Too Scary; Didn't Watch - SWEENEY TODD + Q&A with John Rapson!

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Barber chairs, booming orchestras, and delicious meat pies, we're mixing things UP this week by recapping SWEENEY TODD, the magnificent horror musical now on Broadway!!  Award–winning director Thomas Kail (Hamilton) helms the return of the musical thriller starring Josh Groban (!!!) as Sweeney Todd and Tony-winner Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett. We are BLESSED to interview the hilarious John Rapson who plays Beadle Bamford at the end of the episode.  Recap begins @ 21:56 Interview with John Rapson @ 1:07:29 Follow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content! Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy. Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy, and you're listening to Too Scary, Didn't Watch. Hi everyone, welcome to Too Scary, Didn't Watch, the horror movie recap podcast for those too scared to watch themselves. I'm Henley, and I'm too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Sammy, and I love watching scary movies, and so I watch them so that you don't have to. But things are going to go a little different today in more ways than one. First of all, Emily's not here. No, Emily, we're missing Emily. It's so sad. And it's always a struggle for me, as you know, to have to start

the podcast off without her. I mean, it just really throws me for a loop every time. Henley, you nailed it. You fucking knocked it out of the park. Thanks. I appreciate that. I really, really really do secondly henley is going to be recapping something for me today i'm very excited to have this little role reversal and hear the plot of something that we won't tell you what it is yet but just get excited that henley is going to be telling us a story today. I'm filling in big shoes. I'm, you know, but every week I learn from the best. So hopefully I've absorbed some of the lessons you've taught me about recapping. But this is a really unusual recap because not only is it me, it's also a goddamn musical.

So we've never done anything like this before. And not a musical film, a literal Broadway musical. An actual Broadway, an actual goddamn Broadway musical. Henley, will you be singing all the songs for us? I will be singing every song. I am so bad at singing. I have a terrible combination of not being able to remember lyrics. I can remember them if I really try, but I never try. And so I never remember them. And they're always wrong, but a full confidence to blow through and make, make something up. So I'm constantly making shit up and like embarrassing myself, but not really noticing.

And then also not being able to carry a tune whatsoever. Can you sing at all? See, I was, I feel like I'm good at remembering lyrics and carrying a tune, but my voice is bad, but I do enjoy singing. Like I can just sing very loudly and I can have a good time, but it's not going to sound good. Like I love a karaoke and just like screaming into the microphone. I will do that. I like a karaoke too. I like a karaoke too. But I have never done karaoke where you're actually standing in front of like, a big group of people you don't know. I've only ever done it in those little rooms with like friends, close friends where the stakes are very low. I think both are fun. I've had I've done both

and I've enjoyed both and they're just different experiences, but I like them both. Either way, my technique is the same, which is to do tattoos, all the things she said and just scream into the microphone. And what is it? This is not enough. What? What? It's such a silly song and it makes me really laugh um i recently did it at a work rap party and in front of mostly people i didn't know and w-r-a-p party not a wrapping up the job not a wrapping party put on by your workplace some people i think did do did do some rap songs but anyways uh it didn't hit as hard as it had in the past not a lot of tattoo fans in this audience that is so funny that is so funny i That is so funny. But I still had a good time.

Wait, okay. The last time actually I was in a place where people were doing karaoke was 2019 Christmas Party at Netflix. They had karaoke and it was in a soundstage. Hundreds of people were there. I was thinking, no one's doing fucking work karaoke. Yeah, that's quite a big audience. Couldn't have been more wrong. There are people getting up on stage who should not have been on stage who are just going for it. I feel like that should be illegal to put to put people in that situation in a work environment.

Drinks are rolling. You're doing karaoke, Christmas karaoke in front of hundreds of your co-workers yeah at this work party that i was at there was uh tiki drinks on tap and i do think that that should also be illegal that will kill you that will kill you if you are over the age of 22 years old that will kill you it nearly did i felt like absolute shit for two full days afterwards. So don't I don't recommend unlimited painkillers that the drink painkillers. Not a great day afterwards. But anyways, Henley, did anything scary happen to you this week? You've got a lot going on. I have so much going on. I've had to miss a few episodes, which really bums me out and makes me sad. And I don't like missing episodes because we miss you. This is my like happy place where I get to go. But I've been super busy.

We we had like a crazy few weeks. I mean, I'll kind of lay out the last few weeks. We had like a crazy few weeks. I mean, I'll kind of lay out the last few weeks. We flew to Long Beach. We flew to LA and then we were there for 10 days. Then we flew to Hawaii and we were there for a week. Then we flew from Hawaii straight back to New York.

And then two days later, I flew to San Diego. We did Comic-Con. And then we flew, I flew back. And then two days later, I flew to San Diego. We did Comic-Con and then we flew, I flew back. And then two days later we moved. So in those two days we packed our entire apartment and I was more stressed about the fact that the boxes I'd ordered didn't come then doing Comic-Con. didn't come than doing comic-con. Comic-con was like peaceful and easy compared to landing in New York and getting a message saying the boxes I'd ordered weren't coming. I almost went to home Depot at 9 30 PM at night in New Jersey from the airport to go get boxes, but it was closing and I could i was wasn't going to get there on time long story short we were able to get boxes so then we spent two days packing

silas got hand foot and mouth disease so oh my god i even forgot about that so much so much he couldn't do't go to daycare. It was so sad. This is something that's very common with toddlers. It's very sad. They get sores all over their hands, all over their bottom of their feet and inside their mouth. So they can't really eat anything. They can't really drink anything. He loves his pacifiers when he sleeps and he couldn't have those it was so sad

he was awake all how do you make sure they're hydrated and stuff you just have to kind of force them to drink water they drink they do they will drink water they just drink and then cry um and that the sores in the mouth only lasted like one day and then, and then it was better. But, um, then we moved and, um, you guys will never believe it, but we moved to Greenwich, Connecticut. The last place I ever thought I'd live. Um, I never thought I would live in Greenwich, Connecticut. Shocked to be living here. Yeah, we were surprised as well.

But Tim got a really good opportunity to work at a very great, a really great church here. So for those of you who don't know, my husband is an Episcopalian priest. Every person I tell this to is like, what? I never know the type of reaction I'll hear. Usually people are like, oh, that's cool. But a lot of people are like, well, um, he wears the priest outfit. You guys, it's, it's, it's real. He really is. He really is. It's pretty crazy. Um, so he was hired by a church here and there's housing for us. And so we're living now in a house that was built in 1862. And Tim is working at a church. I am very pregnant and I have a two-year-old and I just do feel like I've set us up for to be in a horror movie. I mean, if I've ever, if I've ever tempted fate more, I don't think, I don't think I have really feels like the possibility of us being haunted is

very high or culted or culted. That's true too. So you got to keep tabs on that. Make sure that that doesn't happen. But I have been thinking about horror movies a lot because there's always the dynamic of like a family moving into a house and you're like, just move the fuck out of the house. Yes. Like just move out when bad things start happening. You're like, why are you staying? Move out of the house. Moving is so hard. It's so hard. It's always harder than you remember to.

Even if some supernatural shit is going down, you're like, oh, moving is so hard. I think I'd rather deal with some ghosts. Just move to if it does add some like context in horror movies to why it happens, because it's like we just moved our shit here. I'm not doing that again. I know. We'll write this out. See what happens. I've been thinking about it a lot because moving has been so stressful and so difficult.

And I'm so happy we're almost done. And I keep thinking, if we started getting haunted tonight, how long would it take for us to move out? I feel like things would have to get pretty bad because you're freaking tired. Where are we going to go? Where are we going to put you're freaking tired. Where are we going to go? Where are we going to put all of our stuff? Where are we going to put all our stuff? Anyway, so that's I guess the scary thing is that that's just been a lot. And I'm now I live in Connecticut and I don't know anyone here.

