Sweeney Todd: Tiny Desk Concert

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Sweeney Todd: Tiny Desk Concert with tags npr, npr music, national public radio, live, performance, tiny desk, tiny desk concert, tony desk, tiny concert

Josh Rogosin | December 22, 2023

My parents brought me to see a production of Sweeney Todd when I was 10; I had nightmares for weeks. That may have been the beginning of my obsession with the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

"We're so grateful to sing Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece every single day," Josh Groban explains at the Tiny Desk. "He was so brilliant at juxtaposing the beautiful with the horrific." (It turns out that both Groban and I named our dogs "Sweeney Dog," something I learned when I introduced the cast.)

Expect a wave of emotions throughout this performance: empathy for Sweeney (Groban) and Mrs. Lovett (Annaleigh Ashford) with their songs of vengeance and longing, "My Friends," and "By the Sea"; desire with the quartet's vocal counterpoint performed in "Johanna (Act 2 Sequence)"; laughter with the duet's performance of "A Little Priest." Incredibly, this Tiny Desk version of the musical is no less impactful — the 26-piece orchestra currently playing the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre gets a nine-piece orchestration courtesy of Jonathan Tunick, Sondheim's longtime collaborator, led by conductor Alex Lacamoire. Absolutely mesmerizing.

SET LIST

"My Friends"

"By the Sea"

"Johanna (Act 2 Sequence)"

"A Little Priest"

COMPOSER

Stephen Sondheim

ORCHESTRATIONS

Jonathan Tunick

CAST

Josh Groban ("Sweeney Todd")

Annaleigh Ashford ("Mrs. Lovett")