Sondheim’s dark, operatic masterpiece gets a superbly staged production with knockout leads and inventive design.

Love. Innocence. Murder. Sound familiar? Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street condenses these into a tight, compelling ball of musical theatre. At the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Ent Center for the Performing Arts, Theatreworks has mounted an unforgettable staging of it.

Widely considered one of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpieces, Sweeney Todd is set in Victorian England. Before the story opens, Judge Turpin (Jonathan Hays) has raped the wife of Benjamin Barker, framed Barker for another crime and exiled him to a penal colony for 15 years. As the show opens, Barker, now calling himself Sweeney Todd (Shabazz Green), returns to London, bent on revenge against the evil judge and finding his infant daughter, Johanna (Donna Bella Litton).

A rival barber, Pirelli (Sam Fairley), discovers Todd’s true identity and tries to blackmail him. Todd slits his throat and embarks on a career of murder, which his landlady, Mrs. Lovett (Jennifer DeDominici), finds a way to monetize.

Innocence is threaded with degradation throughout the work. The love songs of Anthony (Luke Nelson) and Johanna are interrupted by murder and panic in the streets. Sondheim’s sweetly weird tonal palette sets up a recognizable but off-kilter world. The melodies are hummable but depart from standard major or minor scales.

Director Michael Lluberes and the production team serve this vision superbly. The verticality of Eli Sherlock’s scenic design has characters emerging from the depths of the stage or peering down from the heights. In Act II, the “meat” pies, which were served up from below in Act I, are hawked from the highest point on the stage.

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The in-the-round design on the lower level immerses the audience in the city. We feel part of a large, raucous crowd, even though the cast itself is rather small.

Shabazz Green and Jonathan Hays in ‘Sweeney Todd’ at Theatreworks. | Photo: Isaiah Downing

Solid technical details

Strong sound and lighting design support the action. Large shadows loom on either side of Judge Turpin as he prays to resist the temptation to violate his innocent ward. The lighting flames as desperate people take to the streets in “City on Fire.” Sudden spotlights and shrill mechanical screeches highlight each step of Todd’s murderous career.

Rosely Conz’s choreography is especially impressive in “God, That’s Good!,” which opens Act II. It enacts the chaos of a population increasingly panicked by rumors of murder while the Beggar Woman takes advantage of the hysteria to steal a pie.

Shabazz Green and Jennifer DeDominici are terrific as the murderous pair. Their duet closing Act I, “A Little Priest,” is a tour de force. Green possesses a lyric tenor whose sweetness, incongruously coupled with Todd’s brutal behavior, echoes the musical’s fundamental opposition. When he charges the audience singing, “We all deserve to die,” it’s a verdict hurled at everyone.

Jennifer DeDominici’s Mrs. Lovett is every bit as unsettling. The character combines the maternal and the malignant in a noxious brew. DeDominici portrays someone who coexists comfortably with atrocity.

Other cast standouts include Rebecca Myers as the Beggar Woman, who thinks she recognizes Todd when he first returns to London. Initially, the character seems incidental to the story, a bit of Dickensian set dressing. Myers captures the character’s desperation and spite, keeping her interesting until the ultimate disclosure of her past.

Sam Fairley has great fun as Pirelli, Todd’s rival. His florid Italian accent makes an instant impression and provides much of the show’s humor.

Judge Turpin is the unmitigated villain of the piece. Jonathan Hays manages to squeeze a bit of pathos out of his creepy struggle with temptation. He also subtly shows the character’s delusions of nobility.

Sweeney Todd is operatic. Big, overstated, it swings for the bleachers — and Theatreworks has knocked it out of the park.

‘Sweeney Todd’ at Theatreworks | Photo: Isaiah Downing