Depp sings like a demon in new film

Johnny Depp can sing! In Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street the actor has impressed even the man who wrote the original musical on which the film is based, Stephen Sondheim. The taciturn composer and lyricist, who made a rare public appearance to attend the film's Manhattan premiere last night, told the New York Times that he thought Burton's adaptation was "really good". And although Depp is not a professional singer, he can sing, said Sondheim.

Despite a penchant for taking chances, Depp had never risked singing on screen before. The closest he came was in another Burton movie, The Corpse Bride in which he nearly did a song, but the idea was pulled at the last minute. And although Depp played guitar in rock bands before acting, he was never lead singer material. "Never, ever, did I ever want to sing," Depp told the New York Times. "Singers always got too much attention. I was always happier playing my guitar in the dark."

The original plan was for Depp to use a voice coach to prepare for Sweeney Todd, but in the end he decided to play against previous conventional performances and take a "slightly more punk rock" approach.  He studied the songs as he was filming the final installment of the Pirates trilogy. "Can he sing?" asks MTV.com of Depp's performance. "A resounding yes. Much in the way that Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman made the music of Moulin Rouge work thanks to decent natural talent coupled with emotion behind the words, Depp sells his character from the start."

Sweeney Todd, the story of a deranged 18th-century London barber who slits the throats of customers while his landlady serves the victims up in meat pies, is perfect Gothic fare for Burton and Depp, whose previous collaborations include Sleepy Hollow and Edward Scissorhands.
 
The film co-stars the director's wife, Helena Boham Carter, and, fresh from Borat, Sach Baron Cohen. Along with Depp, they were picked out by Sondheim as "the best people for the characters".  The question now is whether cinema audiences will accept an unusually high level of blood and gore for a musical. ·