Stephen Sondheim's now classic musical, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," first debuted on Broadway in 1979. Thursday night, a very unique new version of this Tony Award-winning show opened on the Great White Way. NY1’s Roma Torre filed this review.

“Sweeney Todd” is the steak tartar of musical theatre - exquisite, but an acquired taste. Seldom has there been a collaboration in such perfect service to a single artistic vision.

Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's gloriously gory musical has always seemed best served on an epic scale. Hal Prince's lavish original Broadway production is legend.

Enter John Doyle, a British director who took out his own razor and began slashing feverishly. The result is a riveting experience that grabs you by the throat and holds you awestruck till the bitter, bloody end.

It's a dramatic restaging, minus the giant sets, the chorus, the orchestra, and the over-amplification. In their stead is a minimalist, Brechtian production that has the actors doubling as musicians, wielding symbolically crude props on a single modest set. The effect is giant.

Now, Sondheim's lyrics - the poetic couplings, the witty rhymes and deeper meanings - are laid bare. We're forced to listen more intently, and the story of individuals ravaged by injustice and poverty is louder and clearer than ever.

Besides Sondheim and Doyle, there is much credit to go around. Sarah Travis pared down the lush orchestral sound to bare minimum, and has compensated for the lack of fullness with whimsically brilliant touches. The instruments are characters now almost as much as the performers.

Casting is key, and Bernard Telsey deserves a huge hand for finding triple threats for this exceptional company. As the tragically wronged barber Sweeney Todd, Michael Cerveris is extraordinary. He is an equally accomplished actor and singer, and we're moved by his Sweeney, who is chillingly creepy and sympathetic.

A bunch of newcomers grace the stage, and they are sublime. Manoel Felciano as Tobias is a major find. Veterans Mark Jacoby and Alexander Gemignani as the evil judge Turpin and his henchman the Beadle find exquisite nuance in their villains.

And then there's Patti Lupone, who turns in one of the finest tuned performances ever to grace the Broadway stage. As the morally challenged piemaker Mrs. Lovett, she is embedded deeply in this ensemble, happy to share the spotlight. And when she saunters on the stage, her ripe mini-skirted body with tuba in hand, it's a sight to behold.

To say that Lupone nails the character is to say that Sweeney Todd inflicts flesh wounds. And in this darkly tragicomic work, