December 2007 Archives

Every actor dreaming of being on Broadway should have Kissy Simmons' luck. But you might say that Simmons came to theater the hard way - kicking and screaming. She was quite determined that performing onstage wasn't something for her. Her drama teacher thought otherwise. And that's how Simmons got to Broadway and Disney's The Lion King, where she plays Nala..

LK was in the process of celebrating its tenth anniversary when the strike interrupted the festivities. "Now everything is back to normal," says Simmons. "As normal as things can ever be at The Lion King, especially with people lined at the box office to get tickets during the holidays."

The Lion King had opened on Broadway and was a smash when Simmons auditioned and was cast as Nala for the much-anticipated 2002 first national tour. "Because of the Broadway buzz," she says, "the tour was a huge deal. We did long sit-downs and people slept outside theatres to get tickets. The response was mind-boggling."

A native of Floral City, FL, about an hour from Tampa, Simmons grew up singing and playing piano and then the organ at her church from age eight. "The organ is a powerful instrument," she says, " and I was always amazed at what you could get out of it."

In high school, her drama teacher Cheryl Israel "encouraged by whatever means it took" to pursue performing. "I fought it all the way, saying 'I'm scared...I can't.' She wasn't having any of that. It was tricky how she lured me in. She knew I played the organ, so she suggested that I play for the school choir. But as much as I loved music, I was more interested in track. When I was finally set to audition, I complained that I didn't have anything appropriate to wear. She took me shopping! I don't know why I was so reluctant, because I was already 'performing,' but it was in church." Ms. Israel didn't give up and finally Simmons surrendered. She laughs that, once she heard the sound of applause, she had been bitten by the theater bug.

"She was the very best teacher ever," says Simmons. "And it didn't stop when I started working. She came to the rescue to help Mom with all sorts of things. She was always there, even when I needed a ride home."

But there was still that love of track, which incidently got her a full scholarship to the University of South Florida. There was no musical theater program, but the word was out on Simmons and she was invited to sing and she accepted every opportunity she could.

Simmons felt she didn't blend in with the Florida college set, especially when she began working onstage. "It was an interesting time, with everyone dressed in black with their fingernails polised black. I never felt the urge to dress up as some character just because I was an actor."

Two months before graduation, she was convinced to go to Tampa and audition for a musical revue titled Decades. "It was 'Oh, my God! Oh, my God!' I was scared. I didn't know what I should sing. But there was no way I couldn't go. Everyone was convinced but me! So I went down there and [long pause as she breaks into a big smile] and got hired!"

When Disney was conducting auditons for Aida, Simmons was told she looked a lot like Heather Headley. "At that time," reports Simmons, "like Heather, I had absolutely no hair." She got the score and told herself she could sing the songs. Now married, she and her husband ventured to New York for the first time and the next morning at six o'clock she was in line at the Apollo Theatre to audition. It turned out that Disney was looking for actors for Aida and TLK.

"The funny part," laughs Simmons, "is that I didn't know The Lion King was a show. In fact, I knew nothing about it."

Of course, that didn't stop Disney. When she was invited to callbacks, she informed casting that she didn't have the money to fly up again. "They must have been very interested," she says, "because they flew me up." Then 9/11 happened. "I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know what to do." Michele Steckler of Disney Theatricals arranged to put her up with strict instructions not to leave the city." And she got hired and found out a lot about TLK.

Segueing to 2003, Simmons transferred from the national tour to Broadway as Nala and her track experience came in very handy in the vast environs of the New Amsterdam Theatre and now at the Gershwin.

PBS Landmark Series on TV Pioneers

Beginning January 2, PBS will present a landmark documentary series, Pioneers of Television, four one-hour programs at 8 P.M. on television innovators. Nearly 100 stars from TV's formative years meld compelling new interviews with archival clips - many classic, some not seen for years.

First up is Sitcoms, which focuses on I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, Make Room for Daddy, The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show. The last remaining Honeymooner, Joyce Randolph, offers into the mind of Jackie Gleason; Marlo Thomas speaks candidly about her father; Andy Griffith talks of the dynamics that made his show work; and Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke recount their years working together.

Following on January 9 is Late Night with stories of Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, Arsenio Hall and Jack Paar. Sigourney Weaver offers personal details about her father, Pat, who created the Tonight Show in an episode peppered with never-before-seen clips, including Carson performing in his early 20s.

On January 16, Variety begins with Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town and Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theater and progresses through The Carol Burnett Show, Smothers Brothers and Laugh-In. Tim Conway and Jonathan Winters tell hilarious stories about their variety show years but the highlight is Pat Boone in a memorable sequence where he discusses early unspoken racism. Stars include Flip Wilson in a hilarious turn as the infamous Geraldine.

Game Shows conclude the series on January 23. Bob Barker, Merv Griffin, Monty Hall are interviewed. Betty White discusses her role as the first female MC. Clips include Phyllis Diller's first TV appearance as a shy contestant on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life.

Barbara Cook Returns

By popular demand, the New York Philharmonic will continue to celebrated the milestone of Barbara Cook's 80th birthday with an additional concert on Tuesday, January 8 at 7:30 at Avery Fisher Hall. Miss Cook will again reminisce about her storied career and sing from her lengthy repertory of songs by Bernstein and Comden and Green, Lerner and Loewe, Arlen and Mercer, Gershwin and Caesar, Hammerstein and Romberg and, among others, a friend named Stephen.

The November birthday concerts marked Miss Cook's first time with the Phil since playing Sally in the still-talked-about 1985 concert version of Follies. Lee Musiker, who received his share of acclaim in his Phil debut and accompaning Miss Cook, will again be on keyboards.

Sondheim will be in the concert repertory. Miss Cook says she doesn't think of his tunes as songs but as gifts. "I love the simplicity and the clarity of Irving Berlin, and Stephen's work has that also. There's something so rich about his work that I never tire of his songs. The more I do them, the more I'm finding different things and subtleties. Quite simply, nobody writes as he does."

This added concert follows Miss Cook's Barbara Cook and Friends in London December 2 at the mamouth Coliseum with the all-star West End World AIDS Day concert. Some of her friends were Ruthie Henshall, Julia McKenzie, Elaine Paige and Sian Phillips.

Barbara Cook's pure soprano tone and warm presence have delighted audiences around the world for more than 50 years. Considered a favorite ingenue during the heyday of the Broadway musical, Miss Cook launched a second career as a concert and recording artist.

In her trasdemark black pants, black pull-over that's a cross between a chemise and a poncho and those oh-so-comfortable sandals, Miss Cook has been equally at home on international stages, such as London's Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall or intimate cabaret settings, such as Cafe Carlyle, where she often rang in Spring with long-time collaborator and accompanist [the late] Wally Harper, and Feinstein's at Loews Regency.

She has a much-lauded career with Tony, Drama Desk, New York Drama Critics Circle and Grammy Awards. Miss Cook is a Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. In January, Miss Cook became the first female pop singer to be presented by the Metropolitan Opera in its 123-year history.

