Josh Groban Explains His ‘Sweeney Todd’ Exit in New Interview – Billboard

Josh Groban shocked the theater neighborhood when he and his Sweeney Todd co-star Annaleigh Ashford introduced that they are going to be taking part in their ultimate reveals on Jan. 14, 2024, with Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster set to switch the pair. Whereas Groban expressed gratitude for attending to be within the present in his departure announcement, the star offered further context as to why he left in a brand new interview with Billboard Information.

“I believe that we really feel whether or not we stayed in it one other yr, whether or not we left tomorrow, I believe Annaleigh and I really feel like we did what we got here to do,” Groban defined to Billboard‘s Rebecca Milzoff. “We needed to get it off the bottom in a method that we have been actually pleased with, to get a response that [Stephen] Sondheim would have been actually excited by and pleased with, we needed to deliver our essence to the function and do one thing to it that we personally could be actually pleased with. After which it comes right down to, how lengthy do you keep contemporary in that and the way lengthy do you’re feeling like you’ve got one thing actually important in your tank to provide it.”

Their revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Road, to make use of its full title, obtained eight Tony nominations, together with greatest revival of a musical and greatest actor and actress in a musical for Groban and Ashford. The solid album from the present is nominated for a Grammy for greatest musical theater album. Closing-round voting is presently underway. The awards will likely be introduced on Feb. 4.

Elsewhere throughout Groban’s interview, he spoke about his hyperlink to David Foster, who mentored him all through the method of recording his 2001 self-titled debut album, and revealed that the expertise gave him the instruments essential to soar on his sophomore follow-up, Nearer. Groban mirrored on the album hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and being stunned as a result of it felt “slightly extra expressive” than his debut.

“I bear in mind it didn’t open at No. 1. I bear in mind being stunned [when] I received the decision that it had gone No. 1 when that’s normally not the case. Often, you’ve got your huge opening week, no less than that’s the way in which the enterprise is now, in order that was a very particular feeling.”

Nearer entered the Billboard 200 at No. 4 in November 2003 and eventually reached No. 1 in its ninth week in January 2004. “You Increase Me Up,” a Foster-produced monitor from the album, turned his first hit on the Billboard Scorching 100 and introduced him his first Grammy nod (greatest male pop vocal efficiency).

“That was the primary album I began to put in writing on,” Groban remembers. “I felt like that was the primary album that I began to discover extra eclectic style and took extra dangers and dipped my toes into waters that felt slightly extra self-expressive.”

He continued, “Your first album you’re simply so cautious, you bought quite a lot of cooks within the kitchen. If you received somebody like David Foster, you’ve received Gordon Ramsey in your kitchen — in a great way. In order that album doing what it did actually made me notice that my followers are in it for the long term. That album going to No. 1 made me notice, ‘Oh we’re gonna have a journey collectively.’ … They have been open to different types. They have been open to me being me.”

Watch Groban’s full interview with Billboard Information within the video above.