A historic co-production between Hartford Stage and TheaterWorks of Hartford has started the new theatre season on an exhilarating high note. A mostly magnificent revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award winning masterpiece, “Sweeney Todd”, will be hard to top this season.
With music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is based on Christopher Bond’s 1970 melodrama. Todd (a magnetic Matt Faucher)) fell victim to the ruthless Judge Turpin (Edward Watts) who exiled him to Australia and raped his young wife, Lucy. Todd has now returned to London bent on revenge when he meets Mrs. Lovett (Jackie Burns, superb), the owner of a failing meat pie restaurant. The shop has an upstairs room where Todd, then known as Benjamin Barker, formerly plied his trade as a barber. Lovett recalls Todd and informs him that his wife poisoned herself and that their then-infant daughter, Johanna (Lauren Maria Medina), has become Judge Turpin’s ward. With that grim news and bent of revenge, Todd reconnects with his silver razors. The blood then starts to flow and doesn’t stop.
“Sweeney Todd” is not your average musical given its gruesome and often mordantly funny subject matter. It has one of Sondheim’s most brilliant scores and, with Faucher and Burns heading the mayhem in Hartford, the show is in very good hands. TheaterWorks artistic director Rob Ruggiero, who delivered the best musical revival last season with “A Chorus Line” at Goodspeed Musicals, stages “Sweeney Todd” at Hartford Stage with his customary polish and talent. These back-to-back successes make Ruggiero Connecticut’s current go-to director of the moment.
Faucher makes a commanding and charismatic Sweeney, blood-thirsty and blinded by fury with a voice that gloriously rocks the rafters. I love Burns’ take on Mrs. Lovett mining all the gallows humor at her disposal and sharing a sexy, mischievous chemistry with Faucher throughout. Their act one finale of “A Little Priest”, one of Sondheim’s most cleverly grisly songs, is a wicked delight. The haunting “My Friends” and upbeat “By the Sea” are another pair of duets that find the actors in fine form.
As Anthony, the romantic sailor who befriends Todd and falls for his daughter, Willem Butler sells the familiar ballad, “Johanna” beautifully. Playing the villainous judge, Watts relishes the role and his duet with Faucher of “Pretty Women” is a highlight. Also fine in other roles are Carey Brown as the Beggar Woman, Brian Ray Norris as the Judge’s cruel toady, Beadle Bamford and Tristan Caldwell as Pirelli, a black-mailing con man. In the key role of Tobias, Pirelli’s shill who is taken under Mrs. Lovett’s wing, Cole Thompson is an appealing innocent who brings haunting pathos to his ballad, “Not While I’m Around”.
Fabian Fidel Aguilar’s exemplary period costumes provide a stunning leather coat for Todd and a gorgeous dress upgrade for Mrs. Lovett when she starts selling more pies. John Lasiter provides the electric lighting design which, in concert with Beth Lake’s sound, make each of Todd’s killings perfectly chilling. Music Director Wiley DeWeese does justice to Sondheim’s very challenging score.
While I have zero criticisms with the acting company, I wish the production had included more extras to fill out the townspeople scenes. With only a cast of nine, most of the actors play other roles which can be jarring. And as impressive as Luke Cantarella’s Victorian London scenic design is, he hasn’t made the crucial furnace and “food preparation” area very clear ending in a confusing final sequence when the bodies start piling up.
Minor complaints to be sure. Ruggiero and company should otherwise be very proud of this excellent rendering of one of the great musicals of the 1970s. Don’t miss it.
“Sweeney Todd” continues at Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street in Hartford, CT through July 5 For further information visit: www.hartfordstage.org or call the box office at: 860.527.5151.
Tom Holehan is one of the founders of the Connecticut Critics Circle, a frequent contributor to WPKN Radio’s “State of the Arts” program and the Stratford Crier and Artistic Director of Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company. He welcomes comments at: tholehan@yahoo.com. His reviews and other theatre information can be found on the Connecticut Critics Circle website: www.ctcritics.org.