Her 2004 engagments on the West End and at Lincoln Center's Beaumont Theatre, Barbara Cook's Broadway, were hot tickets and received critical raves. Three years earlier, she premiered Mostly Sondheim at Carnegie Hall and took it to the West End, where she was nominated for Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment and Best Actress in a Musical.

Returning stateside, she took the show to the Beaumont for 14 sold-out weeks, and was Tony-nominated for Best Theatrical Event. Miss Cook and Harper, a team for over 30 years, were recipients of MAC Lifetime Achievement Awards.

It's been quite a lifetime filled with more than its share of ups and downs for the seemingly ageless Miss Cook, but she's still here - and with one of the most impressive lyric soprano voices in show business.

Tickets for the continuation of Barbara Cook's 80th birthday celebration with the NYPhil are $29 to $119 and available at the Avery Fisher box office, online at nyphil.org or by calling (212) 875-5656.

Chita's Back for BC/EFA

Before she heads for Arlington, VA and intense rehearsals for Kander and Ebb's The Visit, a show she has truly championed, theater treasure Chita Rivera, on the heels of reuniting with fellow original cast members of West Side Story for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Gypsy of the Year SRO event, will bring Chita Loves Broadway Cares to Birdland on January 14 at 7 and 10 P.M. The concerts are presented under the auspices of Jim Caruso's Cast Party and TheaterMania.com. Total proceeds will benefit BC/EFA, the nation's leading industry-based, not-for-profit AIDS fundraising and grant making organization.

Two-time Tony and Drama Desk-winner Rivera, who next may will celebrate 55 years on Broadway, will perform songs from her celebrated Broadway performances, including WSS, Sweet Charity and Chicago. Carmel Dean will music direct, with Michael Croiter on drums and Jim Donica on bass.

Tickets are $40 plus a $10 food/drink minimum. VIP tickets are available for $100 plus the minimum. To purchase, call (212) 581-3080 or go online at www.birdlandjazz.com.

Rare Schmidt and Jones Revival

Directions Theatre Company is presenting Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones' rarely revived Celebration at the 14th Street Theatre [344 East 14th Street, between First and Second Avenues on the second fllor of the 14th Street Y Jewish community center] through January 6. Erin Smiley directs the cast of 11.

An avant-garde fable set on New Year's Eve, Celebration focuses on four characters: Orphan, an idealistic young man in possession of the stained-glass eye of God, a wealthy but jaded old man who sees his younger self in Orphan; Angel, a sweet entertainer who longs to be "somebody"; and Potemkin, a Loki-like character who serves as narrator and advisor. Surrounding them are a chorus known as the Revelers, a group masked by the impersonal industrialism of their society, who take on various roles.

The show grew out of experimental workshops. You probably can already tell that the themes of the struggle between youth and old age, innocence and corruption, love and ambition and poverty and wealth didn't exactly register with audiences when it debuted at the beginning of 1969. Eeven after the duo's success Off Bway with The Fantasticks and their Bway I Do! I Do! and 110 in the Shade], there was no run on the box office. With an unknown cast and some puzzling reviews, it ran for 109 performances.

General admission tickets are $18 and available at Smartix.com.

New Year's Eve

Want to celebrate the new year in Times Square to ring in the new year, but would prefer not in the eye of the hurricane as that crystal ball drops? The Laurie Beechman Theatre in the West Bank Cafe [407 West 42nd Street at Ninth Avenue] solves that dilemma by offering to entertain you with their Second Annual New Year's Eve Celebration. There will be hors' d'oeuvres, a three- course dinner, champagne toast and performances by MAC and Bistro Award-winners Lisa Asher and Brandon Cutrell. Tickets are $98, which includes tax and gratuity, and may be purchased at www.smarttix.com or by calling (212) 868-4444. Suggested arrival time is 8:15.

Or Perhaps For Something Completely Different

Far away from Times Square, the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players will creating havoc and making merry on December 31 at 8 P.M. at Peter Norton Symphony Space as perform parodies of G&S operettas and take audience requests to perform impromptu with the backing of a 25-piece orchestra. All that and a champagne toast at midnight.

Tickets are $ $60 - $80 and availalbe at the box office or by calling (212) 864-5400.

Family Holiday Fare

The animated film The Littlest Light on the Christmas Tree has been adapted into a stage musical for young audiences. It plays through January 6 at Vital Theatre Company [2162 Broadway, fourth floor].

The cast of ten delivers a very accessible story, "about the miracle of believing and the power of the human heart," tells of two friends: and eight-year-old boy and a discarded Christmas bulb he finds. When their town suffers a blackout caused by a winter storm, Little Light triumphs and shines, helping others to, ahem, see the light.

Tickets are $18 and are available at (212) 352-3101 or online at www.vitaltheatre.org.

Sigourney on the Rocks

The Film Society of Lincoln Center welcomes Sigourney Weaver for a Q&A to a Young Friends of Film screening of Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, at the Walter Reade Theatre on January 15, at 7:30 P.M. The movie opened the 1997 NYFilm Festival.

Set in 1973, with Watergate unfolding, the film follows two Connecticut families overcome by emotional distress and strained to the breaking point by infidelity, sexual experimentation, drug use and petty crime. Lee [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain] directed. Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Elijah Wood and Christina Ricci co-star in this adaptation of James Schamus' award-winning screenplay, based on the Rick Moody novel.

Pending schedules, Weaver will be joined by other cast members. A post-film party with an open bar and hors d'oeuvres follow the screening. YFOF members receive one complimentary ticket. Additional tickets are $25 and are available at the Walter Reade box office and online at www.filmlinc.com.

Celebrities Appear for Charity

Cause Celebre, a theater company founded by Food For Thought A.D.Susan Charlotte, is devoted to fostering an enhanced understanding of psychological, physical and social issues through plays. Proceeds will go to various foundations and charities.

Marlo Thomas, Rue McClanahan and Elizabeth Wilson will appear January 30 in a program with proceeds benefitting St. Jude Hospital, Memphis, TN, which was founded Marlo's father, Danny Thomas. In March, you can be entertained by Christine Ebersole and Mercedes Ruehl in a new work dealing with the Fortune Society and prison reform. A later program will be a tribute to Kitty Carlisle Hart benefiting the Glaucoma Foundation and a leading New York museum.

Tickets are $100 and are tax-deductible. For reservations and full schedules, call (212) 362-2560.

Off with Their Heads: Henry VIII on DVD

Fans of Showtime's acclaimed epic, lavish, scandalous and sexy historical series The Tudors can regale in the regal splendor of the complete first season when it arrives for purchase on January 1 [Paramount Home Entertainment, Four discs, Nine hours plus; SRP $43]. Jonathan Rhys Meyers [Mission Impossible IIi] stars young Henry, excellently acquitting himself not only as a power-mad monarch and rebellious 19-year-old but also as warrior and salacious lover.

