Sweeney Todd: A Tale Worth Attending

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by Hugh Wheeler; from an adaptation by Christopher Bond; originally directed on Broadway by Harold Prince; lighting design, Richard G. Jones; sound design, Dan Moses Schreier; wig and hair design, Paul Huntley; makeup design, Angelina Avallone; music director, David Loud; associate director, Adam John Hunter; music supervisor and orchestrations, Sarah Travis; directed and designed by John Doyle

Cast:
Mrs. Lovett, Judy Kaye; Sweeney Todd, David Hess*; Jonas Fogg, John Arbo; Tobias, Edmund Bagnell; Judge Turpin, Keith Buterbaugh; Beggar Woman, Diana DiMarzio; The Beadle, Benjamin Eakeley; Anthony, Benjamin Magnuson; Johanna, Lauren Molina; Pirelli, Katrina Yaukey

Performances: For a complete tour schedule, visit www.sweeneytoddtour.com. Current stop, Toronto, ON, Princess of Wales Theatre, Now through Dec. 9.
Box Office: 416-872-1212 or 800-461-3333, or online at www.mirvish.com

The controversial but intensely gripping John Doyle-directed Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's macabre musical Sweeney Todd received its national tour launch in Boston recently and was greeted with enthusiastic bravos and standing ovations by packed houses. Maybe it was the proximity to Halloween or the full moon that hovered over the Colonial Theatre during its run here that made audiences howl, but I somehow doubt it. I suspect it was instead the simple genius of exceptional material interpreted within a brilliant directorial vision and delivered by an immensely talented and inspired cast. In short, this Sweeney Todd is not to be missed.

Unlike the 1979 original or the two PBS concert versions that followed in 1982 and 2001, this tale of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who slits the throats of unsuspecting prey with his glistening tonsorial razor shies away from the grand theatrics that lightened its precursors' mood and suggested melodramatic pastiche. Instead it dispenses with the full pit orchestra, the singing ensemble, and the expansive sets and costumes and rivets our attention on just the 10 instrument-wielding and ever present characters who both sing and play the tale of Sweeney Todd. The effect is chilling – both horrifying and illuminating.

Doyle's Sweeney is set inside the walls of a squalid 19^th century London insane asylum. Its inmates emerge one by one to assume the roles of the villains and victims depicted within the terrible tale. The somewhat simpleminded but also observant young Tobias is this Bedlam's central figure. It is through his witness' traumatized eyes that the audience peers into the bereft and bloody world of Sweeney Todd and company.

As the story unfolds and musically tells how the unassuming barber Benjamin Barker descends into madness and transforms into an obsessed Sweeney bent on violent revenge, the actors seamlessly shift set pieces, instruments and the scene's focus, creating the illusion that we are observing their enacted delusions from behind protective one-way glass. A ladder becomes the ward Johanna's second-story bedroom prison where the lecherous Judge Turpin locks her away. It also later becomes her means of escape when the amorous sailor Anthony climbs upon it to receive her key. A coffin at times represents the floor of Sweeney's barber shop through which dead bodies pass and at other times the banquet table in Mrs. Lovett's pie shop where the very same bodies are later eaten as meat filling. This continual shifting of space and perspective boldly underscores the musical's tragic themes. Hope one minute irrevocably becomes despair the next. Society's power brokers – the haves as represented by the Dickensian judge and beadle – are nullified at the hands of the have nots who usurp their power in a bloody instant.

Cast members all handle Doyle's exquisite stage directions gracefully and fluidly. They also ably incorporate the musical instruments they play as if they were extensions of their own bodies. When Anthony and Johanna play matching cellos, for example, the strings express romanticism and humor as they sing "Kiss Me," then fear and anguish during "City on Fire!" Toby's violin playing goes from the light narrative of "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir" to the sad foreboding of "Not While I'm Around." Each time Mrs. Lovett strikes her little triangle, it's as if she's adding her own sarcastic commentary to the proceedings that she never takes quite seriously. Fitting each character and situation perfectly, the instruments themselves become punctuating voices of a Greek chorus.

