Broadway's
upcoming revival of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,
starring Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone, will be recorded for
posterity on a cast album to be released by Nonesuch.
John Doyle,
who staged the London run, directs the new staging of the Stephen
Sondheim musical to begin previews Oct. 3 at the Eugene O'Neill
Theatre toward a Nov. 3 opening night.
Details and
dates for the recording are forthcoming. Nonesuch has previously
teamed with the composer on releases of his Saturday Night, The
Frogs/Evening Primrose, Into The Woods and Bounce.
Tony Award winner
Michael Cerveris (Assassins) will star in the title role opposite
Tony Award winner Patti LuPone (Evita) as the lovable meatpie-maker
Mrs. Lovett — her first Broadway musical role in 17 years.
The unique staging
casts actor-musicians to retell the story of the Demon Barber of
Fleet Street and company. A cast of 10 (with no ensemble) perform
on instruments ranging from flute, glockenspiel, trumpet and clarinet
to piano, cello, accordion and double bass in addition to their
acting and singing duties. (Cerveris is slated to play guitar while
LuPone takes on the tuba.)
Cerveris and
LuPone will be joined by John Arbo (musician on Good Vibrations)
as Jonas Fogg, Donna Lynne Champlin (Hollywood Arms, James Joyce's
The Dead) as Pirelli, Manoel Felciano (Shockheaded Peter, Brooklyn)
as Tobias Ragg, Alexander Gemignani (Assassins) as The Beadle, Mark
Jacoby ( Man of La Mancha, Show Boat) as Judge Turpin and Broadway
newcomers Diana DiMarzio (as Beggar Woman), Benjamin Magnuson (as
Anthony Hope) and Lauren Molina (as Johanna).
A Best Actress
(Musical) Tony Award winner for her turn in Evita, LuPone was last
seen in a musical on Broadway (ironically as Reno Sweeney) in the
1988 revival of Anything Goes — for which she was Tony-nominated.
The actress has remained in the New York spotlight with appearances
in the New York Philharmonic's Candide concert, the City Center
Encores! run of Cole Porter's Can-Can, as well as non-musical turn
for Broadway’s Noises Off, The Old Neighborhood, Master Class
and her concerts Patti LuPone on Broadway and Matters of the Heart.
Cerveris won
a Tony Award for his turn as Booth in the 2004 revival of Stephen
Sondheim's Assassins. The actor has appeared Off-Broadway in Wintertime
and Fifth of July and also earned a Tony Award nomination for his
Broadway debut as the title role in The Who's Tommy. Other stage
credits include Passion, Titanic and the title role in Hedwig and
the Angry Inch.
Tom Viertel,
Steven Baruch, Marc Routh and Richard Frankel will present Sweeney
Todd with the Ambassador Theatre Group (which recently co-produced
a run with The Watermill Theatre at the West End's New Ambassador
Theatre), Adam Kenwright & Tulchin/Bartner Productions for the
production on Broadway.
Sweeney Todd
features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Hugh
Wheeler, drawing from the play by Christopher Bond (itself based
on characters created by British journalist George Dibden-Pitt,
who adapted his 1830s penny dreadful tale into a popular stage melodrama).
The story follows a vengeful barber (Sweeney) in Victorian England
and his neighbor (Lovett) who owns a pie shop that becomes popular
due to a surplus of fresh meat.
The work made
its Broadway debut Feb. 6, 1979 starring Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury
— both earned Tony Awards for their turns. Harold Prince directed
the 1979 Tony Award winner for Best Musical. In 1989, an intimate,
smaller-cast revival of Sweeney Todd was produced on Broadway and
Tony Award-nominated for Best Revival. Susan H. Schulman directed
stars Bob Gunton (as Sweeney) and Beth Fowler (as Mrs. Lovett).
The work was also seen in 2002 as part of Washington D.C.'s Kennedy
Center Sondheim Celebration with Brian Stokes Mitchell and Christine
Baranski.
Tickets for
Sweeney Todd at the Eugene O'Neill, 230 West 48 Street, are available
by calling (212) 239-6200 or via the link below. For more information,
visit www.sweeneytoddonbroadway.com.
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