The New York Philharmonic will present a staged production of Stephen Sondheim's Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, March 5-8, 2014. Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel will star as the title character. Sweeney Todd will be conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert and directed by Lonny Price, who directed and produced the Philharmonic's productions of Sondheim's Company in 2011, SONDHEIM: The Birthday Concert! in 2010, and Sweeney Todd in 2000.
Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
"It is always exciting when the
New York Philharmonic steps out of its traditional role to expand the notion of what an orchestra can be," said Music Director
Alan Gilbert. "Sondheim's Sweeney Todd is both powerful and exuberant, and the Philharmonic's performance of this score will again demonstrate just how outstanding a great Broadway show is when performed by the musicians of this great Orchestra. It will be especially thrilling with
Bryn Terfel, a remarkable actor as well as a legendary singer, in the title role, and I've enjoyed conferring with
Lonny Price about the characters and the role the music should play."
"I am always excited to return to the
New York Philharmonic, and particularly with
Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece Sweeney Todd," said
Lonny Price. "There is no orchestra in the world better suited to play this music, and I know under
Alan Gilbert's baton, Sweeney will scare, delight, and thrill Philharmonic audiences with the power of Mr. Sondheim's unparalleled work in the musical theater."
The Philharmonic presented a staged production of Sweeney Todd in May 2000 conducted by
Andrew Litton, directed by
Lonny Price, and starring
George Hearn and
Patti LuPone. The production was subsequently released on a
New York Philharmonic CD.
Bryn Terfel made his debut with the Orchestra in Mendelssohn's Elijah in December 1997, and appeared most recently with Mr. Gilbert and the Philharmonic in
Andrea Bocelli in Central Park, a performance on the Great Lawn on September 15, 2011, and subsequently televised and released on DVD.
Set in Victorian London, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street tells the story of the eponymous barber who seeks vengeance on what he sees as a merciless world by murdering his customers and, with the help of his landlady, the romantically inclined Mrs. Lovett, bakes their bodies into meat pies, which are fed to London's avid and unknowing populace. Sondheim's score pays homage to the music of Hollywood composer
Bernard Hermann. Highlights include "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "Not While I'm Around," "A
Little Priest," and "Pretty Woman."
With music and lyrics by
Stephen Sondheim and a book by
Hugh Wheeler, Sweeney Todd first opened on Broadway at the Uris Theatre on March 1, 1979, directed by
Harold Prince and starring
Len Cariou and
Angela Lansbury. The show received eight Tony Awards in 1979 - including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score - as well as 11 Drama Desk Awards and the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical. It has entered the mainstream through several revivals, productions in opera houses, and the 2007
Tim Burton film adaptation starring
Johnny Depp.