Meyers is well-suited to the role of man of mischief and intrigue who in his nearly 40 years of tumultuous reign, between numerous affairs [It's good to be the King!] married and divorced - married and divorced, married and divorced - all total, six wives, some of whom lost their heads [to the axe] - in his determination to have a male heir on the throne.

From the series debauchery, evidently the 60s had nothing on the decadent 16-Century. A central element of the series is Henry's conflicts with Pope Clement VII and the deconstruction of the Catholic Church in England when he cannot get his way. From the historical standpoint, don't expect a lot of accuracy.

A Remastered Disney Family Classic

The 1967 Disney animated classic The Jungle Book, loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's classic tale, is the story of Mowgli who was raised in the jungle by animals and his nemesis Shere Khan, a threatening Bengal tiger [voiced by none other than the great character actor George Sanders]. The film returns in a magnificent remastering that includes original ratio framing, eye-popping color and sound [Disney, SRP $30].

All the characters are still here, only more vivid than ever: the brave, wise panther Bagheera [voiced by Sebastian Cabot], jazzy King Louie of the Apes [Louis Prima], Kaa the snake [Sterling Holloway] and the lovable bear Baloo [Phil Harris] [in the Disney jungle you never know what you might find!]. With the bonus of a deleted scene, you'll also meet Rocky the Rhino for the first time.

Mowgli's journey is, of course, filled with songs, such as two long-lasting hits "I Wan'na Be Like You" and the Oscar-nominated "Bare Necessities." This Platinum Edition includes bonus interactive games, music video ["I Wan'na Be Like You"], songs deleted from the film, Making Of features and commentary by modern-day animators, even Walt Disney himself.

Mickey and Judy Boxed

Mickey and Judy are ready to put on that show. And what a show! Actually, a whole bunch of 'em.

The five-disc DVD boxed set The Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland Collection: Ultimate Collector's Edition has arrived in stores [Warner Home Video; SRP $50]. The MGM musical classics, all remastered, finally making their first DVD appearance are the duo's Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway, Strike Up the Band and Girl Crazy - four "backyard" extravaganzas that cemented their reputation as one of Hollywood's beloved screen teams.

Disc Five contains nearly three hours of bonus material, including Private Screenings with Mickey Rooney, an in-depth, deeply personal interview by TCM's Robert Osborne, and The Judy Garland Songbook, 21 complete Garland movie musical numbers.

These four films were produced by the legendary Arthur Freed. Rooney earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for BIA, considered the quintessential Mickey-Judy musical. It was quite freely adapted from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart Broadway hit. Busby Berkeley directed and lavishly choreographed.

Tony Bennett's Back

Just in the nick of time for holiday-giving to your favorite music fan is Clint Eastwood's acclaimed PBS American Masters documentary Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends on DVD [Warner Home Video, two discs; SRP $25].

Covering the five decades of Bennett's career as an artist capable of moving the hearts and touching the souls of audiences, it touches on his continuing appeal to a huge cross-section of audiences, 14 Grammys and longtime association with Columbia Records. He sings his hits and then some along the way.

Lovingly produced, the 90-minute program features narration by Anthony Hopinks, interviews by Eastwood and reminisces from Christina Aguilera, Louis Armstrong, Alex Baldwin [doing his Saturday Night Live impersonation of Bennett], Harry Belafonte and, among others,Don Rickles; and re-mastered archival footage of Bennett's TV appearances in addition to clips from films starring Astaire, Crosby and Sinatra.

Disc Two is Bennett's 2005 set at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

The Nativity as Healer of Religious Differences

Liam Neeson narrates Andrew Miller's The Birth of Christ which is getting a DVD and CD release [SONY BMG Masterworks; SRP $15 and $16, respectively] following its broadcast on PBS, tells of how Protestant and Catholic choirs, after decades of sectarian conflict and bloodshed, came together for in Dublin to celebrate what unites them: The birth of Christ.

Through song, "the timeless characters beloved the world over: Mary, Joseph and Elizabeth reveal their humanity and passion to awaken in everyone the startling wonder of Christmas."

Accompanied by a full orchestra in Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral, The Birth of Christ "underscores the universality of the Christmas story, and how the power of music can help overcome strife and conflict."

Holiday Musical Cheer

In the Classical Style:

For the first time, Andrea Bocelli, the world's best selling tenor, is releasing his greatest hits, and then some, on The Best Of Andrea Bocelli, Vivere [Decca/Sugar, SRP $19]. The 16-track set, with such classics as the poignant "Time to Say Goodbye" [duet with Sarah Brightman], the inspiring "The Prayer" [duet with Celine Dion], selections from his multi-Platinum CD Romanza, his double-Platinum CD Sogno and "Because We Believe" from his recent Amore, which is heading toward double-Platinum.

In addition, there are four new tunes and a special bonus: the DVD of Bocelli's Statue of Liberty concert [with arias from Cavalleria Rusticana, Il Trovatore, La Boheme, La Traviata and ],

Special guests on the CD include Latin singing sensation Laura Pausini, Kenny G, pop star Georgia and acclaimed classical pianist Lang Lang.

Vivere translates from Italian to English as "to live" and Bocelli's stunning voice certainly brings the music to life in all its vivid dimensions. It's no wonder he's racked up sales of over 55 million albums worldwide.

In the Swingin' Style:

How about some Michael Bolton traditional Christmas music under the tree or to stuff in that stocking? The Grammy-winning singer/songwriter comes out with new interpretations of some yuletide chestnuts on A Swingin' Christmas [Concord Records, SRP $15]. Joy to the world, indeed!

Last Chance to Catch Milestone Exhibition

The Met's The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art ends January 6. The exhibition displays in 12 galleries the museum's 20 Rembrandts and its entire Dutch Paintings Collection. In all, 228 works as opposed to the 100 on regular view. The Collection dates mostly from the 1600s and is widely considered the greatest collection of Dutch art outside Europe. The exhibition also commemorates the 400th anniversary year of Rembrandt's birth.

The museum is hosting another major exhibition, Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection through February 3.

Arthur Laurents, who wrote the original book for Sondheim/Styne's Gypsy and directed the SRO City Center Encores! Summer Stars revival, was happy the St. James Theatre would be available for March and the return of the acclaimed revival. Rehearsals are set to start at the end of January.

The idea all along was for the three-week run at CC to test the waters to see if the show could be mounted for the West End. Laurents wasn't happy with theatres there that would be available.

"It was suggested we go into the Savoy on the Strand," he explained, "but [producer] Richard] Frankel and I just felt it was all wrong for the show. That pretty well took care of taking the show to London."

He says he's very happy that the show will open at the St. James "with virtually the entire cast as seen at City Center."

Of course, playing Rose, will be the much acclaimed Tony, Drama Desk and Olivier Award-winner Patti LuPone. More good news: two-time Tony-winner and Drama Desk winner Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti will return as Herbie and Louise, who eventually became Gypsy Rose Lee.

