs. Lovet. NO one can do that role Justice!!!! BUT her!!!

  • @jeeeem AMEN!!!!!

  • His laugh at 1:57 is so creepy but funny =]

  • @titofdeath every time i watch it it gets better

  • Angela is the perfect Mrs Lovett! She has that old english woman charm about her that suits the days Sweeny Todd would have been around.

    Carter was alright for the movie but shes NOTHING compared to Angela, Carter just didn't seem to fit in with the era at all, nor did Depp come to think of it. Im not saying they didn't do well, they did but they don't have that old Enlish charm about them like Len and Angela do that make them fit in with that era.

  • Len doesn't even affect an eccent. He talks like a modern American...

  • @jgmes2001 You have to remember though that Todd just returned toEngland after years in a jail in Australia, of course hes not going to have an english accent anymore, he would have lost it after being locked up for all those years.

    So any accent he does have it doesn't really matter, his english one would be non exsistant.

  • Excuse me? Being locked up makes him lose his accent? Now, how does that work?

    Sure, if prison guards and fellow prisoners spoke with an american or australian accent it would be likely that he'd adapt his own to match their's, but as most prisoners were probably english (even londoners) themselves, there is absolutely no reason why he should suddenly speak with an american accent.

    i don't mind, though. Still a great performance by Cariou in my opinion

  • @edruvatar My point is, if aperson goes to another country tolive, in time, they too will start speaking with the countries accent, if I went to America (im from New Zealand) then in time I would start speaking in an American accent.

    You adjust to your surroundings, it ismore common in kids moving from onecountry to another as their brains adapt faster then an adults but yes, an adult can and will change their accent if they are around others for so long.

  • Not to mention, we don't know WHO was also in that jail with him, may have been english people, sure, but I highly doubt it was ONLY english people, there were probably people who had done many bad things in there, people from Australia and other places in the world, it wouldnt of JUST been English people.

  • Of course it wouldn't be just englishmen, however they would more than likely constitute a clear majority. What's sure is he would not all of a sudden sound like an american.

    Your claim that he lost his accent (though I admit it might have changed slightly) during his stay in prison, does not make sense, also that was not the case in Sondheims production. (Cariou did use an english accent in the original production).

    My guess is Cariou focused on the song and didn't bother about the accent.

  • @jgmes2001 That's what he did in the original show. Sweeney is usually played without an accent.

  • Neither does George Hearn

  • I'm of the opinion that the film would have been exponentially better had they looped Helena Bonham Carter's singing with Angela Lansbury's. But, you know, that's just me.

  • what do you mean by looping?

  • Replacing Helena's voice with Angela's.

  • oh, okay I get it now.

  • The real difference here is that Angela and Len clearly enjoy the heck out of each other. While she and George are fine, working with old friends is always just a little more joyous. I expect that Len's performance was both more joyful *and* more creepy than George's - I *do* wish I'd seen them on stage together...

  • ahhh Steven Sondheim music is just a beautiful thing

  • Did Hearn perform here?

  • She's a perfect Mrs. Lovett!

  • @ifrit1780

    No...she IS Mrs. Lovett.

  • I do love this. The timing is great. (Good orchestra as well.) But I did see the Sheila Hancock / Dennis Quilley first London production before I saw this. I prefer that, but I'm biased.

  • this is so awesome!

    I just celebrated Halloween, and I was Mrs. Lovett ;) It went well. :D

    I love their ORIGINAL and AWESOME voices!

  • no; nothing personal.

  • no. it's just a clever rhyme.

  • I see, that makes sense. I just didn't understand if she didn't like the priest or not. I see it's just a good ryhme that works with the music, I can understand that.

  • Compare Lansbury's performance to that in the pairing with Hearn, also on YouTube (which is almost as old as the original with Cariou). When she is singing, it is as if no time has passed at all. Her mannerisms and singing and energy are identical. It's beautiful.

  • @eprimeprice  i know so true

  • @eprimeprice I prefer her with Hearn though all the same.