And I have to, like, figure out, like, my doctor situation. I have to figure out. Yeah. You just get just such a long list of endless to do list now. Yeah. I mean, that's a whole bunch of scary shit. It's a lot. It's really a lot.

And I feel so far away from you guys. I miss, I miss you guys so much. I miss you too. We're going to have to visit. I'll come to Greenwich. Please do. That would make me very happy. Okay, all right.

But enough about me. I've just been yammering on. Sammy, tell me. No, you had a lot to report. I don't have too much to report. I will be going to Europe for a couple weeks pretty soon. And so I'm trying to get things squared away before I leave. And I have two cats and no one's coming to stay here while I'm gone. So I'm having to organize a lot of cat sitters and

people to come in and check on them. And I'm trying to disperse the load so that no one is coming too often. And one of the things that I did to try to make them more self-sufficient is I got them an automatic feeder that has a camera on it so I can watch them eat and make sure that they're doing okay. Oh, that's cute. That's a really good idea. It's very cute. And I think I'll probably get an additional camera for the living room that they hang out in a lot. But, uh, so does the food like come at certain times? Yeah, you can program it to just do whenever, or you can manually press like feed now it's very handy, but it's set to record when it catches

motion. And I have noticed a few scary moments where it records when nothing is there. And so I'm just seeing the potential for a paranormal activity situation, paranormal activity pets. situation. Paranormal activity pets. Yeah. Where I'm just get like freaking myself out watching these videos. But I think the real risk is being too invested in checking in on them constantly because I went on a little mini trip to Palm Springs this last weekend and like couldn't stop looking at them. Like I I was just like what are they doing right now what do you I wonder what they're doing and so I don't know if that will be the right way to spend my energy when I'm in Europe I feel like the novelty of it will wear off you haven't really had it as a resource before and so it's kind of fun to check, but pretty soon it's like,

you're going to be over it a little bit, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think you're right. And I'm going to miss my, I'm going to miss them so much. I'm scared to leave them alone and be without them for a couple of weeks, but they'll be fine. They'll a couple weeks but they'll be fine they'll be unhappy but they'll be fine and and i'll be back you know yeah yeah i'll be great yeah yeah um i'm so excited for your i'm so excited for your trip and to hear everything about it yeah i'll report back i'm excited as well and you're going to be gone in in August. So Emily and I will be doing some episodes. And then we're also going to be doing some, you know, vault releases, I'd say. And then we'll be back full force in September.

Just ready to go. Yep. And gearing up for spooky season. What comes after September, October? I can't believe it's spooky season again already. I know it really is crazy. It happened so fast. Time just absolutely flies. It does. I haven't even given a single thought to what my Halloween outfit is going to be. Halloween costume. I for once know what our Halloween costumes are going to be. I've known for months.

I've known for months. I've known for months. Is it a secret? No, it's not a secret. I'll tell you right now, but also this means I have to do it. Who knows if I'll actually do it. Who knows I'll actually do it. Um, I want all of us to dress up like David Bowie because Silas has a couple David Bowie books, just people that gave them as gifts randomly. And he, one of his first words was Bowie, Bowie, Bowie, because he wanted to read his David Bowie books. So I've had this idea that he would be so cute dressed up like a little mini David Bowie, he'd be so cute. So I was thinking it'd be funny for all of us to do like different versions of David Bowie. I've done a group outfit once where all of us were different versions of Nicolas Cage and it was great. I really love that kind of plan.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially someone who has such iconic looks. It's perfect. It's perfect. Now you have to do it. You've made an oath here on the podcast. There's a chance I'll have like a one week old baby at that point. Okay. We'll let you off the hook in that case. Fair enough. Should we get into this movie? Yeah, let's get into it. Henley, what are we talking about today? I said movie. I meant musical. Should we get into this Broadway musical?

Yes! I'm so excited. Okay. So we're doing Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I saw it on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontaine Theater. We were so lucky to be gifted tickets to go see it. Amazing. Tim and I got to go.

We had great seats. This show is doing so well. They're selling out like every night. They're getting rave reviews. It is so much fun. It is so much fun. I highly, highly, highly recommend it for anyone that wants to get out there and go see a Broadway musical. Anyone who's in New York.

Which is a good thing to know that like, you know, if you're curious about horror and maybe a little too scared for a scary movie, this feels like a good little baby step. This is a perfect baby step. Perfect baby step. And also what's unique about this performance of Sweeney Todd, because there have been many different variations over the years and it is, I mean, it's a pretty horrific storyline. Um, so we're going to get into the plot pretty soon and you will see that the content, the themes are not pleasant. And I think that that would be actually quite frightening. A lot of this would be quite frightening if done in a more

intimate, small space. This show is like 25 people are in it. It's a 26-person orchestra. person orchestra. It's huge. It's big. It's vibrant. It feels like a whole experience. That's really, I mean, it's like sonically amazing. The music just comes right at you, but because it's so big, it makes it slightly less like terrifying, you know? Yeah. So especially for a big scaredy cat like me, it's very manageable. The Harry Potter effect, like those, uh, big production value we've talked about in horror movies also make them a little less scary. Exactly. Exactly. It makes a big difference. So also it's starring Josh Groban. Who can be scared of Josh Groban? But just a little bit about Sweeney Todd.

It's originally a 1979 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and based off of a book by Hugh Wheeler. And then that was based off of the 1970 play Sweeney Todd by Christopher Bond. And then the character itself of Sweeney Todd first appeared in a Victorian Penny Dreadful titled The String of Pearls. When it originally opened on Broadway in 1979, it won the Tony for Best Musical. This version that's on Broadway right now was directed by, or is directed by Thomas Kael, who also directed Hamilton. And Hamilton, by the way, is playing right across the street from this. So that was also fun. It was packed, you know, like it was like tons of people were there.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there's much else to say. There's also a movie starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter that I've never, have you ever seen that movie? I have seen it, but it's, I think I saw it in theaters. And so I don't really remember anything other than kind of something you could assume from hearing the title alone. Yeah. I'm excited to hear about it. title alone. Yeah. I'm excited to hear about it. This has been a really fun experience getting to read the reviews about it and getting to read more about Sweeney Todd. And I want to, I just wish that I had had the opportunity to go see more things. We're still pretty close. Greenwich is very close to New York. So I'm hopeful that we'll be able to, to keep going.

very close to New York. So I'm hopeful that we'll be able to, to keep going. So it's so much fun. Oh my God. And we have, we can't forget to mention the most important and most exciting part of all of this is that we actually got to talk to John Rapson who plays the beetle in the musical, which is such a great part. The beetle is like this slimy right-hand man of the like main villain. And he really put his own spin on it to make it stand out. I mean, he does such a good job and it was so much fun to get to talk to him about it, get a little behind the scenes information about making this musical and his experience doing it. And I can't, I can't imagine being on Broadway. I, it sounds so exhausting to me, but it was really, yeah, it was cool talking to him. And it just sounds like everyone that's on Broadway, it's like their dream. And so they

don't see, like, I was like, surely he'll be the most tired man in the world. And he's like, he wasn't at all. He was like, I love it. I'm invigorated by it. And so I love to hear it. And yeah, it was a great little conversation. So that'll be at the end of the episode. So make sure to stay tuned for that. Yeah. In the past few years, I have hit a point where I only want to be wearing clothes that are comfortable. It happened. It happened to me. But you know what, I still only want to be wearing clothes that are comfortable. It happened. It happened to me. But you know what? I still also want to look cute. And these are two desires that are often extremely opposing. And I don't want to have to sacrifice. I want both. I want comfort and I want to feel cute and confident. And guess what? Skims has freaking done it again with their

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diapers and wipes. Go to hellobello.com slash too scary to get 30% off your first customized bundle and a full-size freebie product of your choice. That's hellobello.com slash too scary to start bundling with 30% off your first order. Don't forget, that's hellobello.com slash too scary. Should I just hop right into the recap? Let's get into it, baby. Let's do it. Okay. I'm leaning back. I'm cracking my knuckles. I'm stretching my neck. I'm ready to go. So we open on mid 19th century London with a big song. It's everyone in the chorus, everyone in the cast. They are introducing us to Sweeney Todd. They're introducing us to the world of this musical. This, as I mentioned before, it's a 26 piece orchestra. This song is loud. It's intense. It's in your face.

