It's funny that you say she's Lady Macbeth....maybe that's why I liek 2005 revival Lovett best...she's very Macbeth-y, whereas Lansbury seemed to silly to really invoke that image, but I do see where you get it from. she definitely has a very similar story. Sets her 'lover' up, watches him rises, and ends up falling with him because she became as evil as he was.

Macbeth isnt a villian though. he is a tragic hero..its through his wife's manipulations of him, both sexual and ambition wise, that he falls from grace.

Well you cna't deny that he (and Sweeney) loose that a bit when they started killing people. The women may have started it, but they kept it going so they are, in some sense villians, thought not as great villians as Lovett and Lady Macbeth.

they do lose it of course but they arent villians. the proper term for both Macbeth and Todd is a Tragic Hero.

Lansbury is my favourite overall. For most of the OBCR, I found her performance to be a bit one-note. But when I got the twist, I realised she had kept her performance deceptively one-note on purpose, lulling me (and Sweeney) into thinking she was just wacky comic relief, to make the ending work as a real shock. OTOH, when I actually *saw* her in the 1982 DVD, I wasn't very impressed. But I think her performance choices, when done well, served the show best for a first-timer. I did like Lupone and Bonham-Carter too.

I think I get what you are saying, but I don't really like the title "tragic hero" It sounds as though they are simply good people to ened up poorly when really the both committed atrocities themselves...but again I guess you could argue that both also realized their wrongdoing at the end (Macbeth with his soliloquey after he hears about his wife's death and Sweeney when he finds out the truth about Lucy)

Macbeth was an upstanding hero.a good man and a freind to his cousin Duncan.
Sweeney was aloving family man who was maikng an honest living. both were good men who turned foul due to outside deeds and influence. based on a tragic flaw in their selves

Okay...you win XD...but if Macbeth's flaw was ambition, what was Sweeney's? (just curious)

Hunger for revenge?

I think that Patti Lupone is the most talented Mrs. Lovett that has ever played the part. Not only does she make the character COMPLETELY her own, she also is the most vocally talented.

I'd run and hide if I were you before Salome hacks you to pieces...

I wont kick Him..i'm juyst laughing hysterically at his lack of taste and knowledge.