BROADWAY SNAP-SHOT
by Russell Bouthiller

Dateline: November 15, 2005

SWEENEY TODD

SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET is back on Broadway in an innovative production under the direction of John Doyle.  This latest revival of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's macabre musical offers a unique theatrical experience in which the performers and orchestra are one in the same.  Coming to us by way of London after its successful engagement at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, England, the American production has been recast with Tony-winners Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris at the top of the bill.

SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET premiered on Broadway in 1979 with stars Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, directed by Harold Prince.  Sweeney reaped a bouquet of Tony Awards, including Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical and Best Musical.  The show returned to Broadway a decade later in the Circle in the Square's Tony-nominated, pared-down production affectionately dubbed "Teeny Todd."

With music and lyrics by Sondheim and Wheeler's book from the Christopher Bond adaptation, SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET follows the story of a falsely accused convict, Benjamin Barker, who returns to London after 15 years in Australia.  Assuming the name Sweeney Todd, he sets out to avenge the ravaging of his wife at the hands of the powerful Judge Turpin.  Abetting this grisly plot is the madcap Mrs. Lovett who disposes of Todd's victims by baking them into pies and selling them in her little shop.

SWEENEY TODD  is one of Sondheim's richest, most memorable scores.   Beautiful tunes such as "Pretty Women" and "Not While I'm Around" can be heard in cabarets from Boston to Bourbon Street.  "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" and "Johanna" offer the quintessentially quirky Sondheim sound.  And, the infectious ditty "The Worst Pies in London" moves along plot ingeniously.

Sarah Travis's clever orchestrations, reduced to accommodate the ten-member cast, bring out more with less.    Putting the instruments into the hands of the onstage characters gives this talented group of artists a singular sense of ownership and spontaneity over the music.

Not many can forget the imprimatur Lansbury stamped onto the Mrs. Lovett role--let alone one of the most memorable wigs in Broadway history.  Flipping those twisted locks, Lansbury presented a clownish old fogey with a touch of dementia.  Primed by her stabs at the role in concert productions and recordings, Lupone reinvents Mrs. Lovett as a far more sensuous and calculating woman.  And, when she marches across the stage of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre blowing a tuba, she proves  a comedic sight equal to the legend of Lansbury.

Michael Cerveris, more a baritone than a bass, presents a younger, more virile Sweeney than his great predecessors: Lou Cariou and George Hearn, whose timbres were darker and perhaps more sinister.  ).  While Sondheim purists may scoff at this liberal alteration, Cerveris pulls it off with crisp style.  His skinhead looks and eerie manner brings a 21^st century tilt to this Victorian outcast and by the sheer intensity of his performance, he manages to originate the role all over again.

Among the company of ten players, there isn't a single performance short of spectacular. Mark Jacoby is purely sinister as Judge Turpin.  Manoel Feliciano hauntingly pitiful as tender Tobias.  Donna Lynn Champlin a blustering Pirelli.  Alexander Gemignani a bull of a Beadle.  And, Benjamin Magnuson as Anthony and Lauren Molina as Johanna make astounding Broadway debuts as romantic innocents.

Still, the real star of this SWEENEY TODD is the brilliant staging by first-time Broadway director, John Doyle, who also designed the remarkable set.  His brand of utilitarianism results in a stunningly focused and entirely fresh piece of theatre.  Doyle's kaleidoscopic movement--with players switching from character to instrument in a single bar of music--is as engaging as it is inventive.  This sharp edged SWEENEY TODD, definitely cuts to the quick. .