Gypsy marked a return to musical theater for Gaines, who had done two plays in a row [Twelve Angry Men revival and an acclaimed performance in last season's Journey's End for which he won the Drama Desk for Outstanding Featured Actor and a Tony nom for Best Actor. From 1993 to 2001, Gaines starred in the revivals of She Loves Me [Tony and DD Awards], Company and Cabaret and in LCT's Contact [Tony Award, DD nom].

Following Gypsy, he was on Broadway opposite Jefferson Mays and Clare Danes as Colonel Pickering in Roundabout's Pygmalion revival. In his 1989 Broadway debut, he took home a Tony as Best Featured Actor for The Heidi Chronicles.

More good news: Leigh Ann Larkin [Dainty June], Tony Yazbeck [Tulsa] and those three scene-stealers Tony and DD nominee Alison Fraser [Tessie Tura], Tony and DD nominee Nancy Opel [Mazeppa and a superlative Miss Cratchitt] and Marilyn Caskey [Electra] will be back.

Since he has been known to be a stickler for presenting Gypsy as written, don't expect any drastic changes. However, regarding a possible revival of the classic West Side Story for next season, Laurents says the new production "will be radically different from any production ever done."

Music directing Gypsy will be Patrick Vaccariello. Bonnie Walker is all set to reproduce Jerome Robbins' original musical staging. Everyone is wondering if the rather cartoonish sets designed for the three-week summer run by James Youmans will graduate up to a new look.

Not that it would matter. Lupone will be front and center in what so many felt was the definitive performance of her career. There was such a last-minute clamor for tickets, especially by those who had seen the production twice and three times, for the closing performance that the CC box office was overwhelmed [to say nothing of the press agent, whose telephone service went beserk].

Doubt in Greenwich Village

Scott Rudin's production of John Patrick Shanley's Tony and DD-winning play Doubt, set for release next December, recently wrapped filming in the far West Village with historic St. Luke in the Fields Church and gardens standing in for the Bronx's St. Nicholas Church and School.

Greenwich Street was quite alive with Sister Aloysius played by none other than 13-time Oscar nominee [and two-time winner], six-time Golden Globe-winner, Tony nominee, seven-time DD-nominee and two-time Emmy winner Meryl Streep, who took a moment between shots to say Hello and not much else. Unlike in the play, her lips were sealed. She loved the shoot, only a hop, skip and jump from her new SoHo condo.

Streep and Oscar and Golden Globe-nominee Amy Adams as young Sister James were escorted from the set, heads bowed and hand folded over their 60s habits, to their trailers by P.A.s.

Co-starring are Oscar and GG-winner and 2007 double GG-nominee Philip Seymour Hoffman as Father Flynn and veteran TV and film actress Viola Davis as Mrs. Muller. Shanley adapted his play for the screen and directed.

At one point, two-time Tony and three-time DD-winner Cherry Jones, on foot instead of trusty bike, who originated the role in 2005 of Sister Aloysius at MTC and on Broadway passed within a block of shooting. Jones reported she had been out of New York for nearly four months starring as Allison Taylor, President of the United States in the 2008 season of Fox's 24. She said that as much as she enjoys the environs of Hollywood, she missed the City. She was preparing to celebrate girlfriend Sarah Paulson [late of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Deadwood]'s birthday.

Kennedy Center Honors Televised

On December 5, the 30th Annual John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presented honors to pianist Leon Fleisher, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese and Brian Wilson "for the gifts they have shared with us" in a star-studded evening attended by President and Mrs. Bush and a host of capital politicians.

Kennedy Center chairman Stephen Schwarzman praised Fleisher as "a consummate musician whose career is a moving testament to the life-affirming power of art"; Martin as "a Renaissance comic whose talents wipe out the boundaries between artistic disciplines"; Ross for her "singular, instantly recognizable voice that has spread romance and joy throughout the world" - however, no mention was made of ability to change costumes several times in a 50-minute concert, during which she deigns to stay onstage and actually sing for about 40 minutes; Martin Scorsese as "a visionary filmmaker and a fearless artist"; and, in a choice that many found very strange – considering those who have not been honored, Brian Wilson who "led not only a spectacularly popular rock group [the Beach Boys] but also an era-defining transformation of the sound of music."

Among those making honoree recommendations were Emanuel Ax, Dan Aykroyd, Dave Brubeck, Francis Ford Coppola, Melissa Etheridge, Laurence Fishburne, Renee Fleming, Anjelica Huston, Rob Marshall, Peter Martins, Terrence McNally, Helen Mirren, Anna Netrebko, Christopher Plummer and Catherine Zeta-Jones; in addition to previous Honorees Edward Albee, Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, Sean Connery, Bill Cosby, Kirk Douglas, Elton John, Mike Nichols, Smokey Robinson and Steven Spielberg.

The 2007 Kennedy Center Honors, produced by George Stevens Jr., will be broadcast December 26 on CBS at 9 P.M., edited to a two-hour special.

Pianist in the Spotlight

The pianist Leon Fleisher, now 80, was hailed as "the pianistic find of the century" when he was 15. A year later, beginning a career that set standards still unsurpassed, he made his New York Philharmonic debut. He later was acclaimed as America's first native-born piano virtuoso.

Fleisher is celebrating his Kennedy Center Honor [introduced by Yo-Yo Ma] with the release of The Essential Leon Fleisher, a two-disc commemorative anthology [Columbia Masterworks] that features highlights from his acclaimed recordings, which will hit stores next month.

Among the highlights are the opening movement [Molto moderato] of Schubert's Sonata in B-Flat Major, D.960, from Fleisher's first Masterworks recording in 1954; movements of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 and Grieg's Piano Concerto; in addition to a complete performance of Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand and, for the first time on CD, the Scherzo movement from Brahms' Piano Quintet Piano Quintet in F Minor.

In a bow to 21st Century marketing, a digital-only edition, with bonus tracks, is now available on iTunes. It features the complete 1963 recording of Brahms' Piano Quintet with the Juilliard String Quartet, as well as his long-unavailable Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."

Fleisher's career took a dramatic turn in 1965, when at 37, two fingers of his right hand became disabled as the result of focal dystonia. Not one to stop, he performed bodies of music written for the left hand, conducted and taught.

New treatment advances and therapy have restored the use of his right hand. His amazing body of work and renaissance has been documented an Oscar-nominated short by Nathaniel Kahn.

Laura Bell Bundy in Free Concert

Legally Blonde's Tony and DD-nominated star Laura Bell Bundy will give a free hour-long holiday performance today at 4 P.M. at the SKY360 by Delta Lounge [101 West 57th Street, off Sixth Avenue].

Bundy will perform songs from her CD I'll Be Home for Christmas. Signed copies will be on sale with proceeds benefiting one of Bundy's favorite charities, the Kreative Kids Foundation. There will be giveaways of Legally Blonde tickets and merchandise, as well as snacks and beverages provided by Delta. Attendees will receive a Delta Skymiles Legally Blonde discount offer with a savings of over $50 per ticket [valid for performances through March 16].

