Quotable Quotes: On the Red Carpet with the Stars of Sweeney Todd
WHERE: Bows at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre; party at the Copacabana
WHEN: Thursday, November 3, 2005
"What I think [John Doyle's] vision does is reinvent a theater lost. It brings it back to actor and audience without the encumbrance of sound, set design, an abundance of stuff that gets in the way of the 
storytelling. John is really an honest man. Necessity is the mother of invention, and he comes from a small, regional theater where this is the way they do it because they don't have a lot of money. It's a real advert for doing stuff with less money and getting to the bones of it as opposed to embellishing it and losing sight of the piece. I think he serves Steve [Sondheim]'s work incredibly well." —Patti LuPone, who plays Mrs. Lovett
"It constantly reminds you that at the heart of it, you're just part of a group telling a story, which is all you ever are, really. So sometimes in our show, your responsibility is to move a chair, and sometimes it's to sing a solo, but actually those two things are equally important, and you end up feeling worse if you screw up a chair move, because it's going to affect everybody else in the show! If you screw up your own lyrics, you know, it's your own deal. It keeps your priorities in the right place." —Michael Cerveris, who plays Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
"When people said to me, 'We want to take it to Broadway,' I thought, 'Oh, my God!' It's been a wonderful, wonderful experience. We've got the most fantastic producers, plus the fact that Steve Sondheim has been involved in the process—that's been, for me, extraordinary and unique." —Director John Doyle
"It's actually incredibly easy. The earliest way I have of expressing myself is through music and actually through the violin because I started playing when I was, like, five. I came to acting much, much later in life. So for me, it's a way to combine my earliest way of expressing myself with this new adult way of expressing myself. I never at any point during the process felt like I had to make a decision: Do I play now or do I act now? They happen completely at the same time." —Manoel Felciano, who plays Tobias, on mixing acting with playing music
"One of the things that [John Doyle] has said in rehearsal, which always kind of takes me aback a little bit is, 'No, we don't want that; that's realistic.' It's really designed to engage the audience's imagination in a way that is uncommon, and it does that perforce, because it's not visually explicit. You don't see the things that you are used to seeing in a stage piece." —Mark Jacoby, who plays Judge Turpin
"CRA-ZY. Crazy! But it's fantastic. There's no denying that all of us have been pushed to our limits, in every aspect: acting, music, memorization… it's insane! Normally, when you do a show, there's one part of you that gets stretched, and the rest of you is in your comfort zone. There's no comfort zone, I mean none with this show, which was terrifying, but absolutely exhilarating because everyone is out there without a net. The result is that everyone is there to support each other. It's the most selfless cast I've ever been a part of." —Donna Lynne Champlin, who plays Pirelli
"I think it's a hit because it's so different. I think there's a lot of curiosity about it, too. People want to know how in the world this can be done with 10 people. No orchestra, no ensemble, can't be done. I need to see it. I think you either love it or you hate it. I don't think there's an in between." —Diana DiMarzio, who plays the Beggar Woman
"Sondheim has just such a beautiful gift for connecting lyrics and music in a way that gets inside of you and does something to your brain and does something to your senses. I think that is the first thing that is amazing 
about this piece in particular. And I also think that, even though the subject matter is dark and twisted, it's really got a lot of humor, and humor in ways that people need to laugh about—because this world is so dark and demented and twisted. It's really a testament to what's going on in reality. [Not] far off from making meat pies out of dead bodies after murdering them, and people killing each other across the sea. We have to find lightness and humor in all of that." —Lauren Molina, who plays Johanna
"I think it just strips away all those preconceived notions that it has to be so literal, because we're so desensitized by TV and movies these days that we want realism on stage. It gets you to get inside your own head and whatever is scary for you, whatever's creepy, and whatever's love to you… it's personal. It's not what we're showing you onstage; it's what you take out of it yourself." —Benjamin Magnuson, who plays Anthony
"It's giving meaning to the word 'revival.' If you're going to revive something, revive it, man. And that's what this production does." —Alexander Gemignani, who plays The Beadle
"It's collegial. I think any theatrical endeavor naturally becomes collegial; it's your family. It's an
"This is a level of concentration and focus that pays off immensely as an actor. I have never been as invested in a show or in other people's performances. It's something visceral that I've never experienced. I've learned a huge lesson, and I hope I can carry that on to other roles, but there's something about playing the music as well that just locks you into a groove…. And I love it." —Donna Lynne Champlin
"Come on! It does not get better, at all. We're lucky enough to be
"The thing about John [Doyle] was that there was no fear of censure. There was no fear. He encouraged us at every moment and he rehearsed us the right way, so that we weren't caught off guard and we weren't under-rehearsed in a scene musically, dramatically or vocally. He rehearsed us very well. That's the key.' —Patti LuPone
"The thing that's worried me all the way along the line is I've never wanted to appear like some Brit coming over telling [people] this is how to reinvent the American musical. That's not my agenda. My
"It's incredibly smart, it's tremendously entertaining, it's very funny, it's very unsettling, it's very exciting and it says something—I think particularly in this production—about things that we all understand: feelings of having been treated unfairly, the degrees to which you'll go to take revenge and the ultimate result of that. It's got elements of Greek tragedy and that kind of audience catharsis, but it's also got the best Broadway tradition of entertainment. So it sort of has everything. And these days, a little darkness sort of suits our mood, I think." —Michael Cerveris on why audiences adore the Sondheim classic
"I get up in my dressing room and I crank my music as loud as possible, because I am so filled with energy after the show and yet at the same time exhausted. You just go home and drink tea and, you know, watch The Daily Show." —Manoel Felciano on dealing with his post-show high
Interviews by Paul Wontorek
"I had 10 people to make it sound big. It's beautiful music. It's a fantastic piece to start with, and my job was to serve the piece. I have such great respect for Steve [Sondheim]'s work anyway; it made my job very easy. I wanted the piece to have a lot of heart, and I think they bring out the heart in the way they play." —Orchestrator Sarah Travis
interesting way to live, being in shows, and it's so intense, and all the energy's concentrated on this event that is the stage piece, and then it dissipates as it goes away. This [show] is like that, but more so. For example, you listen in a way that you normally wouldn't do…. You have to listen every, every moment, just to be on it, just to be where you're supposed to be, and since we don't have a conductor, per se, coordinating the music requires listening in a way that you don't normally have to do, and it brings you together." —Mark Jacoby on the closeness of the cast
doing the most amazing piece of musical theater to this day that we know of and in this new wonderful way and with a company that is so close and so wonderful to work with across the boards, creative onstage and off. So, I have absolutely nothing to complain about." —Alexander Gemignani
"It's like 'Nam, man. You get bonded…. I have not heard one person in this company say anything even remotely negative about anyone or anything. And I think there's something really sort of holy about our understanding— we have to be there for each other 100 percent. Even offstage, people are so supportive of each other. It's like going through boot camp. There's a bond that will never be broken." —Donna Lynne Champlin
agenda has been about just trying to find a new way for me to tell the story, and not thinking about what is famous to other people or what they expect. It's really hard for the audience to let go of what it expects, and it's darned hard for me to think, 'Don't worry about it, John, just do your thing!' That, I think, has been my saving grace because I've not risen to trying to make it bigger and better because it's on Broadway." —Director John Doyle
Compiled by Lyssa Mandel