In a rare interview with the Seattle Times, Stephen Sondheim warms up for his Monday conversation with Frank Rich to be held at Benaroya Hall. Sondheim doesn’t mind, in fact he likes, the more recent scaled-down versions of his musicals, including John Doyle’s take on ‘Sweeney Todd’ which had Patti Lupone doubling on tuba. He reveals that ‘Sweeney’ was intended to be more intimate until Hal Prince insisted on it being a big production. And what about the Tim Burton movie? Sondheim likes it “because Tim made it a film, not a recording of a stage musical.”