For more information on the Kreative Kids Foundation, visit www.kreativekidsfoundation.org.

Fosse Film Retrospective

The Film Society of Lincoln Center is saluting one of dance's true visionaries, Bob Fosse, in the eight-film series All That Fosse, December 28 – January 1 at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theatre. Rarely-screened studio prints of all five of Fosse's directorial efforts on film - including his multi-Academy Award-winning films Cabaret and All That Jazz - as well as three '50s musicals in which Fosse performed and served as choreographer.

On various days, there will be multiple showings of All That Jazz, Cabaret, Give a Girl a Break, Lenny, My Sister Eileen, The Pajama Game, Star 80 and Sweet Charity.

Fosse not only lived for the theater, he spent virtually all of his life inside it. He toured in vaudeville and choreographed burlesque dance numbers before he entered high school. He spent two years in the Navy before setting sights on New York, where he scored his first significant Broadway role in 1950's Dance Me a Song. Hollywood beckoned and West he went.

The acclaimed, innovative choreographer appeared as an actor in Give a Girl a Break [1953], My Sister Eileen [1955] and The Pajama Game [1957], the last adapted from the 1954 Broadway show that debuted Fosse as a choreographer and first exhibited the innovative, sexually charged dance style and dress that became his trademark.

Feuds with producers and directors over the controversial elements of his choreography prompted Fosse's segue to directing, first on Broadway with Redhead [1959], Little Me [1962] and the Fellini-inspired Sweet Charity [1966]. Three years later, Fosse put Cabaret on screen, The film won eight Academy Awards.

That completed Fosse's still unequalled trifecta: an Oscar, Tony [Pippin] and Emmy [Liza With a "Z"] for direction in the same year. Then came his groundbreaking Broadway productions of Chicago [1975] and Dancin' [1978], which he countered with films that established his skill outside the musical genre: Lenny [1974]; the semi-autobiographical All That Jazz [1979]; and Star 80 [1983]. After collapsing during a rehearsal for the Broadway revival of Sweet Charity, Fosse died of heart failure in 1987.

Single screening tickets for ATJ are $11, $7 for Film Society members, students with valid photo ID and seniors [weekday screenings before 6]. They are available at the Walter Reade box office and online at www.filmlinc.com, where you can find full scheduling information.

Theatrical Holiday Gifts

This holiday season, there is no finer gift for theater fans than a book you'll want to go on reading forever, How Does The Show Go On?, An Introduction to the Theater by Disney Theatricals president Thomas Schumacher and Jeff Kurt [Disney Editions; 120 pages; SRP $20]. One reason you'll want to go on reading forever is to discover all the book's fun surprises.

HDTSGO gives readers the opportunity to meet the casts and behind-the-scene workers and explore the inner workings of theater and theatre buildings. It is a complete guide to what goes on behind the curtain.

Schumacher stated, "I wanted to create the kind of book about the theater that I would have enjoyed when I was a kid." Another goal was to craft an indispensable guide "for young theater lovers to show the countless career opportunities that do not involve being on stage."

Readers meet everyone from the playwright, choreographer and stage manager to the set designer, composer, director and actors, even the usher. Considering the gorgeous color illustrations, production and at-work photos and all its fun elements, the book is amazingly bargain-priced. It is filled with artifacts you can pull out and hold in your hand.

How Does The Show Go On? includes a mock ticket to The Lion King, costume designer's sketchbook with swatches, Playbill, two excerpts from a Tarzan rehearsal script, theater-speak glossary, a page on how to put on a play, sections on Front of House and Back of House and hundreds of color photos from mini to oversize [with a stunning Lion King endpaper and a mid-section quadruple trunk fold-out of a scene from Lion King and Mary Poppins].

Schumacher has launched a Gift-A-Book pilot program to provide drama teachers and students throughout New York public schools with gift copies of HDTSGO. "This book exists because of the great inspiration of my childhood teachers," he explains. "When I heard from people that they were buying multiple copies to give as gifts, I thought it would be great to offer that concept to anyone who wanted to gift a book to a public school."

Individuals interested in gifting a copy of How Does The Show Go On? to a City public school can go to www.howdoestheshowgoon.com for instructions.

He had seen school plays, but Schumacher's first professional play came when he was in seventh grade, a production of You Can't Take it With You in San Francisco. After that, he became obsessed with theater make-up and costumes. "I grew up in rehearsal rooms and in dark theatres," he says, "sitting among audiences and also backstage. From the time I did school and community plays, the theatre has always been home to me."

For his 16th birthday, his parents gifted him with a season subscription to the American Conservatory Theatre. Thereafter, he was hooked.

Schumacher and Kurt have created a stimulatingly interactive book that the novice will treasure for years as an introduction to all aspects of theater and jaded fans will want as the ultimate theater collectible.

Buy Tickets, Help Charities

Givenik.com, an innovative way to see shows and help worthy charities, has been launched by Jujamcyn Theatres. According to Jordan Roth, Jujamcyn VP, "by using the givenik.com site, theatergoers can give and get. When you purchase discounted tickets to Broadway and Off Broadway shows, five per cent of the ticket price is given to the not-for-profit organization of their choice."

More than 150 organizations have joined Givenik.com. Among them are Gay Men's Health Crisis, Dress for Success, God's Love We Deliver, Central Park Conservancy, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Habitat for Humanity, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, chapters of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and PTA's, schools, churches and temples.

Theatergoers can become "giveniks" and charitable organizations can join the program at www.givenik.com.

Busker Alley Launches to Broadway

While launching the Jay Records CD of the one-night-only York Theatre benefit performance of Robert and Richard Sherman's Busker Alley aboard the QM2 [between sailings], producers Margot Astrachan, Robert Blume, Kristine Lewis/Jamie Fox and Joanna Kerry & Heather Duke announced the show is Broadway bound for 2008. For those not in the know, a busker is an English street performer.

Tony and DD-winner Jim Dale, [Barnum, Harry Potter audio books, Pushing Daisies narrator], Jessica Grove, Anne Rogers and a cast of season veterans presented a one-hour program of highlights introduced by Richard Sherman at the piano playing an overture of his and brother Robert's famous songs. Full casting is to be announced. The show will be designed and directed by Academy, three-time Tony and five-time DD [for scenic design] and Emmy Award winner, Tony Walton.

Busker Alley has a score by Oscar winners Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman [Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang], who have written more movie scores than any other songwriting team in history - in addition to that much-heard anthem "It's a Small World After All." The late AJ Carothers wrote the book.

The show is based on the 1928 film The Blue Angel that skyrocketed Marlene Dietrich to fame and the 1938 British film St. Martin's Lane, which starred Charles Laughton and Vivien Leigh [introducing her to David O. Selznick and capturing for her the coveted role of Scarlett in Gone with the Wind]. The films were inspired by Heinrich Mann's early 20th Century novel, Small Town Tyrant by Heinrich Mann.

