Theater Review - "Sweeny Todd"

THEATER REVIEW - Sweeney Todd - Produced by: Theatre Three, Port Jefferson

Reviewed by: Jeb Ladouceur 

 ‘Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,’ didn’t have a particularly long life span at New York’s Uris Theatre; it opened there in March, 1979 … and closed in June of ’80, after 557 stellar performances. As Broadway musicals go, the show was a success, of course … but was hardly spectacular in its duration on the Great White Way.

Extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, this relatively brief run is rather surprising in view of the seven Tony awards … and eight New York Drama Critics Circle awards that ‘Sweeney’ garnered. The critics and theatergoing public alike were in obvious agreement—with Len Cariou excelling as the malevolent star in the musical’s title role, and Angela Lansbury as his darkly comic accomplice— Stephen Sondheim’s gruesome show was a bloody hit!

Now ‘Sweeney Todd’ and his grisly collaborators have come to Long Island. Led by Steve McCoy (the sympathetic, but convincingly ruthless barber), Suzanne Mason (his delightfully cold blooded coconspirator) and Linda May (the beggar woman who ties everything together in a standout performance) the presentation is breathtaking in its overall artistic brilliance.

Conceptually, this play is not a far cry from Stanley Ellin’s cannibalistic masterpiece, ‘The Specialty of the House,’ a short story wherein unlucky gourmand’s are selected regularly to be served up as stew to members of an epicurean brotherhood. As in that famous tale, we don’t know who this story’s next victim might be, because the wrongfully imprisoned ex-convict (Sweeney), having apparently lost his wife and daughter to a villain of Simon Legree proportions, has sworn revenge on the world at large.

All of Sweeney’s various victims willingly and unwittingly climb the stairs to the vindictive barber’s second story tonsorial parlor (conveniently located above Mrs. Lovett’s Meat Pie Shoppe), there to receive …the closest shave they’ve ever had…before being killed and dumped in a sort of laundry chute that leads to the basement meat grinder. Furthermore, no one is immune from swift dispatch via Sweeney’s straight razor … not even Generals, as a stanza in one clever number tells us … nor, for that matter, his privates! Anyone might wind up in one of Mrs. Lovett’s tasty pies. “God, that’s good!” the Act II song goes. Yum!

All this activity requires a high degree of theatrical virtuosity, naturally, and if there ever was a more ingeniously devised stage set than the one designer Randall Parsons has created for this show, I haven’t seen it. The three-level rendering in rowdy old London is absolutely fantastic. What’s more, it is incredibly well lit by Robert W. Henderson, Jr. Truly, this team has served up a ghostly, yet vibrant venue for the ages, and Ronald Green III’s costumes could not supplement it more effectively.

‘Sweeney Todd’ has a cast of two dozen, and not a single member of the company seemed uncomfortable in his or her assigned role. The action is fast-paced, and the actors climb or descend to their appointed locations on stage with ballet-like confidence and grace. It’s the sort of precision we’ve come to expect from director Jeffrey Sanzel, but credit choreographer Sari Feldman as well. Her work in “Les Miserables” resulted in similar meticulousness.

Jackson Kohl’s seven-piece orchestra was flawless, as always, with Marni Harris and Annette Perry shining on violin and cello respectively. Theatre Three can be proud indeed of the memorable production kicking off its 2015 – 2016 season. The show runs thru October 24^th.

________________________________________________________________________

Award-winning writer, Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eleven novels, and his theater and book reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. His newest book, THE GHOSTWRITERS, explores the bizarre relationship between Harper Lee and Truman Capote. He will introduce the novel at the Smithtown Library’s Main Branch on Monday, November 9. Ladouceur’s website is www.JebsBooks.com.

 

Comments

[Marguerite Rochelle Zangrillo]

I saw this play many years ago and from then on I've looked askance at a bowl of stew, and never did I partake of even a spoonful unless I made it myself.
Despite the ghoulish plot of the play it was, nonetheless, very comical.