The production in Lafayette features breakout performances and a strong ensemble
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is an ambitious production effort by The Arts HUB filled with both horror and comedy portraying Sweeney not so much a villain as a victim. You almost see his humanity.
With music and lyrics by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler, Sweeney Todd was inspired by Christopher Bond’s 1970 play written in the Victorian penny dreadful tradition. The musical tells the tale of a homicidal, revengeful barber who is a casualty of wicked deeds done 15 years ago, and the conniving widow whose greed transforms Sweeney’s victims into lunch for her patrons.
There is no unhinged bloodthirst in Director Tracey Warren’s production of Sweeney Todd. Sweeney (Jeremiah Martinez) is a human being, though a strange one. Most of Martinez’s performance is a snarling, stone-faced or brooding Sweeney — and rightly so. But, when he does swing his razor, it doesn’t invoke terror. You can almost understand what drove him to where he is. Martinez’s character shines most in songs such as “No Place Like London” or “Pretty Women,” as Sweeney prepares to murder the judge who raped his wife and abducted their baby daughter, Johanna.
Comedic humor abounds in Amy Sheff’s performance as Mrs. Lovett. Sheff’s Lovett is a brutal schemer using kookiness as a cover, like when she bows to the judge halfway down the stairs from the barber. She maintains this posture as she bumps all the way to the bottom of the flight. With a brilliant accent, she makes Sweeney smile during “A Little Priest,” and she hilariously executes her romantic and domestic attempts on an impassive Sweeney during “By the Sea.”
An array of talent
The ambitious efforts of this small community theater boast an excellent array of talent both in the ensemble (amazing voices) and the pack of stock characters that fill the small stage. Horror and comedy fight it out from one song to the next with this cast. There’s Anthony, the jubilant sailor played earnestly by Chris Warren, who gushes over and falls for Sweeney’s daughter Johanna (Sabrina Patten). Patten does justice to an otherwise bland character with her truly incredible voice. There’s the crooked Judge Turpin (Matt Lewis), whose deep voice makes his character even more icky, and his oleaginous lackey Beadle Bamford — played in the most enjoyable way by Joe Mondragon. Natalie Simpson’s deranged Beggar Woman carries emotional weight and makes you wish her part was bigger as she is cast aside with increasing brutality. Finally, the orphan Tobias Ragg (Michael Spahn) and the flamboyant Italian barber Adolfo Pirelli (Bennet Forsyth) bring comedic joy during “Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir.”
The set presented some challenges for the cast. | Photo: Morgan Elizabeth
Tricky set
The characters are sometimes obscured or simply swallowed by Nathan Dow’s vast moving set. The set design, although enterprising, isn’t quite successful. Martinez’s character is often “upstairs,” placing him on a platform behind a sight-line-spoiling railing, while Sheff prowls the stage. While I saw the preview, where some glitches are expected, it’s not clear that they’ll be able to work out some of the complicated set moves, such as turning the large set as the scenes change and needing to also detach the stairs to do so.
The stage effects reflect a fabulous effort. Sweeney’s trick barber chair is a production in itself, with corpses sliding off the chair, down a hidden “chute” and into Lovett’s bakehouse. Erin Thibodaux’s lighting is spot on, hitting the barber’s knife just right when it’s raised, and the use of the spotlight to symbolize the gun shot in the asylum is well done.
Although there are issues with execution, the breadth of talent brought in for this community production is impressive and worth seeing, even at nearly three hours. Slitting throats and baking bodies into pies is an evil and wild business, and it’s done with passion at The Arts HUB.
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