My parents took me to see a production of Sweeney Todd when I was 10; I had nightmares for weeks. Perhaps this was the start of my obsession with the demon barber of Fleet Street.
/"We are so grateful to sing Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece every day/," Josh Groban tells the Tiny Desk. /"He was so brilliant at juxtaposing the beautiful and the horrible./" (It turns out that Groban and I named our dogs /"Sweeney Dog/", something I learned when I introduced the cast.)
Expect a rush of emotion throughout this performance: empathy for Sweeney (Groban) and Mrs. Lovett (Annaleigh Ashford) with their songs of vengeance and longing, /"My Friends/" and /"By the Sea /" ; desire with the vocal counterpoint of the quartet performed in /"Johanna (Act 2 Sequence)/"; laughs with the duet rendition of /"A Little Priest./" Incredibly, this Tiny Desk version of the musical is no less impactful – the 26-piece orchestra currently playing at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater receives orchestration of nine musicians courtesy of Jonathan Tunick, longtime Sondheim collaborator, led by conductor Alex Lacamoire. Absolutely fascinating.
DEFINE LIST
/"My friends/"
/"By the sea/"
/"Johanna (act 2 sequence)/"
/"A little priest/"
COMPOSER
Stephen Sondheim
ORCHESTRATIONS
Jonathan Tunic
CASTING
Josh Groban ("Sweeney Todd")
Annaleigh Ashford ("Mrs. Lovett/")
Daniel Yearwood (“Anthony Hope/”)
Maria Bilbao (“Johanna/”)
Joanna Carpenter ("Beggar Woman/")
THE MUSICIANS
Todd Palmer: clarinet
Damian Primis: bassoon
Sarah Boxmeyer: French horn
John Chudoba: trumpet
Kory Grossman: percussion
Adam Rothenberg: piano, keyboard
Anna Parks: violin
Wayne Smith: cello
Chiho Saegusa: bass
Alex Lacamoire: conductor
Randy Cohen: keyboard programmer
David Lai: music supervisor
SMALL OFFICE TEAM
Producer/Sound Engineer: Josh Rogosin
Director/Editor: Kara Frame
Videographers: Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Keren Carrión
Series producer: Bobby Carter
Audio assistants: Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez, Neil Tevault
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Grace Widyatmadja
Animation: Jackie Lay
Small office team: Suraya Mohamed, Lars Gotrich, Hazel Cills
Vice President, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior Vice President, Programming: Anya Grundmann
#tinydesk #nprmusic #sweeneytodd
Please take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.
