Slicing ‘Sweeney’

IN the opening paragraph of her review of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” [“Pretty Cutting-Edge,” Dec. 21], Carina Chocano observes that the film version is “noticeably cuter than its famous theatrical predecessors.” She may be simply referring to the physical appearances of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, but if she is, in fact, referring to the piece as a whole, then she has it exactly backward.

In trimming the play by 45 minutes or more, Burton has crafted the film into a leaner and literally meaner “Sweeney Todd.” Both in his choices of what to cut from the play and in his directorial style, he has focused magnificently on the dark, horrific, tragic aspects of Sweeney Todd. It’s a valid interpretation and it works well but, with his choices, he has sacrificed much of the comedy and lighter touches of the stage show.

I believe this begins with the removal of “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” the recurring title theme that opens and closes the show and pops up a number of other times to remind us that we are being told “the tale” of Sweeney, another way of saying “once upon a time.” The actor playing Sweeney joins the chorus at the start to remind us that “What happens next -- well, that’s the play and he [Sweeney the character] wouldn’t want us to give it away,” while a number of characters who’ve died during the show return to sum it all up in the end. By removing, from the entire film, the protective device which constantly reminds us that it’s just a story, Burton invites us to immerse ourselves more deeply into Sweeney’s tragic tale.

Alan Sanborn

Los Angeles