In a season already notable for next week's broadcast of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, starring Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone, PBS's Great Performances 2007–2008 season will include a February 20, 2008, airing of the recent revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company. The series will air a performance from the 2006–2007 production of Company, directed by John Doyle, which earned a host of awards, including the Tony for Best Revival; the cast recording, a Nonesuch release, was recently nominated for a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album.

Nominees for the 2007 Critics Choice Awards have been unveiled, and Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood are represented across six categories. Both films were nominated by the Broadcast Film Critics Association for Best Picture, and both films' stars, Johnny Depp and Daniel Day-Lewis, respectively, received noms for Best Actor. Sweeney also grabbed nominations for Best Director (Tim Burton), Best Acting Ensemble, and Best Young Actor for Edward Sanders. There Will Be Blood adds a Best Composer nomination for Jonny Greenwood's score.

"It's bloody wonderful." That's how David Ansen describes the Tim Burton–directed Sweeney Todd in the latest issue of Newsweek. Ansen finds the film to be faithful to the Stephen Sondheim musical, itself the source of "some of the most beautiful, witty and disturbing songs in the musical-theater canon." Time says: "Burton and Depp infuse the brilliant cold steel of Stephen Sondheim's score with a burning passion." The Hollywood Reporter says that "the show couldn't have fallen into better hands ... Depp is a Sweeney Todd for the ages." Billboard exclaims: "Johnny Depp is pretty much perfect."

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton grace the cover of New York magazine's Best of 2007 issue this week, which wittily names the duo's film version of Sweeney Todd "The Best Serial Killer Musical Ever!" Inside the magazine is a more serious evaluation from critic David Edelstein of "Tim Burton's brilliantly intense adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's great musical." Edelstein compliments Depp and his co-star Helena Bonham Carter for their "riveting" performances and Burton for filming the duo "with such loving intimacy that their fever takes hold."

John Logan, the co-producer and writer of Tim Burton's film version of Sweeney Todd, recently spoke with TheaterMania about adapting the much-loved Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical for the big screen. As he tells TheaterMania's Brian Scott Lipton, Logan lobbied hard for the job that would ultimately take him five years to bring to fruition. But as soon as he heard that a film version was in the works, he knew he had to be involved, given how much the Sondheim work meant to him: "I saw the original Broadway production and it changed my life. I think one of the reasons I'm a writer today is because of that night."

Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd scores a perfect 100 on the Rotten Tomatoes rating meter, which averages all the critics' reviews from across the country.

The national touring company of the recent Broadway production of Sweeney Todd has been playing to audiences north of border in Toronto for the past month. The show now moves back to the States for a few days in Columbus, Ohio, beginning tomorrow night at the Palace Theatre. The Columbus Dispatch sat down for an in-depth interview with the tour's scene-stealing Mrs. Lovett, Judy Kaye, whom director John Doyle lauds for her "terrific singing voice and immaculate comedy timing," essential attributes in this role as the murderous barber's partner in crime.

BroadwayWorld.com and Broadway Beat have released the first of three episodes exploring the journey of Sweeney Todd from Broadway sensation by Stephen Sondheim to Tim Burton–directed big-screen blockbuster starring Johnny Depp. Hosted by Richie Ridge, Broadway Beat is a half-hour show, now in its 16th year, covering the best in New York theater. 

With the Sweeney Todd soundtrack out in just over a week, it's no wonder the Chicago Tribune is saying that "the highly anticipated holiday movie season brings with it not just some of the best movies of the year but some of the most distinctive score soundtracks as well." Writes Richard Knight Jr.: "This is a great finale to what has been a signature year for soundtrack lovers," not least "an intimate, seductive Sweeney Todd."

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has just announced the nominees for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, including Nonesuch releases from Wilco, Ry Cooder, Joshua Redman, Stephen Sondheim, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Judith Sherman is up for Classical Producer of the Year, including for Kronos Quartet's recording of Górecki's String Quartet No. 3.

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures has unveiled the winners of its awards for the best in film for 2007, and on its list of the Top Ten Films of the Year: Sweeney Todd. The film also garnered an award for Best Director, Tim Burton. The awards will be handed out at a special gala event on Tuesday, January 15, in New York City. Congratulations to Tim and the entire Sweeney cast and crew!

Best Movie of 2007. That's what Roger Friedman of foxnews.com is calling the Tim Burton–directed Sweeney Todd "... without a doubt." He's a longtime fan of the musical and has been a fan of the film from his first look at a critics screening. After last night's premiere, he can confirm that "Everything about it is just perfect ... There were a thousand wrong turns Burton and crew could have taken, but somehow they avoided them. They condensed a complicated three-hour show into a highly entertaining two hours without missing a beat."