Where this was said
Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center: Everything You Have, Used Up
At 50:24 · chapter starts 47:20
Will asks about Emma's last theater production. The answer is unexpected: she performed Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, staged with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center for five performances, then two weeks at London's Dominion Theatre. [1] — Emma Thompson "Emma Thompson spent nine months learning the Sweeney Todd score before performing it with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. Shak…" 47:20 She spent nine months learning the score. What she loved most was the cross-pollination of forms — acting while a timpanist made extraordinary sounds behind her, the orchestra themselves energised by having actors moving among them. She uses the production to make a broader point about artistic snobbery: theater, classical music, and television acting are too siloed. A good actor is a good actor in any form. And then, in a casual but striking claim, she says Sondheim is harder than Shakespeare — because Shakespeare, she says, is like a reliable old sailing boat: you get in and sail. Sondheim gives you no such comfort.
Emma Thompson spent nine months learning the Sweeney Todd score before performing it with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. Shakespeare, she argues, is easy by comparison — like a reliable old sailing boat.
Emma Thompson spent nine months learning the Sweeney Todd score before performing it with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center and at London's Dominion Theatre.
