Stephen Sondheim

Sweeney Todd (2007 Film Soundtrack) (Highlights)

About this Album

Nonesuch releases the soundtrack to Dream Works and Warner Bros. Pictures’ Tim Burton–directed Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The film is an adaptation by John Logan of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s 1979 Tony Award–winning musical. It stars Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd), Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs. Lovett), and Alan Rickman (Judge Turpin). The film is produced by Richard D. Zanuck, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, and John Logan. Sweeney Todd will be in theaters beginning December 21.

Longtime Sondheim collaborators orches­trator Jonathan Tunick and music supervisor Paul Gemignani also worked on the soundtrack, which was produced by Mike Higham and recorded in London. (A highlights version of the soundtrack will be released simultaneously.)

Rounding out the cast—all of whom sing their own parts—are Timothy Spall (Beadle Bamford), Sacha Baron Cohen (Adolfo Pirelli), Jayne Wisener (Johanna), Jamie Campbell Bower (Anthony), Laura Michelle Kelly (Beggar Woman), and Edward Sanders (Tobias Ragg).

Sweeney Todd is based on the nineteenth century legend—from an adaptation by Christopher Bond—of a London barber who is driven to crime when a malevolent judge takes his wife and child from him. His plan for revenge includes a cutthroat partnership with Mrs. Lovett, an enterprising businesswoman, who is soon producing the tastiest meat pies in London.

The most recent Broadway production of Sweeney Todd was in 2005, directed by John Doyle. Nonesuch released the cast album for that Tony Award–winning revival, in which the singer/actors also performed the score on musical instruments. Doyle’s production currently is touring the United States. (The original 1979 production was directed by Harold Prince.)