Less than a week after the opening of "Sunday In the Park With George" opened on Broadway, another Stephen Sondheim classic, "Sweeney Todd," opened Wednesday night in a much smaller setting off-Broadway. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following report.
"Sweeney Todd" lands on our shores in a fully immersive production that puts the audience in the middle of the musical's carnage. It's a stripped-down production featuring a lean and very mean company of performers that sing their guts out, and they kill it!
The London import was originally staged in an actual pie shop. And so to keep it real, the Barrow Street theatre has been converted to look just like the famed Harrington's Pie And Mash Shop where audiences are treated to a very tasty meal before showtime.
The story of a crazed barber bent on revenge 15 years after his wife and daughter were taken by a corrupt judge is enacted by just eight performers and three musicians. But nothing's been lost in the process. In fact, it's enhanced in many ways.
The intimate space lets us hear Sondheim's gloriously complex score loud and clear, and it gives us new appreciation for his searing lyrics.
And when Sweeney starts slashing throats and his accomplice Mrs. Lovett cooks up the corpses into meat pies, it's especially ghoulish as the audience is thrust right into the middle of the action.
Four of the cast members are from the original British production.
Jeremy Secomb as Sweeney is truly terrifying with his booming voice and chilling death stare.
Siobhan McCarthy is a very intuitive actress. Her comic timing is impeccable, even as her Mrs. Lovett is a sympathetic creature.
Duncan Smith playing the villainous Judge Turpin and Joseph Taylor as the urchin Tobias are top shelf.
The new cast members, Brad Oscar as The Beadle, Matt Doyle as romantic lead Anthony, Alex Finke playing the ingenue Johanna and Betsy Morgan, taking on both the beggar woman and Pirelli, are equally gifted.
And as audiences contentedly digest their pies and mash, they get to watch a truly first-class company chew the scenery and then some.
The production helmed by The Tooting Arts Club Associate Director Bill Buckhurst breathes new life into Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's popular classic. But given the limited seating, good luck getting a ticket. It may cost you an arm and a leg…really!