Entertainment

Josh Groban, Annaleigh Ashford Play Dream Roles in ‘Sweeney Todd’ – The Hollywood Reporter

Josh Groban has toured the world, performed at the Olympics, co-hosted the Tony Awards, and appeared on Broadway once before, but playing Sweeney Todd remains a daunting task. his best.

“It was definitely the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. Physically, vocally, emotionally. I can say with some certainty that this is the most difficult creative endeavor I have ever undertaken. But it’s a great way to relieve fatigue,” says Groban.

Groban co-starred with Annaleigh Ashford in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, directed by Thomas Kail. This production fills the Lunt-Fontanne Theater with a 26-member orchestra and atmospheric fog surrounds its grand orchestra and the infamous hinged barber chair looms over the proceedings. Groban’s active baritone elevates the classic score, as he plays the heartbroken barber who kills for revenge, while Ashford’s Mrs. Lovett meets him with passionate energy and comedic expertise.

This is the second Sondheim role Ashford (sex master, Impeachment: America’s Crime Story) played, after describing Dot in Sunday in the park with George confronts Jake Gyllenhaal, and she, like Groban, sees inherent challenges within it. But there’s no question she’ll take on it.

“Even as a young actor in musical theatre, you knew early on that Sondheim was the target. So if it comes up, you say yes,” Ashford said. “And you can play jigsaw puzzles.”

Ashford and Groban, both of whom were nominated by Tony for their roles, spoke with Hollywood Reporter about their relationship with Sweeney Toddvillains and memorable scenes in this work, such as performing the split move down the stairs.

Josh, is this a bucket list role for you?

Josh Groban: Oh, yes. I mean, before I was in the music business, theater was my dream. I was very lucky when I was young to have the opportunity to see plays, experience shows like Sweet Todd. One of my first memories of doing Sweeney Todd was at the Interlochen Art Camp in Michigan, and I was in it when I was 15 years old.

Are you Sweeney Todd?

Groban: No, no, I was in the group, but I loved every minute of it.

Annaleigh, I hear you’re a big fan of Angela Lansbury, who played Mrs. Lovett.

Annaleigh Ashford: I’ve always just wanted to be Angela Lansbury when I grow up, because she’s the actress with the best character. She is someone who finds humor, life and humanity in every character she plays. And then she’s also a woman in this industry who navigates all things women. She was a mother, a wife, and an actress in a time when patriarchy ruled strongly, and she navigated it with grace and love. And so she is not only a role model and idol to me as an actress but also as a person. Every time I saw her – I met her three times – I cried so awkwardly that I had to walk away.

Did you think about Angela Lansbury when taking on this role?

Ashford: Whenever you approach an iconic piece of text, document, role, I think it’s your job to recognize those who have gone before you and give you a road map, then you do What you do with all the great text, you listen to what’s on the page. So, like anyone who’s ever played Hamlet, or Lear, or Lady M, you have to take a look at this page and figure out how you can interpret it through your instrument, which is soul and body. yours, and just see what comes out. So I’m definitely, completely inspired by her interpretation, and I feel it all over the page and across the entire piece. I say thank you to her every night and I say thank you to Stephen Sondheim every night, and Hugh Wheeler, all the great people who created this piece, Hal Prince. Their spirit lives in the spirit of the work.

Josh, this role is different from what we’ve seen you do in the past. Do you love playing a villain?

Groban: I think what’s interesting to me about Sweeney Todd is the role and the way it’s written, not the idea of ​​just playing a villain in general. I mean, playing with kind is always fun, I suppose. It’s a fun challenge and allows you to spread your wings and delve into different aspects of your storytelling, but for me, what’s fun about Sweeney Todd is just all the closeness. each other: great scores combined with dark humor, dark plot. There’s a mixture of beauty and ugliness in the role, along with some of the most exceptional music and lyrics ever written. It’s really just a masterpiece to be able to perform in any form.

Can you talk to Sondheim about reprising the role or about the production?

Groban: Unfortunately, we never got into the production before he passed away. Of course, it’s something we all wish we had the chance to do, wish we had more time with him. However, we did receive his blessing, for which we are very grateful. I am forever grateful that I had his enthusiasm and blessing to perform this role before he passed away. We never have to talk about its details. And so, every day we do the show, we try to find what he left us in the piece and try to find the answers we want to ask him in the piece. And we constantly find it all there.

Amidst all the dark stuff, one of the scenes where you seem to be having the most fun is in “A Little Priest,” when Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett exchange rhyming phrases about turning human. Which become pies. What was it like doing that scene every night?

Groban: Well, we’re just trying to keep it fresh. We love our time together on stage so much, we have so much fun. [Annaleigh] obviously such a riot and so she brings a lot of light to the dark and brings humor to this, which is what we also know Sondheim really wanted, really based that dark humor. And so our goal every time we did that song was really to piss each other off, the way Lovett and Sweeney were teasing each other, to really find the crazy humor in what they were doing. conspiracy. And so we went there. We totally had as much fun as the audience thought.

Ashford: It’s like playing a game. It’s a word puzzle game. So you’re playing a puzzle throughout the song and then you’re also solving this problem, that’s one last gift the actor has always dreamed of, what’s your obstacle? What problem will you solve? And so in six minutes, we can solve this problem together.

At one point in the film, Mrs. Lovett meets Judge Turpin, Sweeney Todd’s arch-nemesis. And in this set-up, Annaleigh, you bow to him at the top of the stairs and slide down the stairs following the turns to get out. How did you come to this decision?

Ashford: It’s in the text. Everything is always in the text. I really wanted to show the difference of class. She is at the bottom of the social totem column. She’s never really encountered anyone as tall as the judge on the social totem pole. And so when she bows to him, she makes the deepest bow she thinks is appropriate. And then when she tried to get up, she was already on the stairs and realized that there was nowhere to go but to go down to the bottom of the stairs. So she just went downstairs. I was like, “What would she do if she met the Queen of England and she bowed on the stairs?” She will take them down any way she can. So she slid down the stairs. She’s trying to be cool, and then in that attempt to be cool, she doesn’t look cool, which is what we all do.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.




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