A Welsh Christmas

The Irish Repertory Theatre [132 West 22nd Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues] is presenting Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, with traditional and original music, through December 30. The works are adapted and directed by Irish Rep A.D. Charlotte Moore and feature a cast of five.

Tickets are $35 and can be purchased by calling (212) 727-2737 or, prior to performances, at the Irish Rep box office.

RCMH Sparkles - Really Sparkles

In celebration of the 75th year of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Swarovski is making the Art Deco grand foyer of the megatheatre shine like never before! Magically suspended from the ceiling is a $1-million, 35-foot Christmas tree created with 3,000 pounds of Swarovski crystals.

Lots of changes have been made for this "re-imagined" new edition of the perennial. Sadly, the great sets have been done away with for the most part and a huge LED screen takes you zipping through the city via tour bus and, in a 3-D sequence [no one tells you, but your 3-D glasses are fitted onto the program] over the city and beyond as Santa makes his rounds. The Living Nativity still impresses if only for how it's so over-produced. One of the great assets of the Music Hall are the dueling organs, so arrive early for the delightful pre-show.

One thing that hasn't changed are the awesome Rockettes, who also sparkle like never before as they debut costumes adorned with over 3,000 crystal Swarovski "elements" in the sensational new finale, “Let Christmas Shine.”

The RCCS runs through December 30. Prices are $40 [up, up, up into the gods] - $100 and available online at www.radiocity.com or at the Radio City box office, at Ticketmaster outlets or by calling at (212) 307-1000.

Broadway's Piano Gal

Jo Lynn Burks is no stranger to Broadway. The former Miss Alabama and Miss Miami is a frequent keyboardist and assistant conductor at The Color Purple and on keyboards at Hairspray. This holiday season, she's attracting attention in the Star Lounge at the ritzy Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South, where she's added glamour and livened things up.

One thing for certain, the personable Burks does not fade into the polished woodwork in an elegant, intimate setting akin to having your personal pianist in your living or music room. She sings and plays everything from holiday classics and Broadway [Porter, Kern, Gershwin, R&H, Sondheim] to light opera, blues and pop.

Her music and ebullient personality have been enjoyed by not only the CP elites but also Aretha Franklin [who left not only a generous gratuity but also generous praise], John Cusack and some Purple and Hairspray cast members.

Burks has toured as music director with the Temptations and done keyboards/vocals for Gladys Knight, Faith Hill and Roger Daltrey; played such famous boites as the Carlyle; St. Moritz; Fairmont; Plaza; and that unique den of fun and drink, Pat O'Brien's in the Big Easy - even in palaces in Gothenburg [Sweden] and St. Petersburg. During the Clinton Administration, she was no stranger at the White House - hitting the ivories!

On Broadway, she originated a principal role in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. Other Bway credits include Mamma Mia, The Wedding Singer, Smokey Joe's Cafe, The Full Monty and All Shook Up.

There's no cover charge or minimum. Just don't shoot the piano player.

"The reason Sweeney Todd has endured for a hundred and fifty years," says Stephen Sondheim, "is that it's a really good story, a gripping tale. It's a story about revenge and how revenge eats itself up. In that sense, it's a tragedy in the classic tradition about someone out for revenge who ends up destroying himself."

Sondheim, of course, is the composer/lyricist of the acclaimed Tony and Drama Desk Best Musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with book by Hugh Wheeler. Sondheim and Wheeler also won Tonys and DDs for their score and book. The 1990 revival at Circle in the Square won Tony and DD noms for Best Revival The 2006 revival was Tony-nominated in the Revival category and won a DD.

Could the show's popularity through the years be because it has one of the best scores of any musical in last 50 years. Another might be, putting all the blood-letting and revenge aside, that it's the story of lost love.

The story might not be fiction. Many in the U.K. attended the tale of Sweeney Todd, a.k.a. Benjamin Barker, claiming he was responsible for 160 murders in 18th century London. But the barber first came to prominence in a story called The String Of Pearls: A Romance, written by Thomas Peckett Prest and published in 1846. A year later, Prest's story was adapted as a play subtitled The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The play came to Broadway in 1924. By that time, Todd's notoriety almost eclipsed that of 19th century London serial killer, Jack the Ripper.

Sweeney inspired many stage shows and film. British playwright Christopher Bond's take on the legend became a 1973 West End play. In 1979, Sondheim and Wheeler used Bond's script as their template.

What's not so well known is that Sondheim was also greatly influenced by an atmospheric 1945 film that starred Laird Cregar, George Sanders and one of the screen's great beauties, Linda Darnell. The movie had a score by Bernard Hermann, whom Hitchcock hadn't discovered yet.

"I've always liked melodramas and suspense movies," admits Sondheim. "I was fifteen when I saw Hangover Square, this Edwardian melodrama about a composer who goes crazy when he hears a certain sound and goes out and murders the nearest girl. I loved Hermann's score and thought it would really be fun to scare an audience and see if you could do it while people are singing."

Now that is being accomplished, through the dark, Gothic mind of director Tim Burton [Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Batman, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride]. It reaches the screen December 21 starring Oscar nominees Johnny Depp, frequently a Burton leading man [six films], and, as piemaker Nellie Lovette, Helena Bonham Carter [who also happens to be Burton's longtime fiance].

The much-anticipated screen version of Hal Prince's acclaimed Grand Guignol original production is rated R for graphic bloody violence, and Burton delivers that commodity in great quantities. In fact, not even a Hammer film could come close in the blood-letting department. There is buzz, pro and con. Will it be the type of film audiences will flock to in order to be totally removed from holiday festivity? Could it be another Dreamgirls or a Rent or The Producers, both of which were captured pretty literally for the screen?

Sweeney Tood just received Golden Globe nods for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy, with Depp, Carter and Burton also nominated. The trio will surely be in the Oscar running.

Sondheim, now firmly established as one of greatest theater composers, is no stranger to awards. He's in that rarefied theatrical category of being the recipient of an Academy Award [Best Song, Dick Tracy], multiple Tony Awards and noms, multiple Drama Desks and noms, an Emmy, Golden Globe nom, Grammy nom and a Pulitzer Prize.

That said, why can't be nicer to those outside his inner circle? It was very sad to see a female fan approach him for an autograph at one of the City Center parties for the Gypsy summer revival. Maybe it wasn't the most appropriate time to ask, but from the way he reacted, scaring the poor woman to no end and reducing her to tears, you might have thought she was a stalker. Okay, so you don't like to give autographs; but you could be polite - if there's a polite way to refuse a devoted fan an autograph. Most in this business would be flattered to know someone thinks enough of their work to buy a hundred dollar ticket and shell out more money for one of their works.

But, to get back on track, the setting of the blood-drenched tale of Sweeney Todd is bursting 17th Century London, where he returns after escaping 15 years false imprisonment in Australia, to exact the deaths of those who sent him off on trumped up charges: the lecherous Judge Turpin and his nefarious henchman Beadle Bamford. Their plot was to steal his wife and baby daughter.

