I imagine it being a William Finn type musical.  I know Dan would be foaming at the mouth if Sondheim wanted to do it.  William Finn wrote the 24th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.


Tim and I are going tonight to see the This American Life broadcast.

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from ew.com

Fans of sex columnist and author Dan Savage's funny, blunt, sometimes raunchy, but always grounded sex and relationship advice may be catching even more of him soon. A possible TV series based on his longtime syndicated column Savage Love is in the works, as is a stage musical based on his memoir The Kid, about his and his boyfriend's adventures adopting their son. "It's a little weird," he tells EW. "In The Commitment [his book about gay marriage], I kept talking about how getting married is kind of like putting on a Broadway show about your relationship. And now there's going to actually be one."
He'll also be featured in a live stage production of the NPR radio show This American Life, along with host Ira Glass, that's being beamed live from New York tonight at 8 p.m. ET to over 400 movie screens nationwide. (Check here for locations and tickets.) Savage will join a number of performers including Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, and TAL favorites like Starlee Kine and David Rakoff. ''There's something about that show that creates such a bond with the listeners," Savage says about Glass's program, which also had a TV version picked up by Showtime (clip embedded below). "To put in one room a couple of thousand people who are really passionate about it -- there's an elatedness about the energy and about how special the event feels."

 

Is Johnny Depp Sweeney Todd?

 

The visuals provided by imaginative direct Tim Burton will no doubt be quirky and amazing, but will it be appropriate.  The trailer reminded me of Harry Potter in look and Belatrix LeStrange even made an appearance. Wait!  No, that is Mrs. Lovett as portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter.  She will undoubtedly sound the part for the Cockney and I have hopes for the singing.  Johnny Depp is another matter.  I am afraid his pop style will be too jarring to enjoy his performance as an actor.  When you have someone like Bryn Terfel sing the role, Johnny Depp with sound like a child speaking through the part.  Having a non-musical director like Tim Burton, you know that vocal quality won’t be of any paramount importance.  A good example is The Phantom of the Opera/Bruckheimer vs. Dreamgirls/Conden.  No one would have made it into a Touring company except Broadway Vet Patrick Wilson yet the entire cast of Dreamgirls was believable.  Both shows have their flaws and aren’t built up in the hallows of musical theater like Sweeney Todd.  It also had the stigma of being unfilmable; a mass audience would never see it.  Now in comparison to Hostel and Saw, the murders seem rather tame (they just happened to take place in a musical.)  I will see this movie because I want to support musicals in general and Sondheim in specific.  This will in no way effect my opinion on the sub par vocals.  Hopefully, low expectations will make this movie a pleasant surprise.