The Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street made its Broadway debut on March 1, 1979 at the Uris Theatre (today the Gershwin Theatre).
It would become one of the most popular and beloved musicals of modern times, winning eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, Leading Actor (for Len Cariou) and Leading Actress (Angela Lansbury).
Also in the Broadway cast was Sarah Rice who originated the role of Johanna.
On this week’s episode of The Gilded Gentleman, Sarah joins host Carl Raymond for a fascinating conversation about that original production.
Sarah shares what it was like to get the role, how she went about creating the character and what it was like to work with such extraordinary colleagues.
And that’s not all! As the famed “Demon Barber of Fleet Street” gets ready to flash his razor and do his deeds once again in a new Broadway production (starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford), Carl goes back in time to the early years of London’s Victoria era to look at just how Sweeney Todd and his tale came to be.
Born in the world of the sensational and gruesome stories of the “penny dreadfuls“, Sweeney Todd and his story were quite different from what theatre audiences know today.
Listen today on your favorite podcast player or play it here:
The original television commercial:
An original video of Sarah Rice singing “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” on the Broadway stage!
And after you listen to Carl’s show, dive into the original Broadway cast recording: