Sweeney Todd
"The history of
the world is who gets eaten and who gets to eat."
I'm Isa Goldberg reporting
on the hit revival of SWEENEY TODD.
Stephen Sondheim's classic
story about a man who wreaks revenge is performed chamber music
style in this paired down production with Patti LuPone playing
the Tuba when she's not just singing and Michael Cerveris, the
guitar. The other actors also double on cello, base, violin and
a couple of winds along with some horns. Still, the true instrument
of justice, in this tale of bloody horrors, is the Barber's strop
and his razor which Cerveris wields over the heads of his victims
– one after the other.
But the story in this
production gets short shrift to the didactic interpretation. As
directed by John Doyle all of the action takes place on a single
set with a hand full of actors/instrumentalists such that the nuances
of the narrative and the mood, the elements that typically draw
audiences in, are sized down. Instead our emotions are held in
abeyance as we become observers rather than participants in the
struggles of the demon barber and his cannibal pie-making cohort,
Mrs. Lovett, the role Patti LuPone plays with a camp if not utterly
sinister sneer throughout. So when she sings "If ever there
was a material heart, that's mine" we almost imagine Madonna
as the meat for her next pie.
But there is a clear
vision to this rendition as we become the witnesses, not altogether
uncompassionate, to their struggle against the pitiful few who
rule. As you may already know, the apocryphal tale culled from
old English lore, is about is about a barber who, sent to prison
on a trumped up charge by a vindictive judge, becomes a serial
murderer.
When the judge is caught "the
fat's in the fire", but what does it get them after all? Sondheim's
music and lyrics are the dramatic focus of the production as they
should be. Played here without romantic nuance or deference to
the trappings of musical comedy as we know it, this production
really rocks. Especially Michael Cerveris who's bloody good.
That’s This Week on Broadway. I’m Isa Goldberg.