Lots of strings. Some of them, not all of them, of the songs in this musical have been recorded by the cast and put on Spotify. So you can go look it up and listen to some of them. This opening song is one of the ones that's on there. So you can listen to it. And this is a dumb question, but Sweeney Todd himself is the character that was played by Johnny Depp, right? Yes. Yes.

And this is Josh Groban in this. Yes, exactly. So they're singing, attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. Okay, that's me singing. Oh, we got a taste. I will not be doing much more of it except to imitate Annalee Ashford as best I can later on. And they kind of haul Sweeney up from the ground and hurl him towards the audience. And this is Josh Groban. He is described in the opening song as having his skin was pale and his eye was odd. And that's really how he's put together. He is very pale.

He's looking very disheveled. He's looking angry at the world, really upset. And soon you will find out he has a very good reason to feel this way. He's just like sickly looking. But it's also Josh Groban. So he just stands up and sings like with the most insane voice you've ever heard. It just like penetrates through the walls. Um, so, so we meet him, we meet his friend, um, a young sailor, Anthony, who he's befriended

at sea because Sweeney, Josh Groban, Sweeney, he has just returned from 15 years in exile in Australia. Um, and he escaped and made it back to London and Anthony, his young friend, they kind of have like dual reactions to being in London. Anthony is like bright eyed, excited, hopeful, youthful, um, Sweeney downcast, angry, miserable, seeking like revenge on the world. And Anthony is played by Jordan Fisher, who happens to sing my favorite song on the Moana soundtrack. Ooh. A version of You're Welcome. You're Welcome's my favorite song.

Oh, my God. Okay, well, have you heard the, like, remix of it with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jordan Fisher? It's a banger. It's real good. Oh, my God. It's real good. It's going to be heading to Spotify after this. I know.

I know. I'm getting Rex left and right also this is so stupid but uh obviously his first name is sweeney but here you say it i realize that i've always assumed sweeney was like some sort of adjective to precede todd todd like he was like sleepy todd just now i've had the realization like oh duh like sweeney's not magic to him it's actually very confusing because in a lot of the reviews and things they describe they call him todd you know people refer to him as todd but like i maybe maybe todd feels. Like he's not a Todd. You know what I mean? He's a Sweeney. Yeah. I mean, the name is set up so that his name is Sweeney. That's what, yeah,

that makes the most sense. Sweeney Todd. What would Sweeney mean to you as an adjective? That's a great question. I think it sounds kind of like, um like aloof type of thing. I'm imagining someone that's a little disengaged and kind of not really paying attention to you when they talk because they're focused on something else and excited about something else. Interesting. That's a Sweeney person if I've ever. Oh, you just invented a new adjective. You invented it here on the spot. That's impressive. Add it to the

dictionary. That's really, really funny that you just put that together. Okay. So Jordan Fisher plays this character, Anthony. Jordan Fisher was also in Hamilton and he was also in Dear Evan Hansen. So he was, he's fucking phenomenal. And then, oh, another fun fact about Jordan Fisher, because I was looking him up while doing this. He married his childhood sweetheart at Disney World. So that's the most lighthearted news you're going to hear for the rest of the podcast. Because things just really go downhill. Soak it up, folks.

Things go really downhill from here. downhill from here. So Sweeney tells Anthony a little bit about his troubled past before he was in Australia. He was a naive barber who was sent away on false charges by a corrupt judge who basically just wanted to screw his wife. And also I should mention 80% of this is in song but like i cannot sing to you and sure i will be you know talking about some songs specifically but i'm going to try to just keep it as like a plot as much as possible great so sweeney and anthony they part ways sweeney goes to a meat pie shop, which is located on Fleet Street. And there we meet Annalee Ashford, aka Mrs. Lovett. This is the character that was originally played by Angela Lansbury in the 1979 production, and then Helena Bonham Carter in the movie. Annalee Ashford shines. She is the star of the show. Yeah. Josh Groban. He's great. He's great too. But Annalee Ashford is so funny. The accent she does is insane. Insane. This 18th century,

19th century Cockney London. I can't fuck. I wish I could do it. I wish I could do. Insane. This 18th century, 19th century Cockney London. I can't. Fuck, I wish I could do it. I wish I could do it so badly and I can't. You guys just need to look it up. We recently did Tusk, which Henley was very happy to miss. And if you can believe it, Johnny Depp is in that movie. He is?

I was shocked. What? And he does the craziest accent in it as well. That's like French Canadian. I described it as French Canadian, but also sounds like Heath Ledger's Joker. It's very bizarre. It's one of the craziest accents I've ever heard. And I, too, wish that I could do the accent.

And so I feel your pain right now of wanting to get it. I want to do it so badly. If you just listen to the songs, you can hear it. Yeah, you can Google Johnny Depp and Tusk. Also, that's on YouTube as well. The other one that was so funny was John Boyd's accent in Anaconda. Oh my god, that was a great one. That was such a bad one. This one at least makes sense and is it is a real kind of like historical there's a time and place for this accent it's the same one that Helena Bonham Carter does it's the same one but Annaleigh Ashford just oh she fucking nails it man and she's

so her comedic timing she plays the character usually Mrsett, um, is kind of this zany, bigger than life, extra kind of almost like caricature, a slapstick character. Yeah. She doesn't play it like that. She plays it way more straight and way more dry, but because she plays it smaller, I feel like when she goes big, it's, it's just really effective and really funny. And her physical comedy is insane. She's throwing herself around the room. She's throwing herself downstairs. She's like, she's doing it all. Um, so anyway, so this is where we meet her. She's amazing. The first song she sings is The Worst Pies in London. We find out how disgusting her pies are. She talks about, I wanted to quote this. Sorry, I don't know whether this is worth quoting, but in the song, she says, Mrs. Mooney has a pie shop, does a business, but I noticed something weird. Lately, all her neighbor's cats have disappeared.

I have to hand it to her. What's I call enterprise popping pussies into pies. Wouldn't do it in my shop. Just the thought of it's enough to make you sick. And I'm telling you them pussy cats is quick. It's like really gross. Popping pussies into pies. Popping pussies into pies. Enterprise popping pussies into pies. Popping pussies into pies. Enterprise popping pussies into pies.

Incredible. Yeah, so she's great. But Sweeney, he's not interested in the pies. This is not why he's shown up. These are disgusting pies. She's told us herself. She's interested in the empty apartment upstairs. Mrs. Lovett tells him that the former tenant, Benjamin Barker, was sent away for life

based on false charges by Judge Turpin. Is that the same judge? She tells this whole story about how Judge Turpin and his very creepy right-hand man, Beetle, aka John Rapson, who we talk to later, wanted to fuck Barker's wife. So they shipped him away. This is a horny judge. Yeah. They shipped him away, and then they lured his wife over to Turpin's house and raped her and made her go, like the experience made her go kind of crazy.

