Sunday, September 23, 2012

Sweeney Todd Review

Sweeney Todd
Adelphi Theatre, London

I had seen this production this time last year at Chichester and I enjoyed  it so much that I wanted to see it again. I am becoming increasingly interested in Stephen Sondheim's work and in addition it was an opportunity to see Michael Ball again.

A barber, Benjamin Barker (Michael Ball), returns to London under the name of Sweeney Todd, after being wrongly deported as a convict years ago by the corrupt Judge Turpin (John Bowe). He meets Mrs Lovett (Imelda Staunton), who owns a pie shop below his barber shop, through whom he learns that he wife is dead and that Judge Turpin has adopted his daughter, Joanna (Lucy May Barker). Sweeney plans to take revenge and kill the judge, as well as help a sailor, Anthony (Luke Brady), rescue Joanna, whom Anthony has fallen in love with. In preparation Sweeney goes on a killing spree and slit the throats of his customers with his razors. The bodies are then used as fillings in Mrs Lovett's pies.

You have to hand it to Stephen Sondheim. He can compose some detailed pieces of music, which as a result are catchy and memorable. Do not expect a plot driven musical because his songs are based around the characters. The upside to this though is that the songs are written using some interesting and witty quirks. Best example of this would be A Little Priest, where Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett use rhyming couplets when commenting on the different pie fillings, from priest, poet, politician, and so on, with such humorous panache. It is like being at a pie tasting event.

I did find that the cast delivered less than they did a year ago. Michael Ball is still an outstanding, though he sounded better when he sang on his own. I still like his Sweeney Todd. When I saw this the first time I was worried that he would not be able to pull it off. However he uses his light tone of voice to effectively present an unstable and menacing Todd. The star of the show is still Imelda Staunton as Mrs Lovett. She was consistently clear when singing the lyrics. She perfected the role of a coarse middle-aged woman, and she brought her own ideas to the role.

The supporting actors were on the whole competent in their roles. Luke Brady and Lucy May Barker made a lovely couple as Anthony and Joanna, but they occasionally struggled to sing clearly and to perfect the high notes. Lucy could be too high pitched at times. James McConville was difficult to hear clearly as Toby during Pirelli's Miracle Elixir, which was disappointing. John Bowe though stood out as Judge Turpin, who was quite the righteous yet sexually neurotic fiend.

Whilst the musical was originally set in Victorian times, this version has set it in the era of the Great Depression. This mean it loses the original's exaggerated caricatures, and whilst this era fits with Mrs Lovett's line that "times is hard", it does not explain Sweeney's deportation long after this had been abolished. On the other hand, the sight of a dingy factory adds to the musical's dark tone. The factory whistle in this production does not produce enough velocity to create the sound that is like an ear-piercing scream, though to me it was a relief.

I think it is good that this production is now coming to the end of its run, but Sweeney Todd has had a great run. Well done to Michael Ball for taking on a serious role with aplomb. Imelda Staunton was truly outstanding as Mrs Lovett, though the same could not be said for the supporting cast overall. Although it did have its problems, the set did well in establishing the atmosphere of the musical. I would have given the Chichester production a High Full Price, but this is worth a low Top Price

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