Attend the tale...

of Sweeney Todd!

Tonight I saw Sweeney Todd at ACT. It was the John Doyle version that had been the 2006 revival on Broadway. It was BEAUTIFUL. I hadn't known that it wasn't an all new version and had done no research on it in advance so I was mostly curious to see if they had changed the old Eugene Lee set, which is usually essentially a big box where the barber shop is located on top and the pie shop is the lower level. The coolest effect that the box usually does is where Sweeney slices a customer's throat who then slides down a chute while the box is rotating and shoots through into the meat processing room in the back and is promptly moved into a storage unit or furnice or giant meat grinder (depending on the show). The "box" was really a very elegant solution that has been used in countless productions since the original in (1973? I think.) Here is a clip of it, you really only need to watch the beginning to get the idea... couldn't find the throat slitting scene though;


The Revival version is stunning. The whole show takes place in a room made with a slatted floor and back wall. In the center of the back wall is a shelf that reaches towards the ceiling with a piano at the base.



When the curtian rises at the top of the show, we see a room filled with Victorian-esque musicians and a man in striped pajamas and a straight jacket staring out at the house. The man is ungagged and the straight jacket is removed just in time for him to sing the first line... "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd..." In the center of the stage is a black slatted coffin. The lid is lifted and from inside the coffin rises Sweeney Todd. Throughout the show they use the coffin as Joanna's room, Sweeney's office, the pub table, and so on and so forth.

I had initially been looking forward to seeing a bloodbath that I would not have to clean up but after seeing the very first scene I knew that it was going to be stylized. A throat being slit was made gruesome by red light and a bucket of blood being poured into another bucket, real foley sound.

I was so happy to see this show. There were no "pie" props, there was no literal blood, there were no realistic backdrops or fog. It was all in your imagination. This director actually wanted to take his audience on a journey that engaged the audience and made us meet them on the way there. I get so sick of theater that tries to be as realistic as humanly possible. It's just spoon feeding the audience and doesn't make them get involved. Film does verisimilitude pretty well, theater is a totally different medium and I am of the school that thinks we don't need to try to compete with film. I thought that the new version lacked some of the human connections that the traditional staging did very well. It wasn't as tragic when the beggar woman was killed or clear about the relationship between Mrs. Lovett and Toby (which is usually heart-wrenching). I think that it was partially a little more stilted with connections because the actors spent a lot of time facing out towards the audience rather than looking at who they were singing to. An added element to this production however was that every actor with the exception of Sweeney played an instrument. (The Sweeney in the Broadway version looks like he played acoustic guitar, but ours didn't) The casting was amazing because each performer had to play the appropriate instrument, look the part and sing the range of their character. It wasn't %100 on the money. Antony was a little tubby but had the most amazing tenor that it was fully forgiven, and the Beadle who is usually a 50ish fat guy was played by a drop dead georgious 30-something, but again between his acting and voice, all was forgiven. The judge played a muted trumpet, the lovers both played cello, Toby played violin... this was all live sound and as a former violin student it was obvious that everyone holding a stringed instrument had been TRAINED for years on their instruments, I can only assume the wind instruments were also played with expertise. I'll say it again; It was Beautiful.

Here is the clip from the Tony's of the revival production. I think it gives you a good sampler of the show. I wish I could have taken you all with me because most of you that I know read my blog would have loved it as much as I did. Sometimes it's nice to just be an audience member.