And apparently they assaulted her at a masked ball and it's implied that everyone at the ball kind of like watches and laughs while it happens that's what she implies horrifying it's awful this is awful news Sweeney by his reaction to it reveals that he's Benjamin Barker. So he's the guy. So yeah, so he's, this is his wife that this has happened to. He didn't know this, of course, because he was sent away on these false charges. So he's escaped and come back to try to find his wife. And so now Mrs. Lovett is telling him, no, she this terrible thing happened. She went crazy because of it and that she killed herself afterwards by drinking arsenic, leaving their one year old daughter behind. So they had a one year old daughter that then the judge took in as his ward. daughter that then the judge took in as his ward so now Sweeney's 16 year old daughter is living at this judge's house um and his wife has killed herself and he's like obviously Like, obviously, already having a bad time.

This news is not good news. No, no. He is fucking angry. I'm guessing we're going to be out for some revenge. Yes, he is very, very, very, very, very angry. So he swears revenge on the judge. and this is when mrs lovett reveals that she's actually kept benjamin barker sweeney's all of his old razors from when he was a barber before and um clearly you're getting the sense that mrs lovett has had a thing for him for a while because okay because she's like really excited for him to

stay at the house stay in this apartment She's saved his razors. Who does that? And she, the way she was talking about Benjamin Barker, she was like, clearly had the hots for him. So Mrs. Lovett's thrilled. Meanwhile, Anthony, our young friend, Anthony, he spots Johanna, who is Sweeney's daughter. He spots her singing through a window and clearly she's kind of almost held captive by this judge. She's like not able to. She's not looking like happy. No, no. And Anthony falls in love with her and pledges that he's going to return for her and break her out of her little judge prison. Then after this, we get our first song with, you guys, this really threw me for a loop. I did not know this was going to happen, but

Dustin from Stranger Things is in this goddamn musical. He's rocking in it and he kills it. He is so good. Dustin from Stranger Things better have a long goddamn career ahead of him. His name is, I don't know whether it's pronounced. I think it's Gaten Matarazzo, maybe Gaten Matarazzo. He who plays Dustin Henderson in Stranger Things, who's my favorite character in Stranger Things. Who knew he could sing and dance as well as he can? He's like the beating heart of this show. He is so good.

He's so, so, so good. How old is he? That's a good question. He's... He's 20. He's 20. Wow. That's crazy. I don't know why that just shocked me. I was thinking this child shouldn't be performing on Broadway. That schedule is too intense for a small child. Well, when did Stranger Things first came out? In like 2016? So he would have been 13 when it started.

That makes sense. This adds up. Yeah. He plays, the character he plays is not supposed to be 20. The character he plays is supposed to be like 13, probably. He's supposed to play like a more of a child character and when we meet him he is working as the assistant to this flamboyant italian barber

named pirelli and they're kind of pitching they're doing a very fun pitch for a cure-all for hair loss. Of course, this is a scam. Of course, it's not real. Sweeney kind of comes across this big, showy production and exposes the elixir as a sham and then challenges this other barber to a shaving competition. Oh. Because he wants to establish himself as the barber to go to in town. This is part of his strategy to lure the judge to his shop, um, so that he can murder him. And, uh, so he challenges this guy to a bar, a barber showdown which is such a funny concept um and he wins everyone's very impressed and it works uh the judge notices he's he sees this happening in the town square and he's like oh i need to go to this barber shop to right we're not recognizing him because he looks so he looks so different

it's been 15 years he's lived a thousand lives over there in australia so no one's recognizing anyone um somehow in this judge and beetle are chatting and we find out that the judge plans to marry Johanna we probably saw this coming but even when it happened I was like fuck that is so fucked up because she's like 16 and he's probably like 75 is he her legal guardian yeah he's her legal guardian? Yeah, he's her legal guardian. That's presumably, yeah, like raised her from age one. Yeah. I can't wait till freaking Sweeney gets his hands on this guy. Yeah, exactly. So I'm like imagining him as Edward Scissorhands still, even though it's just like because of the Johnny Depp Association and the and the Blades and this competition.

I'm like picturing Sweeney Todd as having scissor hands. That honestly works. That's a good, except put real hands where the scissors would go. And then you basically got it. And scissors in the hands. Scissors in the hands rather than scissors as the hands. Got it. Which would be kind of a fun, is that a fun murder weapon?

Have scissor hands. I mean, it's not dissimilar to Wolverine. I know, that's what I can think of it. Your other favorite. And Freddy Krueger, who I feel like you also were coveting his little knife gloves at one point. Yeah, what is that? What is that with me? I don't know.

I like having it on my person at all times. And there's no chance of dropping it. I just don't trust myself. Having the weapon be an extension of your body. I can see the appeal in that. Yeah, 100%. So Anthony figures out that Johanna is Sweeney's daughter. And he tells Sweeney that he plans to go get her from the judge's house. He plans to elope with her. And Sweeney's like, great. Come to the shop as a safe house before you leave. And Anthony agrees.

And so he goes off to go get Johanna. Meanwhile, Pirelli, the flamboyant Italian barber, and Toby, that's the name of Gatton Matt Dorazzo, aka Dustin from Stranger Things. His character's name is Toby. They come into the shop and Mrs. Lovett takes Toby downstairs to eat something, leaving Pirelli and Sweeney alone. This is when we find out that Pirelli is really not Italian at all. He drops his little accent. He's really Daniel O'Higgins. And he's Sweeney's former assistant.

And he recognized Sweeney as being Benjamin Barker. assistant. And he recognized Sweeney as being Benjamin Barker. And he basically blackmails him and is like, I'm going to fucking tell everyone who you really are and that you escaped wrongfully, unless you give me half of your income for the rest of your life. Sweeney put in this situation kills him. He slits his throat with one of his razors and hides his body in a bench. So up until this point, I don't think Sweeney had really been planning on killing anyone besides the judge and maybe the Beatle. So this is like a little bit of a turning point where he's like committed this murder that was a little bit unplanned. Does he seem like he liked it?

I think that he seems pretty comfortable. He seemed pretty comfortable with it. Yeah. Yep. So Mrs. Lovett, she finds out that Sweeney has committed this murder. Sweeney has committed this murder. She freaks out a little bit. She swipes, but she's also, you know, a resourceful woman who doesn't, you know, she's not going to let opportunity go to waste. The first thing she does is obviously swipe his coin purse and then is like, what are we going to do about this body? But before they can really get into it, the judge enters the shop. This is what Sweeney's been waiting for. And so Sweeney has the judge in his chair. They're chatting. Sweeney's about to kill him. But before he can,ony runs into the shop and blurts out his whole like elopement plan and says

that it's not working or basically reveals it by accident in front of the judge and this is really fucks things up because he like hears that this is happening the judge immediately gets up storms out to go make sure joh is still trapped in her little castle. And Sweeney drives Anthony out because he's so angry at him for fucking up his whole plan. And basically, this little dynamic, this whole event, this combination of events, him killing the first guy, Anthony fucking up the elopement plan, him not being able to seek revenge on the judge. This drives Sweeney kind of insane. He has like a fit of madness. He feels like he's reminded of how people are just evil.

And he resolves to depopulate the city by murdering every customer who comes in to the shop. That is, yeah, quite a big decision. It's a really big decision. It's a really big decision. He decides that he needs to put everyone out of their misery. This is through a song called epiphany and it's him realizing that like basically everyone needs to be punished for all their wicked deeds and he's the one who's gonna do it so mrs love it meanwhile is still freaking out

about prelly's body like what the hell are we gonna do with this fucking dead body? And she's struck by a sudden idea and suggests that they use Sweeney's victims in her meat pies. And they sing a very funny song called A Little Priest. That's all about eating humans and meat pies. all about eating humans and meat pies. And Mrs. Lovett, she starts out the song by being like, seems a downright shame. Such an awful waste. Such a nice plump frame. What's his name? Oh my God. Oh my God. It's so good. It's so good. No more putting pussies in pies. No more putting pussies in pies no more putting pussies in pies they're gonna fucking put humans in pies and um they're really enjoying themselves they are

laughing uproariously at the thought of this and there's a lot of fun wordplay happening in this song a little priest is a very fun song and that is how Act One ends. So that's the end of Act One. And now we have a 15-minute intermission. Everyone can get up. You can go get your Skittles. You can go get your drink of choice. This is, I didn't get to participate in the drinking that was happening.

