"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."

Stephin Merritt played DJ to an eclectic crowd last night at London's George & Dragon pub. The photo here captures Merritt at the helm, conveniently positioned in front of a poster for The Magnetic Fields' upcoming Nonesuch release, Distortion, out in January:

The LA Film Critics Association has named There Will Be Blood the best picture of the year and its director, Paul Thomas Anderson, and star, Daniel Day-Lewis, best in their categories as well. Now, critics on the East Coast are adding their praise, too. In this week's New Yorker, David Denby calls the film "an enthralling and powerfully eccentric American epic ... magnificent."

When Wilco plays to a hometown crowd for five nights this February, it'll be changing things up a bit. Each night, the band will play a different set, featuring songs from throughout its decade-plus career. Or, as frontman Jeff Tweedy says in Billboard, the band will "attempt the 'complete Wilco' and try to clear out the dusty corners of the catalog that we haven't attended to in a while." The Chicago sets will take place February 15–16 and 18–20. They mark the start of a US tour that will take the band through the Northeast and the South before returning to the Midwest in March.

Next week, PBS offers a very different way to celebrate the holiday season when it airs the Los Angeles Opera's 2007 production of the 1930 Brecht/Weill opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Starting Monday, December 17, Great Performances will broadcast the opera, starring Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone. John Doyle, who directed LuPone in the recent Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, helmed this production of the work, which PBS calls a "savage and lyrical satire told in a highly entertaining blend of opera and raucous music hall songs."

As Youssou N'Dour prepares for the last stop on his US tour, tonight at the Somerville Theatre, the Boston Globe's Siddhartha Mitter reflects on the impact the "wildly talented" singer/songwriter has had as a key figure in contributing to and re-defining the genre of world music. "[H]is own work, exemplified by his newest album, Rokku Mi Rokka, and its 2005 predecessor, Egypt, is as fresh and searching as it has been in years." The Globe's Tristram Lozaw's review of the new album calls it "a defining album that showcases N'Dour at his organic best."

Fans of The Wire in New York City this Thursday may want to head down to J&R Music across from City Hall Park: cast members from the acclaimed HBO show will be on hand to sign copies of the newly released DVDs of Season Four. Slated to be in store on December 13 at 12:30 are Chad Coleman ("Cutty" Wise), Jermaine Crawford ("Dukie" Weems), Julito McCullum (Namond Brice), and Tristan Wilds (Michael Lee).

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."

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has announced the winners for its 2007 awards, and topping the list is Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood with four awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, and Best Production Design from Jack Fisk. The film was a runner-up for Anderson in the screenplay category, Robert Elswit for cinematography, and Jonny Greenwood for music. New York Film Critics Online awarded the film for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Cinematography (Elswit), and Best Score (Greenwood).

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.

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.