Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The complaints I've been reading here are: 1. Why didn't they tell me that this isn't the Angela Lansbury version? (If you had looked for Lansbury's name in the description, you would have noticed its absence.) 2. The video quality is sub-par! (Knowing in advance that this was recorded outdoors over twenty years ago, I was prepared for less-than-broadcast quality.) 3. It's LIVE... EEEEWWWwwwww! (Get a grip.) I like the 1983 movie version a lot. But this version kicks the movie version's buttocks so thoroughly that I probably won't order it when it becomes available. Patricia Routledge's performance is ten times better than Angela Lansbury's. In the movie Lansbury, after several years of playing Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd", apparently was sick of Cockney dialects, and played Ruth as Irish. It didn't work and she wasn't that funny. Routledge is funny and has a gorgeous voice. What is glorious about seeing the live performance is the energy that the cast gets from the audience reactions. George Rose, after the Major General song, isn't applauded... he's CHEERED. There is no way that this type of response can fail to pump up the cast. This really is the type of material seen best with audience reaction, the same reason that films like "Noises Off" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" don't really work. If you love theatricality, this is for you.