Appearing as Turpin is one of filmdom's best villains Alan Rickman [the Harry Potter series, his Hans Gruber in Die Hard], who's no stranger to theater. In another area of perfect casting is Brit Timothy Spall, best known for his grimy, boorish, dysfunctional character roles in Mike Leigh films, as the repugnant Beadle.

Todd goes back to his old trade as a barber above Mrs. Lovett's pie shop, which could never have passed health department muster even back then [be prepared for a couple of stomach-churning moments], and is told by her that his wife poisoned herself after the judge took, shall we say, advantage.

Soon a rivalry begins between Todd and a flamboyant, colorfully-clad, child-abusing barber, Adolfo Pirelli, claiming to be a barber to kings and a pope. In some unusual casting, the role is played by Sacha Baron Cohen. He doesn't have a lot of screen time [the film zips along in less than two hours], but he's memorable - sporting huge curls and clad as if he's a world-class toreador. [It appears he ratcheted up the size of a particular body part with a few socks.] When he threatens to expose Todd's identity, things happen and he's gifted with a "necktie." Todd and Lovett then hatch a plan that provides a boon to her pie business.

"We got him before we saw Borat, and before he became a household name," notes Zanuck. "He asked to come in. We met in a recording studio. I didn't realize how tall he is, about six-five or six-six, and very handsome. He told us he always loved this show, and that he had sung early on in choirs . He wasn't prepared to sing from Sweeney Todd, but he sang practically all of Fiddler and in such a way that Tim and I were buckled over on the floor. He was so funny, but despite the laughter, we realized he had a great voice. He had the part then and there as far as we were concerned. And he's wonderful."

The setting is such environs as the Old Bailey, an asylum in Bedlam, Blackfriar's Bridge, Fleet Street and a unique pie shop.

Burton captures bleak London in all its gloomy glories with great help from director of photography Dariusz Wolski, production designer Dante Ferretti [who's worked with Fellini, Pasolini, Gilliam and Scorsese] and costume designer Colleen Atwood. There's rarely a hint of color. Chimneys belch smoke. A large population of rats run amok in sewers, not to mention a lively bunch of cockroaches in the pie shop. In the sound effects department, the loud thuds as bodies drop into a cellar equipped with a gigantic meat grinder might shake you up a bit.

"The key to Sweeney Todd," notes screen adaptor John Logan [Oscar winner, Gladiator], "is its passion. A man has been wronged and seeks revenge, and in the process goes mad. And there's a love story. Mrs. Lovett yearns for Sweeney but can't get past his revenge scheme to make a connection. Then, it's about a young girl, raised by a brutal stepfather, trying to find love and happiness. All these emotional through-lines collide in Sweeney Todd, making it all the more lushly romantic."

The Broadway musical, which originally starred Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, was given an Industrial Age staging in the behemoth Uris Theatre [now the Gershwin]. While tragic and more than a bit scary, with blood spurting from an ingeniously-designed stage razor, it was moving and the score was rapturous.

Producers Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes were so taken by it that when they headed production at DreamWorks they made it their goal to secure the film rights.

"There's a strange kinship that exists between the lovers of Sweeney Todd that borders on the fanatic," laughs Parkes. "It's almost an instant barometer of a shared sensibility."

Burton saw the production while a student in London on its transfer to the West End. "I'm not a big musical fan, but I loved it," he recalls. "I was a student there and didn't know anything about Stephen Sondheim. The poster looked kind of cool. It was interesting to see something bloody on stage! It was like an old horror movie. What made it stand out was the music. It was an interesting juxtaposition, all that horror imagery against the gorgeous score. I liked it so much, I went back again."

Screenwriter Logan saw the Broadway original three times. "It was a defining moment in theater. I'd never seen anything like it. I fell in love with it and it's stayed with me until now."

Sondheim had approval over cast and director. "He's a formidable character," notes Burton, "very intelligent, very passionate. He's a genius at what he does. The thing I respected and felt grateful for is his letting it go. It's not a stage thing. It's a movie. He said 'Go for it.' I felt very supported by that.

Sweeney was a much sought-after role. There were eight others in contention [Colin Farrell? Brad Pitt?], however Burton had only one actor in mind.

"Johnny's performance is quite remarkable," says Sondheim. "Sweeney's desire for revenge and the simmering anger and hurt that he feels carry the story forward, and Johnny finds the most remarkable variety within that narrow set of emotions. The intensity is at a boil all the time and he never drops it. It's real anger."

"He plays Sweeney as only Johnny Depp can," reports producer Richard Zanuck, who knows a thing or two about film. He grew up on the Fox lot where dad Daryl was a long-time kingpin and went to to produce a slew of award-winning blockbusters.

"Johnny's going to impress you," Zanuck says. "Talk about a risk taker. The bigger the risks, the more attractive a role is to Johnny. He's built his whole career on pictures and roles most actors would turn down. He's the master of disguise. He's the master of doing something unique every time out. He has a different look, a different personality, and in this case, he'll have a voice that people will be absolutely astounded by."

Astounded? Time will tell how audiences respond, but Depp acquits himself quite nicely, even over some powerful overorchestration; and is especially strong on sustaining notes.

"I've always admired Johnny because of his choices as an actor," says Bonham Carter, "and because he's never done anything according to any sort of formula or to create a career; or rely on his looks. We're a bit similar, in that we don't have much respect for what we look like. We rather like camouflaging and getting away from ourselves."

"They practically read each other's minds," says Zanuck. "Johnny looks to Tim for guidance and Tim looks to Johnny for taking what he has outlined and pushing it further. It's more than a deep friendship. They love each other. Their combination is wonderful in terms of freshness and inventiveness."

As often as they've tried to do something different, they've never tried a movie where the lead sings a lot. "Johnny and I always want to stretch ourselves," explains Burton, "and this was a perfect outlet for that."

In late 2001, before Burton was even attached to direct, he visited Depp at his house in the south of France and gave him a CD of the stage musical. "I gave it a listen," recalls Depp, "and thought, 'It's interesting.' Then, five or six years later, Burton pops the question 'Do you think you can sing?' I answered, 'I'll see if I can.'"

"I knew he was musical," quips Burton, "because he was in a band. I saw Johnny so clearly as Sweeney and I just knew he could do it."

To find out whether he could sing, Depp booked a studio and performed "My Friends," Sweeney's sweeping love ballad to his always-sharp razors. "That was the first song I ever sang," Depp explains. "It was pretty weird and scary." But he pulled it off, discovering he had a nice timbre.

Bonham Carter calls his singing voice "very sexy." She says he sings from the gut, "so it's raw, touching, brave, soulful and beautiful."

For Depp, the key to Sweeney was to think of him not as a killer but as a victim. "He's obviously a dark figure," he reflects, "but quite a sensitive figure, maybe hyper-sensitive. He's experienced something dark and traumatic, a grave injustice. I saw him as a victim. Anyone who's victimized to that degree and becomes a murderer can't be all there. I saw him as a little bit slow. Not dumb, just a half-step behind."

