Sweeney Todd: Children Will Listen... Will Audiences?

When the audience enters the Eugene O'Neill Theatre for director/designer John Doyle's Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd the first thing they see is what looks like a large abstract painting masking the stage. With broad, hard strokes of black, dark blues and purples, it's the type of design that inspires mood rather than suggesting a specific form. It's one of those pieces where someone eventually asks the artist the inevitable question, "What does it mean?" And the answer is, of course, "What do you think it means?"

And perhaps that's the way Doyle intended us to approach this production of the Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler musical, first directed by Harold Prince on a grand operatic scale and traditionally performed in a similar manner. Doyle's mounting is an intimate, abstract vision of the show. The text is all there, as far as the dialogue, lyrics and music is concerned -- maybe a few minor revisions, but Sondheim is still around to approve or reject -- but there are inexplicables and points open to interpretation throughout the evening.

Before a note of music is played the scene is set in a mental institution of unclear time and location. A patient is having his straitjacket removed. Only after his arms are freed does he begin with the familiar words, "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd", and the ten member ensemble, all participating as chorus member and as musicians playing Sarah Travis' chamber orchestrations, perform the story of a Victorian barber who goes on a mad killing spree while seeking revenge on the judge who unjustly imprisoned him, raped his wife and now intends to marry his daughter. When the musical proper is done (and I'm not giving anything away here) the same actor is bound again. What happened in between seems intentionally vague. Is it the material being presented as the delusions of a madman? Are the inmates of the asylum performing the play as a sort of recreation? Is the character in the straightjacket actually a character from the musical who has since been institutionalized?

And while we're at it, why are the characters playing instruments anyway? Why is the male character of Pirelli being played by a woman? Why does that little white casket first represent a chair and then later represents a person? Don't ask. Just look at this production with the same eye with which you might inspect Jackson Pollack drippings or Salvador Dali surrealist nightmares. You'll lose the specifics, but you'll gain just as much, if not more, in the abstract and the unlikely. Like the harshly bright lighting by Richard G. Jones that turns rancid colors with each diabolical act. The untraditional use of stage blood that welcomes each killing. Or the completely out of period Louise Brooks wig Paul Huntley provides for Patti LuPone's Mrs. Lovett.

There's been much controversy in the use of actors as the orchestra, which I'll leave to the unions to hash out. But labor issues aside, esthetically it works here. The reason is that the actors play instruments in character. When not directly a part of the scene, the actors and their instruments are staged in tableaus that take the place of scenery. When they play, they are acting. Watch Benjamin Magnuson's frantic cello bowing take the place of a chorus of lunatics during "City on Fire". See Donna Lynne Champlin, as Todd's first victim, taunting him with her accordion as he sings "Epiphany". Enjoy Patti LuPone translating her attempts to charm and seduce her neighbor into bawdy displays on the tuba and various percussion instruments. And while it's all happening, keep in mind that they are working together without a conductor.

And even if the reasons behind some artistic choices are not always clear, what are astoundingly clear in this production are Sondheim's lyrics. With the small ensemble and eerily subdued orchestrations, I found myself hearing words and phrases that my ear never completely took in before. Friends who have seen many productions of Sweeney Todd have told me that they've also been surprised at hearing lyrics with amazing clarity. And newcomers to the piece who actively listen with a greater intensity than most Broadway shows require will find that although there is no location-specific scenery and no unifying period of costume, Sondheim's lyrics and Wheeler's book do contain the necessary information needed to follow the plot. But you can't just sit back and let this one wash over you. Complete and aggressive attention is required. We may not get the opportunity to witness "man devouring man" in this one, but the verbal images are there for us to piece together ourselves.

This is not a prettily sung Sweeney Todd, nor is it meant to be. As in a Kurt Weill/Bertold Brecht piece, there is a universal roughness to the vocals. It's a style that suits the two leads spectacularly. Michael Cerveris is all grit and quiet sadistic humor in the title role. Without the operatic flourishes of traditional Sweeneys his thirst for revenge is raw, cold and ruthless. And this could very well be the finest matching of performer, role and interpretation that Patti LuPone could ask for. Her low-key dexterity with comedy lyrics peppered with moments of bawdy vulgarity never overshadow her character's blind affection for her murderous partner. Through all the madness and bloodshed she's playing a love story, making her final moments on stage all the more shocking, realistic and horrifying.

They are backed by a solid ensemble of supporting players, featuring Manoel Felciano as a pathetic Tobias, Champlin as a bombastically silly Pirelli, Mark Jacoby finding sympathetic sides to Judge Turpin and Alexander Gemignani mining deadpan humor as Beadle. Lauren Molina and Benjamin Magnuson play lovers Johanna and Anthony without the slightest trace of syrup and good work is also provided by Diana DiMarzio as the beggar woman and John Arbo as Fogg.

It was recently announced that Doyle will be directing another Sondheim piece, Company, using the same actor/musician concept found in Sweeney Todd, as well as in several of his previous productions. I can see it being very successful. Would such a concept work for West Side Story or Follies? I doubt it. And I doubt if this is the start of a new era that will require all musical theatre actors to take up an instrument. What we have here is an artist with a very specific eye for making visual drama out of an element that is usually left unseen. It's very exciting and for whatever reasons that may not be totally clear, it works.

Photos by Paul Kolnik: Top: (l-r) Lauren Molina, Benjamin Magnuson, Alexander Gemignani, Patti LuPone, Michael Cerveris, Diana DiMarzio, Manoel Felciano, Mark Jacoby, John Arbo, Donna Lynne Champlin
Center: Manoel Felciano and Patti LuPone
Bottom: Michael Cerveris and Donna Lynne Champlin