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Sweeney Todd: Tiny Desk Concert

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The cast of Sweeney Todd perform a Tiny Desk concert at NPR Music in Washington, D.C.

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.

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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”)

  • Daniel Yearwood (“Anthony Hope”)

  • Maria Bilbao (“Johanna”)

  • Joanna Carpenter (“Beggar Woman”)

MUSICIANS

  • Todd Palmer: clarinet

  • Damian Primis: bassoon

  • Sarah Boxmeyer: French horn

  • John Chudoba: trumpet

  • Kory Grossman: percussion

  • Adam Rothenberg: piano, keyboard

  • Anna Parks: violin

  • Wayne Smith: cello

  • Chiho Saegusa: bass

  • Alex Lacamoire: conductor

  • Randy Cohen: keyboard programmer

  • David Lai: music supervisor

TINY DESK TEAM

  • Producer/Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin

  • Director/Editor: Kara Frame

  • Videographers: Kara Frame, Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Keren Carrión

  • Animation: Jackie Lay

  • Series Producer: Bobby Carter

  • Audio Assistants: Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez and Neil Tevault

  • Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer

  • Photographer: Grace Widyatmadja

  • Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Lars Gotrich, Hazel Cills

  • VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

  • Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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