  • @eprimeprice

    I was thinking the same thing! That was in 1979 and the tour was in 1982, and she sounds so friggin good! It's like astounding and the energy is all there! Nearly made me get verklemmpt! You better go get em, Angela! Goodness gracious, she's such an inspiration! 

  • I love her so much!

    She's so energetic!

  • can't wait to see her as Mme Armfeldt

  • This premered on Mar. 1 '79. So this was 26 years later that they reprised the roles. Amazing. They still have all the passion of the stage show.

  • That's inmensely lovely.

    Kyou!.

  • I loved Tim Burton's interpretation. It was a darker take, but there's room for both. I thought Depp and Helen Bonham were great.

  • 1:55

    <3

  • I love how the audience applauds and laughs at every line in the beginning. :)

  • I know i already commented but i would like to add I loved her as ms. Potts and then later in my life when i found out she was this and i was a fan of it was I was like omg that is so awsome. ^_^ I dont think this made sence but um yay

  • She is amazing!

  • I love that audiance 8D <3

  • The audience like me love this. I think if they just stood there they would be cheering them.  They are so awsome ^_^

  • This warms my heart.

  • omg it's really creepy to hear the voice of mrs. potts saying this creepy stuff :D

    but omg theyre so perfect for their parts!

    whoever cast them for the original one was a genius! :D

  • Indeed, you're right!

  • Len's laugh at 1:56 is the best. Cracks me up every time.

  • I think, perhaps, the best part of the video is the reaction of the audience. Even though they all probably know what is happening, just the experience of seeing the originals in action brings back the intial magic. Stephen Sondheim is certainly a brilliant composer!

  • I simply love this...

  • I wish people would stop complaining about Tim Burton. He isn't destroying things at all, he is letting his mind run wild and it is truly amazing. And the new Alice in Wonderland isn't the same story, it's Alice going back to Wonderland it she see's how different it is. So don't say he is ruining a classic story because he isn't. This one isn't supposed to be a Kids one.

  • O_O WHO DOESN"T LIKE THE TIM BURTON ONE D: -heart broken- Tim is like the master!

    And he made magic for years!

  • Love Angela as Mrs Lovett.. she's hilarious!

  • Favorite duo ever. Cariou will ALWAYS be my favorite Sweeney.

    Why is everyone complaining about the whole Tim Burton thing...Oh boo hoo they've been turned into goths. You all need to look at things from a different angle. Yeah, some of he remakes were stinkers (WILLY WONKA) But he's a visionary and I respect him for bringing his own little touch to Sweeney Todd.

  • Hahaha I always loved the "with our without his privates?" line. My favorite! I love Angela Lansbury. And Cairou and Hearn. I love em all.

  • Depp is much more darker than Hearn. I don't really know Cariou because the video is with Hearn. I always thought Hearn was the origianal. Hearn smiled a lot more then Depp, he was more human. If Carter did Belatrix from HP like she did Mrs. Lovett she would've done much better. Plus I think Burton kind of pussied out; he changed the songs in many ways, and the complicated ensemble parts he took out (God That's Good). I saw the Epiphany wit Cariou, didn't think he sounded good. But here he'sgood

  • My school is doing this production. We recieved the original cast album. Len Cariou is definetly great.

  • George Hearn was also too american to be Sweeney...

  • Say what you will about the Burton movie, and Helena's Lovett, but at least Johnny Depp and Tim Burton realised Fleet Street was in London, and gave Sweeney an english accent. Len's way too american to ever be Sweeney Todd

  • Helena just has a different take on Lovett, although thomasoa has a good point that it was a little too similar to sweeney, but still, it was a valid intepretation.

  • My problem with Helena was that she didn't really contrast her Lovett from Depp's Sweeney. The show is fascinating because there is so much evil in it, yet each evil person is evil in such a different way. There's a sense in Lansbury's performance that Lovett is a ding-bat, a truly banal evil. She's not insane the way Todd becomes, she is not motivated by rage.

    It's actually a slight problem in Tim Burton's world - he turns all of his lead characters into Goths.

  • Wonderful ironic song. Makes me want to groan in disgust even as I'm laughing at the hilarious lyrics. A true guilty pleasure.