The intense prism through which Doyle invites us to watch his Sweeney Todd allows the audience to see and hear all the subtle layers in Sondheim's masterpiece. It also challenges his actors to create nuanced performances that embrace realism while simultaneously rising musically to operatic heights. Have no fear. This touring cast expertly delivers the goods.

Judy Kaye as the opportunistic Mrs. Lovett leads the way with her amiably evil interpretation and her strong, sure singing voice. She is edgily comic when describing herself as the maker of "The Worst Pies in London" and when convincing Sweeney not to waste his waste in their Act I-ending tour de force duet, "A Little Priest." She is also coolly calculating and manipulative ("Poor Thing") and surprisingly romantic and vulnerable ("By the Sea"). While not quite as sinister or scruffy as her Broadway counterpart Patti LuPone, whom she understudied then replaced during a brief hiatus –Kaye's hair is perfectly coiffed and her costumes are irritatingly clean, starched and pressed – she does bring a steady undercurrent of immoral street survivor to the role.

As Sweeney, David Hess is more depressed automaton than demented avenger, but his obsession is all consuming and his pain is palpable. He also sings with a light, lyrical quality that makes his longing for his wife in "The Barber and His Wife" genuinely heartfelt and his ceremonial pre-shave duet with Judge Turpin, "Pretty Women," both beautiful and eerily haunting.

Edmund Bagnell as Toby is a quietly intense and somewhat innocent escort into Doyle's dark streets of London. When not directly in a scene, he plays his violin and watches the proceedings intently, at times seeming to signal warnings to other players with his eyes. When he sings, it is with the sweetness of a battered youth whose heart is miraculously still open to love. As the starry-eyed lovers Anthony and Johanna, Benjamin Magnuson and Lauren Molina reprise their Broadway roles, moving deftly from naïveté to disillusionment and despair. Diana DiMarzio as the Beggar Woman also comes to the tour from the Broadway production, and her hovering, almost mystical presence in "Ah, Miss," "Johanna" and "City on Fire!" in which she proclaims "mischief" in the air suggests ghosts from the past as well as premonitions of the future.

Keith Buterbaugh and Benjamin Eakeley ooze slithery contempt as the villainous Judge Turpin and The Beadle, respectively. Buterbaugh's self-recriminating but never truly repentant "Johanna" is particularly blood curdling, while Eakeley's "Ladies and Their Sensitivities" is both soothing on the ears and unsettling in the heart.

Rounding out the cast are Katrina Yaukey as the snake oil peddling itinerant barber Pirelli and John Arbo as the self righteous asylum administrator, Jonas Fogg. When not center stage, both lend a measure of heightened cynicism to the proceedings by exchanging knowing glances and smug silent commentary. During her big moment in "The Contest" when Pirelli competes with Sweeney for best barber honors, Yaukey's crystalline soprano mimics an Italian castrati's falsetto. Later her swaggering accordion playing after her death taunts Toby's simple nature just as her arrogant condescension did while she was alive.

For those of us who saw the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival with the truly diabolical yet wounded Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett and the mesmerizing Michael Cerveris as Sweeney, comparisons are inevitable. For those who didn't, however, this touring production is a magnificently realized musical tale of one man's tragedy set against a swirl of human inequities. It's potent, visceral, and dangerous – and remarkably entertaining.

*David Hess is currently out of the tour due to vocal strain. He will return on December 31. Understudy David Garry performs through November 11. Alexander Gemignani will then assume the role of Sweeney Todd from November 13 through December 30.

PHOTOS by David Allen: The company of Sweeney Todd; Judy Kaye as Mrs. Lovett and David Hess as Sweeney; Edmund Bagnell as Tobias and Judy Kaye; Lauren Molina as Johanna and Benjamin Magnuson as Anthony