But, well, the drinks are outrageously expensive, of course. However, they, you can drink them at your seat and they give them to you in a really fun little cup. A souvenir cup. Yeah. And you can get like a, whatever kind of booze you're interested in, you know, like a. Nice. I'm pretty sure Tim got like a double doers on the rocks and had a little sip of scotch, little scotch sipping experience for the entire musical,

which looked very fun from far away. I had some peanut M&Ms. I love a peanut M&M. Me too. So intermission is over. We're back in the musical. It's act two. It's act two.

And business is booming, baby. People are loving these human meat pies. They are lining up around the block. You would think that word would get out about the barbershop aspect of it pretty quickly. How big is this town? It's London, so it's pretty big. Oh, okay. But I agree. I mean, I guess it's before social media, so no one's tweeting this shit out. But I completely agree that it would be a little suspicious if like everyone who went to this barbershop. Never came out.

Doesn't return. Yeah, I feel like the second a detective is put on that case, it's like, oh, well. This is it. The last place they all went was the barbershop. So, you know, I always say I'd be a terrible detective. Even I think I could crack that one. You would definitely crack it. However, the police force is pretty corrupt in this town. No one's actually trying to solve real problems. They're just gobbling up those pies. They're distracted by the delicious human pies.

They're getting so many calories, they don't even know what to do with themselves. You know, Sweeney now has a special mechanical barber chair that allows him to just quickly kill a client, slit their throat, and then kind of pull a lever and send their bodies directly down a chute through to the Pies shop's basement bakehouse. This is very fun to see how they construct this. He's like up on stage on the top and you see it happen. I mean, he literally pulls a lever this person somehow they drop them down through a chute and like they end up in an oven some stunts in this in this musical full stunts full stunts and uh he's just fucking killing people left and right it's become so normal it's practically boring and rote at this point um this is a funny decision they made they all they make sweet like they make

thomas kale makes a decision to have josh groban become almost like a suburban dad like all of a sudden in the sense that he's like just doing this all the time and like kind of just going through the motions and like a little bit depressed. And I'm not saying all suburban dads are this way, but you know what I mean? Like it's become so everyday. Yeah. Mrs. Lovett is in love with Sweeney. And she's giddy about the upturn at her shop. She sings a really funny, jaunty song about going to the seaside with Sweeney. And Sweeney's just not into it. He's like giving half-hearted

replies. He's like, you know, he's not reciprocating her interest, but he's, you know, he has a nice life. He's fine with it things are things are going okay but he's depressed because he's given up on trying to find Johanna and he doesn't know what the hell to do did the judge move Johanna is she not yeah so she's been moved and they they've been looking for her and they can't find her they can can't find her. Yeah. Sorry. I should clarify that. So he feels kind of hopeless, but meanwhile, Anthony discovers Johanna. He finds her. He finds her. She's been locked up in an insane asylum by the judge and the beatle. And he goes to Sweeney and he's like, I found her. I need to help her. I'm going to set her free. And Sweeney's reinvigorated by this news. And he gets this idea that Anthony should rescue his daughter by posing as a wig maker who wants to purchase the inmate's hair. so Anthony's like great I'll do it no problem he and when he leaves Sweeney sends a letter to the judge telling him that Anthony is going to go do this and bring Johanna back to his shop

and he does that to lure the judge to his shop he wants to lure him over there but he also kind of throws Anthony under the bus by doing this too. Yeah. I mean, he's probably still pretty mad at him from the fuck up. I think he is a little still mad. So, oh, next. Okay. Next we get the most heartbreaking song you've ever heard in your whole life. Sung by Dustin from Stranger Things. It is. It is so I was like crying watching this. It's called Not While I'm Around.

And Mrs. Lovett has taken him in since Pirelli's just, you know, disappeared. He didn't have a job anymore. Mrs. Lovett has taken him in. He's been an assistant in their meat shop. He has no idea a job anymore. Mrs. Lovett has taken him in. He's been an assistant in their meat shop. He has no idea about what's going on. She's been kind of like a mother to him and they've created a really special, cute bond together. She's always like feeding him. I mean, they're human pies, but you know, it's sweet the intention is is nice yes but you can tell that toby can sense that there's something kind of fucked up going on he just doesn't know what it is and he sings a song

to her um where he's like no one's gonna hurt you no one's gonna dare other others can desert you not to worry i'll be there like not while i'm around like this very like imagine like an 11 year old boy singing this to someone except a 20 year old man yeah okay can you stop it use your imagination he's supposed to be young supposed to be like a little kid after the song toby notices that mrs lovett has pirelli's coin purse and he's like he's like why do you have this and he gets confused and starts asking questions about why he knows probably wouldn't have left it there um he would have come back for it and before he can ask too many questions she brings brings him down into the, she's like, okay, I'm going to show you something I've never shown you before.

I'm going to show you how to work the meat grinder to try to distract him and brings him down into the basement and locks him in. So he's locked now in the basement. And when she gets back upstairs, she finds Beetle wandering around. Apparently, people are starting to notice. And it's not that people are missing. It's that the neighbors think that it smells funny. Ew.

So she, he's like, I need to look around. I need to go. Where do you do your baking? Blah, blah, blah. Obviously, she doesn't want him to see any of this. So she's distracting him, delaying him, waiting until Sweeney can get back. And finally, Sweeney does get back. Sweeney tells him he's going to give him the best shave of his life.

Beetle is like in it. He's like, great. I want the best shave of my life. Yeah, cool. Down for this. They go upstairs. Fucking kills him. But this time when he pulls the lever, body goes shooting down.

Guess who's in the basement to see the body fly right out? Oh, bummer. Toby. Toby. It's at this point that Mrs. Lovett is like, Toby's in the basement and he now knows our secret. So we have to kill him. So yeah, pretty fucked up.

Toby doesn't seem like we could get him on board with it yeah it feels to me like you should work on get him getting him on board before you just go straight to murder but clearly murdering has become so easy to them like in nature but this song they just sang to each other because she was singing it back to him she was like did this song mean nothing did the song mean nothing this is what i'm asking this is these are the tough questions that steven sondheim is asking is did the song mean nothing that's really okay so now we're nearing now we're nearing the end where things are things are really ramping up i'm just gonna hit you with a with you with a wall of happenings right now.

