Sweeney Todd

William was good enough to plan an evening for us all to see the national tour of Sweeney Todd. So Michelle, Will, Michael, his friend, and (a last minute) Phil all sat down to see John Doyle's vision of the murderous barber of Fleet Street. In this minimal production, the musical is set in an asylum where every prop is symbolic, mostly due to the fact that all of the performers provide their own accompaniment and are carrying around instruments.


I saw Doyle's production of Company and the instruments really added to the relationships of the characters. I think it was more successful because it is a more intimate show with a small cast and no spectacle. Okay, back to Sweeney:

So let's just begin by saying that everyone on stage was very talented. Playing in between singing while acting is perhaps one of the most difficult things I've seen on stage and yet, they made it look effortless. I really liked the production overall.

I've seen video recordings of past productions, the movie and a stage version of it at school. So seeing this production was like watching the "bonus features" at the end of a movie. It was a new way of looking at the characters and highlighting different things in the plot and score. I would have missed a lot if I had never seen the show before, though. The amount of people that he kills, the big bake ovens, and the full sound of the opening number are just a few things that this production lacks.

Anyway, the show was good and left me singing "A Little Priest"... mmm shepherd's pie.