Review of Sweeney Todd: In Concert

Introduction

I have a love of the stage and enjoy attending many local stage shows in my local city. I even had the opportunity to take part in a production of this Stephen Sondheim musical extravaganza some years ago. It`s a masterpiece of story and song that cumulates in great show stooping numbers like Little Priest, Worst Pies in London and the marvellous Pretty Women.

This is a rather scaled down version with the loss of much of Hugh Wheeler`s sharp dialogue. This seems to be geared to an opera loving audience and is presented with the odd prop and minimal stage dressing. The cast even dress very dull in mainly black and muted colours. This does help give a lot more emphasis to the superb score which in this case is fantastic as you can really appreciate the full splendour of the production.

I would however recommend that anyone who hasn`t seen the full staged production do so as this above splendour and the set design is tremendous.

Video

This full frame standard 4:3 picture is adequate. It has a slight washed out and glared look you get on some live satellite broadcasts. The tonal range is also limited with very dark blacks and sharp whites but only a few mid-range tones. There is also a rather large amount of digital artefacting that does tend to distract.

Audio

You get the option of both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround on this disc. The Dolby mix is very effective with some great ambient use of the effects channels. The soundstage is a bit front heavy on this mix I usually find the DTS soundtrack has the edge, filling the room with sound. That front heaviness is gone and the whole feeling is one of much more realistic and almost being there sound. The bass is much richer on the DTS track and really adds depth to the whole production.

If you don`t have DTS don`t worry because the Dolby Track is still very good.

Features

A short and not very informative making of documentary and a selection of filmographies of the main players.

Conclusion

A mixed bag of poor picture but terrific sound. But this is one disc where you could probably switch off the TV and just concentrate on a glorious enveloping DTS rendition of one of the best stage musicals of all time.