Original Final Sequence Ending | Sweeney Todd OBC | First Preview 02/06/1979

i'm not worried about the video...this audio is absolutely PRICELESS. Sweeney Cariou singing "Nothin's Gonna Harm You" to his dead Lucy...just tears your heart out. God, this is incredible!

I had completely forgotten this! I was a member of the orchestra. The pit was freezing.......... Wilmer

Something I never quite realized before - if the Judge hadn't grabbed Mrs. Lovett's dress and made her scream, Joanna would have been killed. So in a way, the Judge ended up accidentally saving Joanna from being killed by her real father. How ironic is that?

While the reprise of Not While I'm Around is gorgeous...I'm very glad that they cut it and replaced it with a reprise of Barber and his Wife. Thematically, musically, and storywise it just makes much more sense. Thematically the song has Sweeney lamenting over his own foolishness and the loss of Lucy, so having it appear again after he's killed her is just beautifully tragic. Musically, the song serves as one of Sweeney's major leitmotifs, whereas Not While I'm Around is not, it's Toby's. Reprising a song from a moment that didn't even involve Sweeney for such a dramatic and intimate scene doesn't make much sense. Storywise, Sweeney has told the story of the barber and his wife to Anthony, so there is already an established connection to Sweeney and this piece. As I said before, Sweeney wasn't even present when Not While I'm Around was sung in full, so it doesn't make much sense as to why he is suddenly singing these words. "Barber and his Wife" already has much more weight for the character.

Tobias sounds really creepy at the end. And that factory whistle made me jump. I can only imagine what it must have sounded like in the theater...

I think it makes more sense to replace the reprise of Not while I'm around with The Barber and his wife because Barber is Sweeney's music and Not while I'm around ISN'T. It's music that belongs to Tobias. Sweeney isn't even onstage when it's sung for the first time. He's had no association with that song, and to have him sing it, although Cariou sings it very beautifully, isn't as logical/powerful/right as having Todd return to the story of the Barber and his Wife now that he knows how it ends.

This actually made me cry. The reprise of Not While Im Around really got me.

That whistle managed to terrify the crap out of me. Yet again. I will *never* be immune to that thing! Thank you so much for posting this! As an artist and writer, I love getting this kind of glimpse into another creator's process, and seeing how their early works evolve into finished products.

Damn that reprise of not while I’m around is so touching. I wish they would have kept it.

This tears my heart.

I also really love the use of "Barber and his Wife" -- as it eventually ended up -- because of the line "and she was virtuous." I think that, if it's delivered well, that line can carry a LOT of weight. Throughout the whole play, Sweeney Todd scorns the beggar woman, offended by her lewdness, her commonness, her being one of the "people who are filled with shit." In his mind, she's nothing like his pure wife; but he's judging harshly, and becomes a harsher and harsher judge over time.

Love how Mrs. Lovett tries to say he wouldn’t want her anyway cause she went mad and Sweeney’s immediately like “BITCH THE FUCK I DON’T??“ Say what you want about the whole killing people and baking them into pies thing but he is a real one for that

Can anyone make out what Joanna and Anthony are saying/singing in this? The best I can understand is that she's saying something "Quickly, come!"

Not While I'm Around is making me teary.

Idea -- I think it could be very moving and lovely if the early and later versions were combined. I can imagine Sweeney Todd singing the first two (maybe 3?) lines of "Not While I'm Around," being overcome with emotion and guilt and unable to go on, and changing songs to "Barber and his Wife," because in that song, he's able to express his own scorn/hatred/shame for himself, rather than claim to have been good to and protective of his wife. Thoughts?

This is INCREDIBLE. The reprise of Not While I'm Around is beautiful and would have been so perfect in the actual production. Just goes to show how amazing Sweeney is on all levels.

This is awesome. I prefer The Barber and his Wife reprise to Not While I'm Around, but it's interesting to hear Sweeney Todd in its early form.

That last part scared me because of the sudden loud music and the picture. I was just waiting for Toby to kill Sweeney Todd and I'm thinking "Get to it already." Then it was like the video turned into a screamer with the sudden screeching music and the picture.

While your photos are terrific to accompany the audio, couldn't you find any of Victor Garber? The replacement always reminded me of being more suited to a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta than the absolutely etherial Garber.

Shows preview in front of paid audiences, these occur BEFORE critics review the show. The pit was not finished in the Uris Theater until Sweeney had been running a while. Until the critics came and raved about the show, there were lots of people who walked out on the show. It has been more than 30 years since Sweeney opened, please forgive my memory lapse :-)