So Anthony and Johanna have escaped the insane asylum. She's now disguised, Johanna is now disguised as a sailor. When they get there, the shop is empty. And because I guess Mrs. Leavitt and Sweeney, I can't remember exactly where they are, but they're not in the shop. And there's been a, I should mention, this is important. There's been a beggar woman floating around this entire production. She has, um, she's made some comments. She's done some inappropriate things. She doesn't look great. She's got a crazy hair situation. She's all stooped. She's saying lots of inappropriate things. So the beggar woman enters the shop as well. And Johanna hears the beggar woman come in

and hides in the trunk in the barbershop to avoid her. The Beggar Woman now is alone in the shop. And she starts to sing a song called Beggar Woman's Lullaby, which kind of implies that maybe she recognizes the room a little bit. Maybe she's been there before. And then Sweeney enters and he's like, what the fuck are you doing in here? Like, get the F out. She seems to recognize him um sweeney hears the judge though is coming to the shop he can hear him outside and so he's

frantic and he kills the beggar woman no i think i know who the beggar woman might be he kills the beggar woman sends her down the sends her body down the chute just a moment before the judge bursts in where's anthony anthony left he went to go find um transportation for them he was like i need to go find some way for us to like leave this place so anthony's not around um okay so sweeney assures the judge that Johanna is repentant and like, he's basically trying to lure him into get, get him up into the chair. So Sweeney's able to kind of soothe him into it. Another conversation about women, how women are so difficult, blah, blah, blah. And, um, there's something that he says,

I can't remember exactly what he says, but there's a moment where the judge is sitting in the chair and he looks at him and he realizes he's Benjamin Barker. And he's like, you're fucking Benjamin Barker. And right as he realizes it, Sweeney slits his throat, sends him down into hurtling through the chute. So Toby in the basement now has had three bodies come hurtling down that chute. There are a lot of things happening. There are a lot of things happening for Toby down there in the basement. I think he's having a bit of a, um, bit of a mental breakdown down there. He's locked in there. He's having a lot of realizations at once. And Johanna's in the barber room. Yes. Johanna, meanwhile, has been hiding throughout all of this. And Sweeney, he's starts to leave to go find Toby, but then he remembers that he forgot his razors.

So he turns around to come back and catches Johanna coming out of her hiding spot. And, um, he doesn't recognize her and cause she's dressed as a sailor and he tries to kill her. But this is, but this is just as Mrs. Lovett shrieks from the bakehouse below, which provides a distraction for Johanna to escape. And then Mrs. Lovett downstairs is attempting to drag the beggar woman's body into the oven. But Sweeney arrives right as she's doing that and is able to really like see the beggar woman clearly and oh no yes here we go yes it's what you thought I didn't know this I was shocked I was like shocked at this point you would think that I would have put this together but I wasn't trying to like solve any mysteries here you know what I mean I was just kind of taking it as I came so

when this was revealed to me I was like are you fucking kidding me so devastated beggar woman is his wife who had not killed herself after all mrs. Lovett fucking lied about that shit she lied about it because she was in love with Sweeney Todd and wanted him all to herself. And she did poison herself technically, but all it did was make her kind of go insane. And she became like a homeless person. So Mrs. Lovett tries to explain herself to Sweeney. She tries to get out of it. He doesn't seem like the type to have rational conversations.

And I mean, you know, she did a bad thing. She did a bad thing. She did a really bad thing. So Sweeney kind of feigns, feigns some forgiveness. And then they do this crazy dance together, forgiveness and then they do this crazy dance together but uh it's just so he can get her into the oven and he hurls her right right into the fucking toby still down there yep so uh toby's down there sweeney is um i don't know what toby's been doing this whole time but Sweeney is embracing the dead beggar woman his wife crying over her body um Toby is like turned insane I think during this experience a lot of people turning insane in this musical a lot of things bad things have happened um he is like babbling to himself. He sees Mrs. Lovett's dead.

He is not okay. So while Sweeney is cradling his wife crying, Toby picks up his razor and goes behind Sweeney and slits Sweeney's throat. Wow. Killing him. And as he dies, Toby drops the razor. The cycle of violence continues. We've passed it down to Toby. As he drops the razor, Anthony, Johanna, and some police officers break into the bakehouse and Toby just ignoring them begins turning the meat grinder and um singing Mrs. Lovett's previous instructions to him about how to use it and that's the end of the musical wow what do we think happens to Toby? Is Toby going to go to prison? A little 13-year-old prison like Chucky and Childs, or what's his name in Childs play? I think that at this time in London, they were sending anyone to prison.

You could be five years old, they'll put you in prison, right? They didn't care about me. There are no child labor laws. There's no child prison laws. Poor Toby. Wow. It's very Shakespearean. Mm hmm. What a true tragedy. It's really not an uplifting story at the end of the day, despite the songs being very fun and the musical itself being very fun and the dancing being very fun it's um and funny it's such a fucked up story it's actually so fucked up yeah it's probably worse to hear about this way than see although the end is hard to watch because toby's really been put through the ringer you know he's like not doing well yeah it's hard to see that and the end is really sad and it's

josh groban it's josh groban so he just does know, he makes it. He has a sadness about him. He's a sadness in those eyes. Yeah, this is sad. I feel I feel sad. Was there anything about it that surprised you? Um, I am surprised by Toby killing him in the end. I didn't I didn't see that coming. I thought for sure it was going to be Sweeney killing Toby and then Joanna walking in at that moment and just being like, well, my dad is a monster. Him being like, I'm your dad. And her being like, get away from me. That would have worked, too. That would have been a good ending.

I guess Anthony and Joanna, like maybe they have a happy ending. Maybe they can run off together now, actually. Oh, yeah. Anthony. Anthony lived. I'm surprised by that as well. Anytime he came in, I was like, well, this is it for Anthony. No, no, no.

He lived. And he gets the girl. Yeah. He saved her from the insane asylum. He tried to save her from the judge. Really fucked that up. But yeah. So maybe it is a happy from the judge. Really fucked that up. But yeah. So maybe it is a happy ending, actually.

There's happy parts. Just like life. Some things work out and some things don't. But this is Stephen Sondheim is pretty, pretty fucked up. Pretty dark character, I'd say. Has a pretty like dark point of view on humans and the performances in this again i just can't say enough john robson the place beetle he does i don't even know how to describe it he like makes he this character could be played in so many different ways

and he makes him into kind of a fop, like an evil fop, which is a very interesting take. And it's really hard to recap a musical because I am not doing any of it justice because the singing and the music is sensational. So you just got the plot line, but like, man, it's worth it to see it in person. I hope I get to go to New York and see it. It would be really fun. I think it's running for a while, right? There's no end date announced yet.

I don't think so. Well, actually, that's a really good question. Let's confirm that right now. So they have tickets through January 14th right now. So we could say we got some time. Yeah. I'm not sure if they would, they would probably, they would probably extend it, you know, if it's still doing, I'm sure it's going to still be doing really well. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hopefully I get to see it.

And if you are in the New York area or, or visiting added to to your list I'm like very intrigued by the idea of a horror musical I mean it's like a fun entry point for people who are scared of horror movies to go to to go to a musical to maybe make it easier to digest but it's also a fun entry point for me who like loves horror movies but it doesn't really like musicals. It's like a fun entry point for me into musicals and it works both ways. It's genre bending. That's right. I highly recommend it. Yeah. If you're in New York, get tickets, do the lottery. If you can't afford tickets because tickets are kind of pricey. I did the lottery once for hamilton and i won and i was out of town for the date and i was like motherfucker i can't go and so i had to forfeit them i was so mad it wasn't the original hamilton it was it was here in la but still i was i was mad so i have

not seen it dang well and also one thing i will say about this theater is it feels like there's not really any bad seats in this theater is it feels like there's not really any bad seats in this theater. Like it feels like a good theater to see the show. And on the music is just so good no matter what. But yeah, it's such a good time. Have go have a Broadway evening, you know, go to dinner, get some drinks. Doesn't want to do that. That's so get your playbill signed afterwards. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Who doesn't want to do that? That's so... Get your playbill signed afterwards.

