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A stinging ‘Sweeney Todd’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. GRADE: A-
If you are beholden to the Tim Burton style of “Sweeney Todd” — the bloody sausage grinding, London at its dreariest Dickensian extreme — it may take you a moment to adjust to the radically streamlined version of the Stephen Sondheim masterpiece at the Fox Theatre.
The 1979 Broadway original had a cast of nearly 30, plus a full-out orchestra. British director John Doyle’s knockout revival, which arrived in New York three years ago and is now on its national tour, numbers but 10 performers — a nimble bunch that’s required to double as actors and play all the music, too.
It’s a nifty trick and a glorious transformation, but a show that also tasks the imagination to fill in the details of the demonic barber shop and the oleaginous pastry shop, where Mrs. Lovett chirpily purveys the “The Worst Pies in London.” (For the uninitiated, “Sweeney” is the tale of a London barber who loses his wife and daughter to a lascivious judge, then returns years later to extract his revenge.)
Doyle offers no swelling choruses, blazing furnaces or trap doors for dispatching Todd’s victims into the bowels of the theater. Instead, he trades the conventional horizontal sprawl of spectable for a crisp verticality that pins the action onto a space that’s as lean and narrow as a razor strap. Come to think about it, his visual aesthetic is not unlike Walter Bobbie’s straight-forward, jury-box design for the long-running “Chicago” revival.
This is not to say that emotional flavor of the material has been reduced to Sondheim lite. Yes, the zombie-like acting may take a little getting used to, and the first couple of scenes can feel a little scattershot and clinical.
But everything feels right once Judy Kaye’s Mrs. Lovett arrives — so warm and human, so full of bustle and bounce. To her credit, Kaye lacks the heavily mascara’ed diva factor that Broadway’s Patti LuPone applied to her Mrs. Lovett — and the wispy waifishness of Helena Bonham-Carter ’s film characterization, while David Hess’ Sweeney trades the inward brood of Johnny Depp and cone-headed intensity of Broadway’s Michael Cerveris for a sturdy, handsome efficiency.
Reprising their Broadway roles are Benjamin Magnuson and Lauren Molina as Anthony and Johanna, who both play cello and sing beautifully, and clarinet/keyboard player Diana DiMarzio as the Beggarwoman. One could quibble that Edmund Bagnell’s Tobias is a tad too twitchy. But for the most part, it’s a first-rate ensemble.
With its coffins, straitjackets and blood-spattered white coats, this “Sweeney” brings to mind lunatic asylums and nights of the living dead. A chamber-size piece fairly dripping with elegant design and raw visceral theatricality, it packs its punch with shrill whistles and crimson lights. A keening meditation on lust, desire, sorrow, despair, revenge and the desperate, gnawing nature of 11th-hour romance, “Sweeney Todd” cuts to the bone with an astringent slap.
A meat pie, a clean shave. Nothing to worry about, dear.
THE 411: 8 p.m. tonight-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday. 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. $19-$55. Broadway Across America-Atlanta, Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Midtown. 404-817-8700, ticketmaster.com
Bottom line: Attend the tale.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Comments
By David
May 31, 2008 1:26 AM | Link to this
I admit that I am a Sondheim fan.The staging to this revival that was on Broadway a couple of years ago is brilliant!
By stephanie
June 3, 2008 7:03 PM | Link to this
Interesting review. I was fortunate enough to catch Sweeny Todd live in London. I saw Tim Burton’s film two years later. I enjoyed the stage production much more! I was beholden by the theater style before the movie.