Compare And Contrast Sweeney Todd Play And Movie

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The University of Georgia’s theatre adaptation of the penny dreadful story, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, was very similar, design wise, to Tim Burton’s 2007 film of the same name. While the two were very comparable, they did differ in many design elements which include, lighting, costumes, color, and key structural set-ups. The lighting played a major role in setting the tone for both the theatre performance and the movie. In both the film and play, the lighting was dimmed and the non-important elements, such as background elements, were often hidden in the shadows. In the film the murky lighting also hid Todd in the shadows, in order to increase the suspense and further emphasize his intimidating demeanor. In the play, …show more content…

In the play, red was used to accent everything from the characters’ costumes to elements in the background, and the blood. Although red was heavily used, there was a difference in the shades of red throughout the play. For example, the curtain that draped Johanna’s window, was a bright red, while the on-stage blood was a deeper red. There was also a noticeable red-orange lighting casted over the stage during intense turning points in the play. In the film, the color did serve an important role, but it did not heavily influence the body of work, like in the play. Aside from Mrs. Lovett’s clothing in the film, the color showed up mainly during the scenes were blood was needed. The blood was darkened, watery and oozed. This darkened mess, was portrayed in this way in order to emphasize the deaths in the movie, which made each scene a little more …show more content…

The key props that adorned both settings were not much different from that of the film. In the play, however, there were more pieces that adorned the pie shop, and the raggedy arrangement of the background props compare to the distressed structure that the film wanted to show as well. In the movie there was more room to experiment and add to the locations. For example, in order to show the age of the barber’s shop, they added peeling wallpaper, creaking floorboards, and panels that were detached from the

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