Sweeney Todd: Tiny Desk Concert

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Josh Rogosin | December 22, 2023
My parents brought me to see a production of Sweeney Todd when I was 10; I had nightmares for weeks. That may have been the beginning of my obsession with the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

“We’re so grateful to sing Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece every single day,” Josh Groban explains at the Tiny Desk. “He was so brilliant at juxtaposing the beautiful with the horrific.” (It turns out that both Groban and I named our dogs “Sweeney Dog,” something I learned when I introduced the cast.)

Expect a wave of emotions 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 quartet’s vocal counterpoint performed in “Johanna (Act 2 Sequence)”; laughter with the duet’s performance of “A Little Priest.” Incredibly, this Tiny Desk version of the musical is no less impactful — the 26-piece orchestra currently playing the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre gets a nine-piece orchestration courtesy of Jonathan Tunick, Sondheim’s longtime collaborator, led by conductor Alex Lacamoire. Absolutely mesmerizing.

SET LIST
“My Friends”
“By the Sea”
“Johanna (Act 2 Sequence)”
“A Little Priest”

COMPOSER
Stephen Sondheim

ORCHESTRATIONS
Jonathan Tunick

CAST
Josh Groban (“Sweeney Todd”)
Annaleigh Ashford (“Mrs. Lovett”)
Daniel Yearwood (“Anthony Hope”)
Maria Bilbao (“Johanna”)
Joanna Carpenter (“Beggar Woman”)

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

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer/Audio 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
Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Lars Gotrich, Hazel Cills
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#tinydesk #nprmusic #sweeneytodd

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25 thoughts on “Sweeney Todd: Tiny Desk Concert”

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  15. annaleigh ashford doing whatever in the name of all that is holy the london accent she's doing is — and then daniel yearwood absolutely nailing the english accent which draws even more attention to it

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  20. I’m not even a big theater guy at all, but I kick myself so hard for not seeing this cast live. Some of the best versions of these songs EVER!!! Joanna is one of the greatest songs of all time.

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  21. "[Stephen Sondheim] was so brilliant at juxtaposing the beautiful with the horrific" Yes. This!

    The way the Joanna Quartest manages to be simultaneously the most beautiful song in the whole musical yet also the creepiest (Anthony's lines, seriously-), the most unnerving (Sweeny's wife's parts), the most gruesome ("he is enjoying his chair" – yeah, you don't say), and the saddest and most heartfelt (Sweeny grieving his lost life and appearing to learn to let go which is both heartbreaking and worrying because it should be a sign of healing but instead he's just losing himself and his humanity more and more…) is absolutely spectacular!

    This song will never not be my favourite in the entire show!

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