Alan Rickman won't be using his singing skills in the Sweeney Todd movie musical as his inspiration to get back to Broadway because his last New York stage tune was a disaster.

Fans of the British thespian hope Rickman will follow his performance in Tim Burton's new movie with a return to Broadway - but he insists that's not in his future because he's still smarting from the experience of singing in Private Lives.

Rickman explains, "Eight shows singing a week is different than one song recorded, as people find out to their peril and the loss of their voice. I actually did sing in Private Lives on Broadway, and we still think it was something wrong with the spores in the air conditioning. Both (co-star) Lindsay Duncan and I lost our voices and my vocal range was shot. I couldn't speak or certainly sing and I nearly did something permanently damaging and that's bad air, eight shows a week so it's a tight rope. For the last few weeks of that run I had a song in it that I had to speak. The voice is a weird instrument."