Review Roundup: What Did Critics Think of SWEENEY TODD at Reboot Theatre Company?

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd now through June 1 at Reboot Theatre Company.

Sweeney Todd has become a bloody, worldwide success since being awarded eight Tony's, (including Best Musical), for its Broadway premiere. Stephen Sondheim's and Hugh Wheeler's (A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures) tasty, thrilling, theatrical treat has simultaneously shocked, awed and delighted audiences across the world.

An infamous tale, Sweeney Todd, an unjustly exiled barber, returns to nineteenth century London, seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which, he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett's luck sharply shifts when Todd's thirst for blood inspires the integration of an ingredient into her meat pies that has the people of London lining up... and the carnage has only just begun!

Reboot Theatre Company's cast, directed by Julia Griffin, features: Mandy Rose Nichols as "Sweeney Todd," Alyssa Keene as "Mrs. Lovett," Harry Turpin as "Judge Turpin," Britt Allyson as "Anthony," Cammi Smith as "Johanna," Vincent Milay as "Pirelli," Kylee Gano as "The Beadle," Justine Davis as "Beggar Woman," Karin Terry as "Toby," and Emily Welter, Jessica Robins and Kevin Tanner as "Ensemble."

To purchase tickets, tap here.

Let's see what the critics had to say about Reboot's production in reviews listed below!

Jay Irwin, BroadwayWorld: But the story is so much more than killing and blood on stage as Sweeney should be an incredibly broken character, as should the Beggar Woman (Justine Davis) but instead are played off here as simply brooding or a joke. Director Julia Griffin has taken this story and obscured it in an attempt to make it "modern" by having the cast wander around with smart phones as if they were Tweeting out the tale of Sweeney Todd. And that leads us to problem number one. They're shouldn't be telling the tale to each other but to the audience and that connection with the audience to the story is killed as everyone is looking down, staring at their phones. Then introduce confusing at best, somewhat modern costumes from Barbara Klingberg and thus begins the murder of this show.

Joule Zelman, The Stranger: Nichols, coldly magnetic, plays up Sweeney's trauma, flinching when unexpectedly touched, glowering at a creeping societal rot no one else sees. Were they drawing on the idea of queer trauma, as Reboot's poster, featuring a torso with chest surgery scars, might suggest? The possibility remained just that, a possibility, quietly undermining the trope of justified rage as the purview of cis masculinity.

Gillian G. Gaar, North West Music Scene: Setting the show in present day London, with everyone brandishing cell phones, instead of the 19th century, saves the bother of having to worry about a fancy set design (the cell phones actually felt kind of gimmicky to me, but overall they weren't too distracting). This is a Sweeney Todd that strips everything back to the essentials, keeping the focus where it belongs - on the actors.

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