I went to see the stage production of Sweeney Todd at The Rep yesterday, and I really enjoyed it. I chose the 2 pm performance because it was the only one with audio description throughout the run. This is the part that surprises me: there is normally just one audio-described performance in an entire theatrical run, whereas, if you go to see a film in the cinema, every showing will be audio-described. I know this is because audio description in the theatre is done live, whereas in the cinema it’s a pre-recorded audio track. I guess having it be pre-recorded in the theatre would be difficult, since the nature of the theatre is that it is live and therefore likely to change subtly between performances.
Going back to the performance itself, I found myself preferring the film in some places, but I can’t fault the actors for that. The examples that come to mind are Mrs Lovett and Beadle Bamford, for whom I preferred their portrayal in the film. This is the nature of adaptations in media, though; you will always compare any new adaptation to the first one you encountered. I am not a regular theatre-goer, but I always find it fascinating what they can do without the magic of editing.
The stage play was well put together and I really enjoyed it. My score for this production has got to be 9 out of 10, although, as I said, that’s only because I saw the film first.