27 October 2013

My Right Arm Is Complete Again!

I've just finished designing and fixing my Hallowe'en costume. It's gonna be epic.

I was originally going to be a mime, but the costumes were all sad and disappointing. I've had the idea since about fifth grade, when a family friend dressed up as a mime, and it was a really cool costume. However, she had made it herself and we just didn't have the time this year to do so.

So then I got to thinking. And so, lo and behold, for the fourth year in a row, I picked my costume from the Victorian/British Imperialism era. Behold...Sweeney Todd!

Photo Credit: impawards.com
It's going to be a very interesting costume. The last three years (four, if you count the Phantom of the Opera in 6th grade) I was the Mad Hatter, an Indian maharajah (think the evil character in Moulin Rouge), and a Victorian gentleman vampire. My favorite of these was the Mad Hatter. It was brilliant, elegant, powerful, and got lots of compliments. I don't think I've taken so many pictures with random strangers who were amazed.

So this year I'm a demon barber. Sweeney Todd, for all the sadly uninitiated, is the legend of a barber on Fleet Street who kills his customers maniacally. He arranges a deal with the pie maker downstairs, Mrs. Lovett, who sadly doesn't have enough money for meat. Suffice it to say that Sweeney need not worry about where to hide his bodies, and Mrs. Lovett didn't need to pay for meat anymore.

It's a gothically twisted story, and was a fixture in Victorian melodramas. Because, you know, Punch and Judy wasn't enough. (Once day I'll discuss Punch and Judy, the most amazing show in the world.) But then, as the Victorian age died out, in the Gay Nineties, so did Sweeney.

In the 70's, however, playright Christopher Bond rewrote the story into a play. Now Sweeney had a wife and daughter. A licentious judge lusted after the wife, imprisoned Sweeney in Australia, and kept the daughter while the wife killed herself. Spoiler alert: Sweeney returns, he kills the judge, his wife (who somehow survived, and he didn't know until afterwards), the judge's Beadle, Mrs. Lovett, and his daughter (no, the daughter survives.)

In 1979, the venerable Stephen Sondheim, who also made the amazing gem "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" made the play into a Tony-winning musical. The rest is history. In 2007, Captain Jack Sparrow Johnny Depp, Bellatrix Lestrange Helena Bonham Carter appeared in the film version, which was delightfully amazing.

But you probably knew all that anyway. :) But I do hope this year will be an epic year, on par with the Mad Hatter. But here, until the next post, I leave you with a playlist: the film's soundtrack, which has the songs from the original musical, a bit modified:


-Rob

3 comments:

  1. Nothing's gonna harm you... Not while I'm around...

    I suppose you know things like Angela Lansbury was the original Mrs. Lovett and September was Sweeney Todd?

    I'LL STEAL YOU JOHANNA...

    I just love the music for this film.

    IT'S GREEN.

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  2. Don't get too into the character. Wouldn't want you abusing those razors...

    Who am I kidding? In a few days you'll be terrorizing the town, screaming "THEY ALL DESERVE TO DIE"...

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  3. Not necessarily. I can just sing. *hums*

    There's a hole in the world like a great black pit...

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