Wait backstage. Oh my God. It sounds wonderful. Henley, this was great. I feel like you did an amazing job. I was riveted and I really do want to see this. It's really good. And now I guess just stay tuned for our interview with John Rapson and enjoy. John Rapson, welcome to Too Scary Didn't Watch. We're so excited to

have you. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. I'm starstruck. I love your podcast. No way. I'm starstruck. I had the pleasure of seeing you play Beatle Bamford in Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Lunt-Fontaine Theater in New York a few weeks ago. And I was truly blown away by the performance. And I'm so excited to talk to you about it. But before we get into those questions, I'd love to ask you just in general, what's your relationship to horror movies? Do you love them? Do do you hate them how do you feel about them well i know this is an audio medium but you're but for people listening like i'm wearing a john carpenter shirt right now and i have haunted mansion posters behind me and it's a pretty normal uh pretty normal occurrence in my life yeah it's it's

horror everything that goes bump in the night is sort of my favorite thing. And specifically an interesting thing we'll talk about with Sweeney, but horror theater has always been a real passion project for me too. But yeah, I mean, it probably started with Margaret Hamilton in The Wizard of Oz scaring the living hell out of me when I was a little kid. And I think in order to not be terrified of her, I just thought like, well, I want to be her. I want to be like, I want to make the way that she's making me feel. I want to make other people feel that way. So I started, I built haunted houses in my basement that I made my poor parents walk through

and you know, all, all kinds of stuff along those lines. I was a real kind of spooky kid, but I was also still, I was terrified of it too. Like I remember seeing the Disney Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which is still to this day. It's literally like my favorite thing. I have a one person Legend of Sleepy Hollow show that I've actually written. And it's like, and Sleepy Hollow is, is, is kind of my horror Rosetta Stone. But I saw that way too early.

And I was mortified. But also, I was just completely in love. And that's kind of how it developed. With some things like that, riding the Haunted Mansion at Disney World, seeing Jaws, all those things that eventually just turned me into a full vampire. Horror head. Yeah, exactly. That is so fun.

I love this. This coping mechanism is inspiring. I love horror movies, but I feel like I kind of get exponentially more scared in haunted houses when it's like a real experience and like a physical person jumping out at me. I like can't handle it. So I'm, I'm inspired by you to hear that you are, that you are scared, but you still do it.

The definition of courage. I'm terrified in those things. I am be like, I push other people in front of me, you know, people who are like, you're the one who wanted to do this. But like, but I just, I love it so much. And that's why you guys are so, you guys are so handy in my life because my girlfriend is, wouldn't see a horror film to save her life. Right. So to, to, to listen to the way that you so elegantly recap is because often I will say, so say, what did you see today

I went to see this and then I'll start to describe the plot and there there'll be that moment where it's like and then what okay here we go that's how this whole thing started is that Sammy needed to satiate my deep curiosity about these horror movies

without having to see them man we've had some tough ones recently though and i am regretting this decision we're at our like we're uh just had our 200th episode and so it's like we i've taken off the training wheels now and i feel like we did we did martyrs we're gonna do it i was about to say did you do martyrs or speak no evil or something? Yeah, speak no evil. We do act like no evil. Speak no evil haunts me. I think about it probably several times a day still. Speak no evil is so unbelievably appalling, but like so amazing.

I think the thing that is so great about speak no evil is like how weirdly funny it is too. And then it gets you at the end, you know. It's a full baseball bat to the solar plexus at the end but like man there's some good laughs in the in in the middle yeah i compared it to funny games in that way too where and which i also find funny henley and emily don't find it funny they're not finding those laughs and then he looks into the camera and he winks isn't that great I think Emily was screaming in anger

at that part he's like no it's not funny at all so Henley Sweeney Todd must have been the perfect sort of like it's like macabre but it's not like it's not like utterly horrifying right no no and I feel like also this this version, it is scary.

It's definitely scary. But I think with, you know, the 26 piece orchestra and all I think there are 25 people on stage. It feels bigger and more lush in a way that I think kind of removes like a smaller cast, a more bare bones, smaller theater. I can imagine that retelling of it would be like spookier but this really get the full like gore and kind of the theatrical feeling of it which is this one amazing it kind of it's funny because i did the i i this is my third time doing the show and i did it at um i did it at barrow street too which was this kind of famous off-broadway production that took place in a pie shop and that one was that one was third time doing the show and I did it at um I did it at Barrow Street too which was this kind of famous off-Broadway production that took place in a pie shop and that one was that one was easier

to scare people because you could literally jump out at them right you were it was like a haunted house combined with a show but this one has this sort of I often compare it to like a universal horror film like it's it's shadowy and almost like seems black and white at times. And it's like kind of like it's grand and gothic and spooky in a sort of different way. And I kind of love that it can exist in all those worlds. It was so good. I also had such good seats and I felt so lucky to be like front and center. I'm so jealous. I wish I was in New York. If I come to New York, you better believe I'm going to come see it.

Yeah, please come. Yeah. But OK, so for anyone that isn't familiar with Sweeney Todd and I'll be doing a full recap. But, John, I'd love to hear from you if you could do your best to kind of explain what the show is about for anyone that's uninformed. Sure. Okay. The quick version is basically this guy, Benjamin Barker, is a sort of lovely middle-class barber living a nice life. We never really see this. We just hear about it. And these two horrible men, one of whom I play, are sort of after his wife, and they do very bad things,

and they sentence him to transportation, which was a popular, I guess, a popular sentence. It was either death penalty or transportation for like capital crimes. And so they sent him to Australia. He escapes after 15 years. He comes back. He's changed his name to Sweeney Todd. He comes back. He's changed his name to Sweeney Todd. And he is on a quest for revenge against these guys. And he goes back to his old barbershop where the the baker who lives underneath the barbershop, who had always sort of been had a crush on him, Mrs. Lovett, takes him in, tells him about all the terrible things that happened after he left.

takes him in, tells him about all the terrible things that happened after he left. And after a series of sometimes very funny and sometimes very tragic events, his sort of bloodthirstiness for killing the judge and the Beatle, who I play, Beatle basically being like a constable or an alderman or something, turns into like a worldwide bloodlust that everybody who is, who comes into the shop deserves to die because the world is a horrible, unfair place. And he basically becomes a serial killer and she assists him by disposing of the bodies in the meat pies, which she makes underneath the shop.

Delicious. Sounds like a ton of fun, right? But it actually is. It's, it's, it's just as much, it's just as much a comedy as it sort of is a high melodrama, um, horrific show. And, um, there are a bunch of in sort of the classic way that it's, it's based on an old Penny Dreadful, which was almost like what, uh, you know, uh, uh, uh, uh, tabloid magazine. And so there were, there's all these like crazy and amazing plot twists that occur throughout the, uh, throughout the show with, um, uh,

people who are people that you don't expect them to be and, uh, and all kinds of stuff. So no spoilers, but that's essentially the, the convoluted, my convoluted way of describing Sweeney Todd, which I don't think feels convoluted when you see it. No, not at all. And Stephen Sondheim called it a horror musical. And what was it like working on a show with that much gore? How was that?

I mean, you've worked on other Sweeney Todd performances before, but how is this one different? Well, this one is a lot bloodier than the other ones that I've done. We had a special effects consultant who came in and sort of uh sort of assisted with um the blood and the uh the chair uh sweeney has a has a trick barber chair that allows him to easily pass his victims into the basement where the meat grinder is and And seeing how that all worked on this huge grand epic scale was so, so, so cool. And in other versions that I've done,

I've done one version that was sort of medium size. It was actually how I got my equity card. I did it at Barrington stage. And yeah, we did a, we had a chair and we had some blood. And then I did this version of Barrow street, which was very small and was a little bit more, even though it was super scary, it was a little bit more symbolic in the way that it did the murders. And then this where, you know, at the end of every show, I have to figure out how spoiler alert, but I have to figure out how to get a bunch of blood off me at the end of the show. Yes. Is that a real pain? is that actually hard to do

it's not actually so bad the irony is that what takes it off easiest is shaving cream so so yeah so i end up sort of a reverse yeah exactly sort of a reverse situation i end up covered in shaving cream post-show every day oh my God. That makes me think about how this role is so physical and there's so much singing in this show. How do you maintain your voice, your health throughout all of this doing so many performances every week? You know, it's so well written that it, it really, the, the, the music guides you, the music kind of teaches you how to sing it. It is a, it is really rangy. It is a really intense show to sing sometimes, but it was also such an unbelievable pleasure to have music and lyrics like

this. I mean, I think Stephen Sondheim is, is the great composer, the great American composer of the 20th century, really. And, and this is, this has always been my favorite musical. and so to do a score like this a score that um borrows from from opera and borrows from uh bernard herman who you know wrote the score to psycho and so you you get all these great kind of thriller musical cues it is as difficult as it is it never ever ever ceases to be anything but a pleasure and that is it's it's just um it's such an odd thing to say that like because it's so much fun to sing it's easier to sing but that is true i mean and there is an element sondheim was sort of famously a um he loved in his in his free time he loved puzzles he loved he loved puzzles and games in his free time, he loved puzzles. He loved, he loved puzzles and games. And the score sometimes feels like putting together a puzzle.

