Sold Date: December 8, 2014
Start Date: November 18, 2014
Final Price: £18.00 (GBP)
Seller Feedback: 471
Buyer Feedback: 40

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Label: RCA Red Seal
Year: 1979
Recording Date: March 12, 1979 & March 13, 1979
Format: Vinyl, LP, Stereo
Country: US
Vinyl: near mint. Both records are clean on visual inspection. Play nicely.
Cover and sleeve: EX-near mint. Colours are unfaded and no tears on the sleeve. Still in original protective shrinkwrap.
Booklet is clean and I ripped.

Overall, this example looks as if it has never been played.... I've played it twice. Beautiful sound.

Music by Stephen Sondheim.

Track Listing - record 1
1The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (Prelude)
Len Cariou
3:34

2No Place Like London
Len Cariou / Victor Garber / Merle Louise
3:40

3The Barber and His Wife
Len Cariou
2:41

4The Worst Pies in London
Angela Lansbury
2:25

5Poor Thing
Angela Lansbury
3:27

6My Friends
Len Cariou / Angela Lansbury
2:44

7The Ballad of Sweeney Todd: Lift Your Razor High, Sweeney!
0:55

8Green Finch and Linnet Bird
Sarah Rice
2:29

9Ah, Miss
Victor Garber / Merle Louise / Sarah Rice
2:25

10Johanna
Victor Garber
1:55

11Pirelli's Miracle Elixir
Len Cariou / Ken Jennings / Angela Lansbury / Joaquín Romaguera
3:50

12The Contest
Joaquín Romaguera
0:31

13Sweeney Pondered and Sweeney Planned
0:31

14Wait
Angela Lansbury
2:16

15The Ballad of Sweeney Todd: His Hands Were Quick, His Fingers Strong...
Cris Groenendaal / Frank Kopyc / Richard Warren Pugh
0:41

16Johanna
Edmund Lyndeck
3:39

17Kiss Me
Victor Garber / Sarah Rice
1:31

18Ladies in Their Sensitivities
Edmund Lyndeck / Jack Williams
3:54

19Pretty Women
Len Cariou / Victor Garber / Edmund Lyndeck
4:58

20Epiphany
Len Cariou / Angela Lansbury
3:17

21A Little Priest
Len Cariou / Angela Lansbury
7:15

Record 2

1God, That's Good!
Len Cariou / Ken Jennings / Angela Lansbury
6:23

2Johanna
Len Cariou / Victor Garber / Merle Louise / Sarah Rice
5:29

3By the Sea
Len Cariou / Angela Lansbury
3:32

4Wigmaker Sequence
Len Cariou / Victor Garber
3:36

5The Ballad of Sweeney Todd: Sweeney Todd: Sweeney Waited Too Long Before...
Carole Doscher / Skip Harris / Betsy Joslyn / Craig Lucas / Robert Ousley
3:55

6The Letter
Len Cariou and the Quintet
3:35

7Not While I'm Around
Ken Jennings / Angela Lansbury
3:55

8Parlor Songs
Eric Jennings / Angela Lansbury / Jack Williams
3:35

9Final Sequence
13:26

10. The Ballad of Sweeney Todd: Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd...
2:56



Review:

Sweeney Todd is of course the tale of a 19th-century London barber who, wrongly imprisoned by a judge lusting after his wife, returns to take revenge with his razor.

What keeps the story from being a re-treading of The Count of Monte Cristo is the element of class conflict -- that and the grotesque device of having the barber get rid of the bodies by giving them to his pie-maker girlfriend to bake into her wares.

We are thus treated to a very dark tale, indeed, with repeated mentions of the "Dies Irae" theme (the Day of Judgment theme from Catholic liturgical music which has been used by many classical composers).

The darkness of Sweeney Todd, ironically, prompts Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and Hugh Wheeler (book) to write a richer, more coherent piece than the usual Broadway fluff.

With his somber baritone, Len Cariou is chilling as the murderous, grief-stricken barber; Angela Lansbury, the cannibal-pie-maker, sounds like an insane Cockney Edith Bunker.

The tormented young lovers Victor Garber and Sarah Rice are a bit bland, as second-string lovers in Broadway shows often are, but Merle Louise as the Beggar Woman provides some necessary spice.

The orchestra is more than up to the demands of Sondheim's score, and the whole affair is well-recorded.

This version of Sweeney Todd is a lot of fun - as long as you don't listen to it too soon after a meal!

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