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

Josh Groban shocked the theater group 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 exchange the pair. While Groban expressed gratitude for attending to be in the present in his departure announcement, the star supplied extra context as to why he left in a brand new interview with Billboard News.

“I think that we feel whether we stayed in it another year, whether we left tomorrow, I think Annaleigh and I feel like we did what we came to do,” Groban defined to Billboard‘s Rebecca Milzoff. “We wanted to get it off the ground in a way that we were really proud of, to get a response that [Stephen] Sondheim would have been really excited by and proud of, we wanted to bring our essence to the role and do something to it that we personally would be really proud of. And then it comes down to, how long do you stay fresh in that and how long do you feel like you have something really vital in your tank to give it.”

Their revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, 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. Final-round voting is presently underway. The awards will likely be offered 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, Closer. Groban mirrored on the album hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and being stunned as a result of it felt “a little more expressive” than his debut.

“I remember it didn’t open at No. 1. I remember being surprised [when] I got the call that it had gone No. 1 when that’s usually not the case. Usually, you have your big opening week, at least that’s the way the business is now, so that was a really special feeling.”

Closer entered the Billboard 200 at No. 4 in November 2003 and eventually reached No. 1 in its ninth week in January 2004. “You Raise Me Up,” a Foster-produced monitor from the album, grew to become Groban’s first hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and introduced him his first Grammy nod (greatest male pop vocal efficiency).

“That was the first album I started to write on,” Groban remembers. “I felt like that was the first album that I started to explore more eclectic taste and took more risks and dipped my toes into waters that felt a little more self-expressive.”

He continued, “Your first album you’re just so careful, you got a lot of chefs in the kitchen. When you got someone like David Foster, you’ve got Gordon Ramsey in your kitchen — in a good way. So that album doing what it did really made me realize that my fans are in it for the long run. That album going to No. 1 made me realize, ‘Oh we’re gonna have a journey together.’ … They were open to other styles. They were open to me being me.”

Watch Groban’s full interview with Billboard News in the video above.