Western Michigan University Theatre opened its production of “Sweeney Todd” last Friday. It continues through Apr 25.
Staging Stephen Sondheim’s musical, “Sweeney Todd” is a daunting undertaking for any theatre.
Challenges include a complex and operatic musical score for vocalists, chorus, and orchestra. Special props and set requirements are necessary for the smooth and timely flow of the action onstage. There is also the difficult task of presenting a host of despicable characters who embrace acts of corporal mutilation, and executing the delivery of Sondheim’s clever, nuanced, and rapid-fire lyrics.
Finally, the plot summary of “Sweeny Todd” reads like a criminal’s rap sheet full of mayhem, betrayal, murder, throat slitting, and ravenous, cannibalistic consumption of human meat pies.
Some might wonder how anyone can like this show, or not run screaming into the street?
But last Friday evening a wildly enthusiastic audience, joined by this reviewer, warmly embraced Western Michigan University Theatre’s overpowering opening night performance of Sondheim’s masterwork, as Director Jay Berkow’s carefully crafted, memorable production more than met all challenges listed above.
The story, set in England during 1846, begins with the return of a falsely accused prisoner, the show’s title character, to a London he hardly recognizes. His former business as a barber is gone, his wife is presumed dead, and his daughter, Johanna is now the ward of the man who sentenced him, the powerful Judge Turpin. In response, Sweeney vows revenge on the world.
Because his retribution is thoroughgoing and rendered in such a gruesome manner, a key element in this production’s success depends on the tonal balance that tempers horror with comedy.
From beginning to end, Berkow’s production of this “black operetta” is not lacking in its depiction of abject horror and the decidedly unsavory side of human nature. With somber chords and inner rhymes, an ominous ensemble chorus beckons us to attend this cautionary tale of a man who “serves a dark and a vengeful god” in the prelude “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.”
Andrea Imsland’s appropriately drab set provides a functional backdrop for the play’s action, with the dull, coal soot smudged shops of Fleet Street and a suggestion of factories, and foundries looming close behind the neighborhood.
Jack Austin commands audience attention through his inhabitation of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with a menacing downward chin tilt and sidelong glances from dark, hollowed-out eyes.
As Sweeney dispassionately dispatches each customer from his tonsorial chair to the culinary transformation awaiting below, the single bold stroke of his razor across the throat of his victim is accompanied by the shriek of a steam whistle and bell, signifying the end of an Industrial Age work shift, as well as the end of a life. After a failed attempt to exact more than his due from Judge Turpin in the stark and nihilistic “Epiphany,” Sweeney swears “We all deserve to die. Even you, Mrs. Lovett, even I.”
In contrast to Austin’s brooding portrayal, are the effervescent antics of Savannah Lee’s Mrs. Lovett, who becomes Sweeney’s willing accomplice in improving the protein content of her previously bland meat pies.
Lee’s ebullient presence lifts the show’s energy and provides the comic relief that serves as a digestif, allowing viewers to stomach the otherwise repulsive carnal diet served to Lovett’s eager and unsuspecting customers. In “A Little Priest,” an audience favorite and a delicious, macabre, comedic romp closing Act I, Sweeney and Lovett combine to celebrate the palate pleasing virtues of pies made from squires, grocers, and vicars.
Austin and Lee are adept at handling the complexity of Sondheim’s lyrics. Early on, Austin’s Sweeney effortlessly rips through patter song sections of “No Place Like London,” aided by Peter Stoycos as Anthony and Madison Medland as the Beggar Woman. This initial number introduces Sweeney as one in control of his surroundings and reveals Austin to be a performer fully in control of formidable musical selections.
Shortly after, Lee firmly establishes her resourceful character’s sunny outlook and willingness to partner with Sweeney in a cheerful rendition of “The Worst Pies in London.”
Strong vocals are also provided by Brendan Andrea, as Judge Turpin. While he sits in the barber’s chair, Andrea’s bass joins with Austin’s baritone in the seductive “Pretty Women.” Temptation is tinged with terror as Sweeney prepares his razor.
As Beadle, Turpin’s obsequious servant, Zeb Fulcher shows remarkable range in several numbers including the seemingly never-ended medley of “Parlor Songs” meant to entertain Lovett.
The young lovers in “Sweeney Todd” provide additional respite from the horrors of Fleet Street. They are tenor Peter Stoycos as Anthony, and soprano Maya Narayan, as Johanna, Sweeney’s long-lost daughter. The couple begins their threatened romantic relationship in “Ah Miss,” and seals it with an embrace in the soaring duet “Kiss Me.”
“City on Fire,” a number that is both provocative and startling is delivered as the lunatics escape from the asylum where Johanna has been hidden. Here, the vocal power of the ensemble chorus is on display as it surrounds the audience, literally and aurally, embodying the conflagrations consuming the city, and the wreckage of the bodies soon to be littering the stage.
After a rousing reprise of “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” and the cast’s exit after the curtain call, director Berkow selects one haunting final image of warning to leave us with as this tale of vengeance concludes: Sweeney’s barber chair, starkly lit in a pool of white light.