Mrs. Lovette is Sweeney's connection to the real world, and has as much if not more singing than he does. It was a pivotal role. Bonham Carter, in production notes, explained that she wanted to play Mrs. Lovett since she was a teen, "but," she says, "I didn't know if I could sing the role. I've always wanted to be in a musical but, except in the bathroom, I never sang.

Though Burton had worked with her and thought she'd be ideal, it was a bit trickier. "I didn't want to give the perception I was giving Helena the part because she was my girlfriend. I was nervous about it, because it's a big role. It was Sondheim who had to okay it."

Bonham Carter threw herself into three months for intense preparation, including coaching from "an amazing teacher quite famous for making actors who aren't singers sing." She explained that 90% of what he did was build confidence and a self-belief "that makes you able to open your mouth and produce a sound."

She learned the score, but "I thought my only chance was to act it as well as I could. I knew Sondheim loved Judi Dench's performance in A Little Night Music because it was the most well-acted. I thought 'If you go for the truth of the lyric, that's your only chance.'"

"Despite the close relationship between Tim and Helena," insists Zanuck, "he was absolutely unbiased. I'd never seen anyone deal with someone he's so close to and be as objective as he was."

Sondheim watched candidates' audition tapes and also opted for Bonham Carter. "He said, 'I think she is far and away the best,'" recalls Zanuck. "Not voice-wise, because there were some real skilled singers, but voice and personality and look and everything, she was Mrs. Lovett."

"She's very brave," says Depp. "Without question, Mrs. Lovett is the toughest part and she beautifully made it her own. She's vulnerable and horrific, funny and sweet. She brought a lot angles to the role that weren't there."

Bonham Carter, especially as made up in the film will remind audiences of a certain age of Bette Davis - those eyes! As soon as she recognizes her old neighbor, there's a twinkle in those eyes as she hatches a plan to get him to the altar [presented in a color-drenched dream sequence] to the tune of "By the Sea." She's unstoppable in her quest, but Sweeney is so single-mindedly focused on his plot he doesn't have time for romance.

Adapting a three-hour stage musical into a two-hour movie meant changes. Some songs were exorcised completely, others merely truncated. "We cut out verses," Logan explains, "but also expanded certain areas."

"There's always a possibility it might upset the purists because it's not the show," observes Burton. "I'm trying to be as pure to it as possible. A film like this is a strange gamble because it's an R-rated musical, it's got blood in it and people that go to Broadway shows don't usually go to see slasher films and people who see slasher films don't usually go to Broadway shows."

According to Logan the plan was to keep it tightly focused on Sweeney's journey, "so some secondary elements fell away. For instance, in the musical, Johanna, who turns out to be Todd's daughter, sings a lot more; she and the lovelorn sailor Anthony are more musical characters. I felt the focus needed to be on Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett, and, to a certain extent, on Toby."

Those roles are played, respectfully, by newcomers Jayne Wisener, who as a member of Music Theatre 4 Youth appeared in a Summer 2006 production of West Side Story, Jamie Campbell Bower and angelic-voiced Ed Sanders, who as Toby has some poignant moments with Lovett and the burden of bringing the story to its inevitable, yes, bloody conclusion.

Logan spent six months studying Sondheim's score, "to be absolutely familiar with what the beast was." He also read the Bond melodrama and compared it to Wheeler's libretto. "When I knew the music backwards and forwards, I went to New York and Stephen and I worked through it."

Storywise, too, he made substantial changes. "'Sweeney's had a long, successful career onstage, but," noted Logan, "we've never had the opportunity to get emotionally close. It's the nature of the stage. You don't have close ups. But when you bring Tim, and particularly Johnny, to the mix, you have an opportunity to get inside emotionally. It almost redefines the way you look at the play."

Onstage, Todd and Mrs. Lovett have been played by actors in their 50s and 60s. Burton wanted the cast younger for his film.

The music was recorded over four days in London with a 64-piece orchestra, the largest ever to have played Sondheim's score. "We had thirty violins," points out Higham, "added more horns and a tuba to give it a bigger sound."

The recording sessions were overseen by Sondheim and conducted by his long-time musical supervisor Paul Gemignani. "To sit there with Tim and Stephen was fascinating," observed Zanuck. "Stephen can hear a flute that's slightly off, the same way that Tim can see out of the corner of his eye an extra one hundred yards away down the street."

Most people find Sondheim the hardest thing to sing, what with the different tempos, changes and the lyrical melodies. Some people try for years to do what the film's lead just did naturally.

Burton was determined to remove anything that smacked of being too Broadway in terms of the orchestration or the acting. "On Broadway you're sitting in an audience and a song ends with a ta-da, cue for applause," he points out. "You don't do that in movies. On one level you say you're doing a silent movie so there's a certain amount of acting style that you might say is a bit broad, but at the same time you try and cut out completely any Broadway kind of singing, although there are a couple of moments. So it was a weird dynamic to find. Being broad like you might be in a silent movie or an old horror movie without being Broadway."

"This is not a recording of a Broadway show, this is a movie," says Logan. "Tim has been hyper-conscious of anything that smacks of being too emotive, too presentational, too 'cute' in terms of the actors over-performing or playing to the back balcony, because there's a certain amount of scope to the score that could allow a performer to overact, to play too large. It's a large story with very sweeping emotions and full-bodied music.

"Tim has been wonderful about keeping it real, keeping it honest," Logan continues, "and making sure these are real people going through this terribly difficult story and not shying away from the really harrowing emotions. As a theater fan and a movie fan, I think he's doing the perfect thing, saying, 'We respect the stage play, we love the stage play, it will always be there in our hearts, but this has to be first and foremost a work of cinema.'"

Sondheim says that the film adaptation offered the opportunity to change some lyrics as well as to write new ones "that tally with certain structural and narrative changes imposed by the script. Stage time and movie time are different. You accept onstage somebody sitting and singing for three minutes about one subject, but in film you get the idea quickly and suddenly you have two and a half minutes too much. The problem was how to keep the integrity of the score and yet cut things. John maintained much of the score and still kept the cinematic value of the songs going."

"The other thing that impressed and immediately made me like him," Burton continues, "was that when I first met him, he was talking about how he wrote the show like a Bernard Herrmann score. As soon as he said that I thought, 'I'm in, completely.' And, as we discovered doing the orchestral recording, when you take away the singing, it's like a Bernard Herrmann score -- it's really amazing."

Zanuck said that Burton was the director for Sweeney Todd. "There's such an affinity between the subject matter and Tim's style and sensibility. At heart he's a dramatist who wants to tell a simple, human love story."

"He was a perfect fit," says Sondheim. "In many ways it's his simplest film, his most direct film, but you can see that he's telling a story he really likes. It's a story that has enough incident so he doesn't have to invent extracurricular stuff. He had enthusiasm for the piece and went - forgive me - straight for the jugular."