Sometimes it feels like, like doing a spelling bee or math live in front of people because the, um, harmonies and the, the sort of eccentricities of the lyrics are so complex, but that means that your brain is always turned on. And that means that there's no way that you can sort of back foot your your your way into this show. And man, that's a gift compared to, you know, a lot of a lot of what we get to do some of the time to work on material like this is really, really a joy. Performing live is so terrifying to me. I can't imagine doing it all the time. Um, and because

it's, especially because it's so complex, something I would think about as, as anything gone wrong in any of the performances. Oh, sure. Sure. We've had a, you know, every once in a while, the, the chair has misbehaved a little. Um, and, um, we've had, we've had to do some interesting contingencies. You know, sometimes the other day, I hope I'm not telling stories out of school, but I think they'd be okay with this. The other day, Jamie, who plays the judge, who is, you know, sort of the big bad of the show. I don't think it's a terrible spoiler

knowing what we've told everybody the show is about to say that he gets his comeuppance in the show. I don't think it's a terrible spoiler knowing what we've told everybody the show is about to say that he gets his comeuppance in the end and the other day his blood which is contained inside of the apron that Sweeney puts on the victims in the middle of their song right before he kills him the blood just started

exploding out of him and you know what like the two of them handled it so well. They were just like, well, what can you do? You know? And, and you know what? The audience, like nobody laughed, like nobody, like they just kind of, because everybody was so into the story at that point.

But boy, everybody, we were all laughing afterwards. I mean, it was just so, you know, he, he said, he said, I looked down and I was like, as an audience member, I think you always assume it's supposed to be happening. At least for me, you're like, they must've thought that the, they need the blood to come earlier. For some reason, this was meaningful in a way. A% trust. Yeah. Absolutely. If you've gone at that point at the end of the show, if you've gone two and a half hours with us, you're like, okay, whatever.

Your version of Beetle Bamford is absolutely horrifying by the way. So scary. You play the judge who's kind of like the arch villain. You play his right hand man. What was it like for you kind of imagining your own version on a super well-known character? How did you come up with that? and through my love of especially older Hammer films and kind of older British movies where there were these characters,

these unbelievably corrupt villains who sort of, it's kind of this like very enjoyable archetype for me. And then the idea was you take that and you put this sort of exquisite writing on it and you get to reveal more of him in that archetype uh he's he's this awful person but he's also really really really funny and like and and and that's the other thing is that he's like like it's it's an interesting thing to be to be a heavy while also being a comic, a bit of comic relief too. And kind of playing with that in it, again, the material just giving you so much. And, you know,

there are references in there from things that like Vincent price and, and Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone, like those kinds of guys, stuff they did. But then there Rathbone, like those kinds of guys, stuff they did. But then there's also like, like I always say, one of my biggest influences is Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons. I love Sideshow Bob. Sideshow Bob was my,

he was my original menace. He scared me. That's how I know. That's Treehouse of Horror is how I know like of any horror movie before doing this podcast. Love Sideshow Bob. You're like, wait, it's called The Shining, not The Shining. Exactly. Exactly.

Exactly. But, you know, I mean, like, like Sideshow Bob's a great example. It sounds like I'm not serious, but I am of like of menace with humor. Yeah. Right. And my idea that I sort of brought to them and and i've played this character before um but i really wanted to keep exploring him was like was like how how to be a complete brute who drinks his his tea with his pinky in the air you know like that was sort of my my idea this this evil dangerous brutal fop um seemed like a fun contrast to play so

it was and and you know it's all there on the page and you could do it for you could do it for 10 years and still discover new things about it which is which is the kind of unbelievable gift of the show and you guys were directed by th Kael, who did Hamilton and Into the Heights. What was it like working with such a huge director? What a bum, huh? Yeah, he's not. Yeah, he hasn't accomplished anything. Tommy is awesome.

He's an incredible guy who is kind of just an unbelievable storyteller and leader and somebody who really, really, really is who brings whose whose comedy truly like knows no bounds. I mean, she will what she does for for laughs in this show, all of which is justified in the script. I'm not saying she goes outside of it. It's what she does is so remarkable that that, you, you, you will leave being like, who is this incredible human if you don't know her? Um, and, but I think a lot of people do at this point, but watching, watching them work together, uh, was so inspiring and, and he's always inspiring. I mean, he's a, he's just a, he's a, he's a great all around artist in person and to have him sort of captaining the ship was, was a real, was a real boon to the whole process. I had the playbill in my stroller. Lol. I have a son and it was, it was just hanging out in my stroller. And, uh, while I was walking around New York, I had so many people bring it up and be like, Oh my God, did you see Sweeney Todd? Wait, I saw Sweeney Todd. I saw

Sweeney Todd three times. Um, and, and people are just loving it. And one person told me that they saw it three times. And in each time Annalee Ashford, they noticed she handled the stairs. There's a part where she kind of goes down the stairs in a very unique fashion you might say that yeah and he was like every single time it was very different and every single time it worked and like she is so she's such a star she's so amazing i she was she was so funny i was like she's a comedic scientist is what I, is the way that I think of her. You know, she can read an audience like nobody that I've ever worked with before and

find ways to, to make them laugh. And then at the end break their hearts too. You know, that's the, that, that's the other amazing thing about what she does is how, is how moving it ends up being because you completely fall in love with her, even though she's doing these terrible things. Yeah. It's a very sad, it's honestly, it's all of the above. It's terrifying. It's hilarious. It's also very sad. It's a very sad story at the end of the day. Yeah. At the end, you're like, Ooh, yeah.

That's my, my kind of story. Yeah, absolutely. I know, Sammy. Give it all. Give me all of it. Ruin my life at the end. Yes, please. John, this has been so great.

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. Oh, what a treat. I loved it. I loved it so much. I'm so glad you came and enjoyed. And Sammy, I hope you get to come. I hope so, too. I'm honored you all had me on Thank you

We really appreciate it this was great I really hope that I get a chance to see it because it sounds incredible Yeah That was our interview With John Rapson We hope you guys enjoyed it We sure did Henley We love you guys so it. We sure did.

Henley, thank you for... We love you guys so much. This was the highlight of my life. I know. Yeah, Henley, thank you so much for going and seeing this and telling us all about it and including the little details of the intermission

really made it an immersive experience. I felt like I was there. Great, great, great. I had such a good time. Thank you for, oh, I'm so grateful that I got to do all of this. And we got to talk to John, who was just the best. So this has been so much fun. And I love you, Sammy. And I can't wait to do this again. And we love you sammy and i can't wait to do this again and we love you listeners and should we sing our sign off a random tune from all of us here at too scary didn't watch goodbye goodbye thank you my friends for listening to another episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch. If you had fun hanging with us, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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