In 1979, Stephen Sondheim took on the task of scoring the stage version of the cannibalistic Sweeney Todd and now returns to the cinematic limelight to score Tim Burton's big screen adaptation of the play, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Alan Rickman.

A couple of weeks ago, we were lucky enough to be shuffled and squeezed into a crowded London hotel as Stephen Sondheim greeted the press to share his thoughts on the big screen version of Sweeney Todd, scoring the film, working with Tim Burton, and approving Johnny Depp to play the leading without hearing him sing a word.

Stephen Sondheim on why it took this long to turn Sweeney Todd into a movie:

"I’ve no idea. Well, you know, movie musicals have not been very popular up until recently when a couple of them have suddenly broken through, like Chicago. But, you know, over the last 20 years movie musicals have not been in great demand and so I think it never occurred to anybody. And Sweeney was not the kind of big hit that made movie studios clamour for it, you know. It lost all its money on Broadway and - not all - lost half its investment. And it’s only over a period of time that it had become sort of more popular and more done with revivals and things like that. And as you probably know, it was a big flop in London; London critics hated it, which was ironic because it was sort of a love - my love letter to England and I really felt like a rejected lover - I’m serious.

"I’ve always been an anglophile and they didn’t like it. And so I think it’s the combination of those things. The first person that asked to do it was in fact Tim [Burton] about 20 years ago... He came to see me and said he wanted to do it as a musical. I said, 'Wonderful,' and that was the end of that - that we had a nice conversation and I never heard from him again. He got, as we say, interested in other projects. And then a few years ago, during the record, Sam Mendes did a production of Gypsy in New York City and we were having coffee during the recording session and... Sam said, 'Have you ever thought of Sweeney Todd as a movie?' I said, 'Well, actually Tim Burton once came to me. but otherwise nobody’s ever - ever, ever approached me about it. He said, 'I’d like to do it.' I said, 'Great, let’s, let’s do it.' And he got hold of John Logan, the screenwriter, and they started to work it out together. And then Sam got frustrated by casting. He - the people he wanted to cast - for one reason or another didn’t come through, and so after a couple of years Sam said, 'I give up.' And then I, I don’t know whether, who - I don’t actually know exactly who it was who brought it to Tim said, 'Are you still interested?.' Anyway, Tim obviously said yes and that’s what happened."

Sondheim on what he looks for in a director to adapt his work for the screen:

"Well, I wish I could answer that except that nobody did ask, so I haven’t been in the position of picking and choosing and choosing qualities. It’s just, you know, obviously if a director approached me to do a show as a movie, and it was a director whose work I didn’t like, I would say no. But that has not arisen because not many directors have asked."

On why Tim Burton adapted Sweeney Todd:

"Well, the idea will surprise you. It’s because he loves the material. I knew it from the time he came to me 20 years ago that he really loved the story. And that was the first thing that he really - he likes the story and he likes the musical. And he’s not a particular fan of stage musicals. But something about this spoke to him and I absolutely trusted that. You know, he didn’t have to be persuaded about the story. The story was - he didn’t want to change the story. He wanted the story just the way it was. And all the changes that did occur have to do with small changes within the structure of the story. But he didn’t want to change the character, he didn’t want to change the ending, he didn’t want to change anything about the telling of the tale. And that, that’s enough. You know, I was also enthusiastic about some of his movies, but the real point was that he loved the material."

On what convinced him Johnny Depp could play Sweeney Todd without hearing him sing first:

"Meeting him and the fact that he’d had a musical background... he came from a rock band even though he was not a lead singer, I knew he was musical just from that. And I also knew that he was intelligent enough from talking to him that he would not allow himself to play this part unless he thought he could handle it vocally. I knew he was not about to get up there and have to have his voiced dubbed or come off croaking. So Johnny Depp cast Johnny Depp - I trusted him entirely because I knew that he was no fool and he would only do it if he felt he could handle it. And he, I [instructed him] - 'Listen to the score carefully and if you think you can handle it, fine by me.' And I was right."

Stephen Sondheim and Scoring Sweeney Todd Page 2