"Just amazing"–a Zoner's firsthand report from "An Evening with Tim Burton" at Lincoln Center

Several Zoners were lucky enough to get tickets to “An Evening with Tim Burton: Cinema’s Demon Barber” at Lincoln Center last night, and to share what they saw there. You can read full accounts on the Zone’s Porch forum, and they are delightful. Here is an excerpt from Scout’s report: “I am just back from the Tim Burton night at Lincoln Center. It was a wonderful time. They showed clips of all of Tim’s films, and then he and a moderator would sit on stage and discuss them. They did this in three segments, and the third segment was called ‘The Collaboration with Johnny Depp.’ The audience cheered! Tim was asked if he wanted to say anything about Johnny before they showed the clips. He sort of paused, then with a dry kind of wit said, ‘No, he gets enough attention.’ It was very funny.”

Scout says that Tim’s affection for Johnny was obvious. “He [Tim] spoke the whole night with great warmth and was very personable, and you could tell he and Johnny have a tremendous relationship. He spoke in general terms about the importance of liking the people that you end up spending so much time with on the set, and how he enjoys when characters just emerge as shooting takes place and when the actors improvise and are able to do it very well.”

As for the clips from SWEENEY TODD, Scout reports: “They ended the evening with showing some extended scenes from SWEENEY TODD, and this was truly amazing. I have seen both Broadway productions and love the music very much. I knew Johnny could handle the part BUT I was not prepared for what I saw. In my opinion, Johnny sings the parts (we heard three complete songs) fantastically! I mean he is not just ‘handling’ the music, he sounds superb, like he has a trained voice.” She adds, “The songs they showed were ‘My Friends;’ one segment called ‘Epiphany’ that is part of the trailer of Johnny singing in the street to get men into his chair; and the last was ‘Johanna,’ where he sings about his daughter while he is slitting throats. It is just amazing to see, because Johnny is totally this crazy Sweeney, singing beautifully–but as a crazy person–the fantastic Sondheim lyrics.”

A bit more on the response to the SWEENEY TODD clips: “Before they showed the SWEENEY clips, Tim emphasized that it was still a work in progress, but no mention was made of the premiere,” says Scout. “After each song segment was shown, the audience cheered, and also at the end they went wild. If anyone from the studio was there [and] interested in audience reaction, they should be VERY excited and thrilled by what they saw. . . .” And Scout’s own reaction to the clips? “December 21st can’t come fast enough.” Agreed!

We thank Scout very much for sharing her account of the evening with the Zone’s readers–you can read many more wonderful reports on the Porch. –Part-Time Poet

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