Sweeney Todd

[ceebeegee]

Why were the accents so off in the original Broadway production of Sweeney Todd? Mrs. Lovett is consistently Cockney but the Beggar Woman goes back and forth between Cockney and not (alms, alms...), although I think she's fairly consistently Cockney in her spoken lines--and Sweeney himself has an American accent! And Anthony's accent seems awfully posh for a common sailor. Confusing...

Comments

[dry-2olives.livejournal.com]

Harold Prince was a wonderful director of visuals but I don't think he was especially known for detailed character work.

Suspension of Disbelief

[neoscribe.livejournal.com]

...besides, would you really want to hear, say, Kevin Costner attempt an English Accent for, say, Prince of Thieves? Not even for Prince of Tides!!
Same thing (sorta).

Re: Suspension of Disbelief

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

*puts on English geek glasses*

Colonial accents tend to be more conservative than those from the mother country. So modern English accents have progressed further--changed more--than those from, say, Australia, or the US. What this means is that an American accent is actually closer to how the English sounded in the high Middle Ages (when Robin Hood takes place)--therefore Costner's "non"-accent was actually correct (as correct as any of it was since, as you say, there's a suspension of disbelief--nobody speaking Middle English, Muslims wandering through Nottingham...yeah).

*takes off English geek glasses, swirls around hair*

Costner wasn't in The Prince of Tides, was he? Are you thinking of Nick Nolte? And the worst non-accent I can think of was George Clooney in The Perfect Storm--when you're playing an actual GUY WHO DIED, who died recently and who was from a heavily-accented part of the country (Gloucester, Mass.) and whose relatives and friends are going to be watching this, you have a moral obligation to tell his story as faithfully as you can. But he refused, he said "people know me in a certain way" and it might sound silly. IOW, he was too much of a Movie Star to try it.