Fox News critic Roger Friedman attended Tim Burton’s presentation at Lincoln Center on November 14th, and thinks Johnny Depp’s performance as the crazed barber Sweeney Todd has “Oscar written all over it.” Writes Friedman, “Last night, at Rose Hall in Jazz at Lincoln Center, a lucky few of us got to see about 25 minutes of footage of SWEENEY TODD. This is the long awaited film version of Stephen Sondheim’s magnificent 1981 Broadway musical, directed by Burton and starring Johnny Depp as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, his accomplice. The Oscar race just got officially really, really interesting,” says Friedman. “The three set pieces we saw were, in a word, spectacular. They were also just enough to light a fire and suggest that Paramount Dreamworks has a potential Best Picture nominee in SWEENEY TODD, and maybe even a winner.” Wow.

As for the cast, Friedman notes, “Both Depp and Carter sing, as do Sasha ‘Borat’ Baron Cohen, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and three important newcomers: Jayne Wisener, Jamie Bower, and Ed Sanders. Of the three, we only got to hear Bower besides Depp and Carter. But young Bower turns out to be a winner. His rendition of my favorite number from SWEENEY—’Johanna’—just knocked out the crowd. And just a hint of what Depp does in this film was demonstrated in a number called ‘My Friends,’ in which Sweeney sings to his recovered barber tools after returning from 15 years in prison. The number was breathtaking.”

Friedman’s conclusion after seeing the clips? “Johnny Depp can sing, and he makes for an impressive Sweeney. The look and attitude are right. The performance should earn him an Oscar nomination as well. Carter, who specializes in playing “off’ types, makes an excellent comic and romantic foil for him.” The Zone thanks Emma for posting the Fox News review; you can read it in its entirety on the Porch forum. –Part-Time Poet