Sweeney Todd (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Fans of Stephen Sondheim's grand guignol musical Sweeney Todd have this weekend left to see what in many ways is a remarkable production in South Pasadena.

Beginning back in the days of "penny dreadfuls" i.e. chapters of stories sold for a penny in Victorian England, the legend of Sweeney Todd the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street" has been simmering in the cultural background of the English-speaking world.  Whether based on any fragment of truth is not really relevant.  Something about a barber slitting the throats of his customers so his landlady Mrs. Lovett could use their corpses as meat for pies sold to the public grabbed the imagination.

Well, why not?  The very stuff of what we call Creepy Pasta today!

Sondheim's musical, based on a stage play re-imagining the tale, makes of this more than a period slasher piece.  It turns the whole thing into a dark morality play of sorts, a portrait of the consequences of casual cruelty as well as greed or just raw lust.  Todd (Jack L. Bennett) we learn is a man much wronged--his entire life destroyed because a powerful judge (M.Hayward Scott) lusted after his wife.  Returning to London much changed by years spent in the hell of Botany Bay, Todd learns from his former landlady Mr. Lovett (Gloria Bennett) his beloved Lucy ended up raped, then committing suicide.  His daughter Johanna (Serenity Robb) is now that same Judge's ward.  What begins as a relatively simple quest for revenge becomes something much worse--a nihilism that feels like glory, wherein all of this man's massive pain is diverted into a murderous rage that proves ecstatic!  "We all deserve to die" he sings, because "...the lives of the wicked should be made brief/to the rest of us death would be a relief!"

So how is this production?  Fundamentally it works, among other things due to an extremely well-done staging as well as a top-notch chorus who know they are there to do more than stand there then sing.  Nearly every performer has at least a few scenes where they shine.  More, the use of this tiny stage area works extremely well--including when the show spills into the audience!

Yet there are problems.  One member of the cast simply does...well, pretty close to nothing in their role.  The fact the production is so obviously copying things like costumes and makeup from other productions (like the Tim Burton film with Johnny Depp) says a lot.  So too the mixed nature of the dance and combat.  Sometimes very good, sometimes quite poor.

But again, the ensemble as a whole did a fine job.  The staging by director Mirai Booth-Ong is very fine indeed, as is the music itself under the music direction of Daniel Koh.  In the supporting cast I'd especially like to offer some praise to Liz Kelly Barone as the beggar woman (she literally sent chills up my spine near the climax of the play), Jacob Dalton as Pirelli (easily the most theatrical character in the show), Hudson Barone as the poignant, doomed Toby, and Grant Garry as the Beadle, who ultimately made the character so vivid and entertaining.

Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street plays Friday and Saturday (Jan. 31 and Feb.1) at 8pm, with 2pm matinees Saturday (Feb. 1) and Sunday (Feb. 2) at the Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave. (at El Centro), South Pasadena, CA 91030.