REVIEWS REVIEWS
Even the audience were covered in blood as it spurted from the cut throat razor. A devastatingly entertaining performance by the New Wolsey Theatre company from Ipswich produced oo’s and er’s from the frightened and delighted people sitting in the York theatre awaiting their turn in the barber’s chair.
Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is surging with gusto as Stephen Sondheim supplies the music and lyrics to make you beg for more of his delightful mix of pie. This is musical theatre at its best with fine voices wrestling with Sondheim’s acquired interpretation of his idea of music, and he finally wears you down until you accept his music for what it is, music at its best. The cast’s fine diction means that you do not miss a word of plot in their very precise part singing. Peter Rowe’s direction puts the finishing touches in place to give everyone enjoyment.
Drab greys and blacks set the modernistic scene of Fleet Street, London in the 19th century. Designer Ellen Cairns gives the actors a functional set in which to work and bring the atmosphere of the time to life.
Sweeney Todd, superbly played by Paul Leonard, has returned from imprisonment in the colonies and seeks out his old haunts. He encounters the pie shop of Mrs Lovett, played admirably by Joanna Mays, and this interaction soon produces dastardly deeds. A barber’s shop is soon established above the pie shop with a very comfortable chair for Todd’s customers and business commences. It would be unfair to relate what these two get up to beyond stating that they do it superbly and it does nobody any good. Go see what they get up to and become immersed in their antics.
Todd meets a beggar woman (Julie Jump) whilst searching for his daughter and this leads to surprising consequences. His companion from his voyage home, a ship’s officer Anthony Hope (Robert Irons), seeks out Johanna (Aoibheann Greene) the ward of Judge Turpin (Simon Clark) and all becomes intermingled. The Beadle (David Tysall) goes about his work trying to uphold the law with very little success. The characters of an Italian barber Pirelli and Fogg (Matthew Hendrickson) and a birdseller (Jody Butterworth) have their parts to play in an intriguing plot.
Greg Palmer provides musical direction with the help of Steve Peters and Paul Tilley, all of whom were not very well concealed in the scenery, but this did not prevent them from giving a nice musical backing to make for a superb show.
The depths have been plunged to give this American’s interpretation of an English folk tale, but what a tale.
Go see this feast of singing and acting before they are all too soon polished off by the audience throughout the land. This show is fine music from beginning to end without needing one hit song. © BA
“Sweeney Todd” is in York Theatre Royal from the 28th of February to the 10th of March, 2001. The production then moves on to the Mercury Theatre, Colchester on the 20th of March until the 24th March.
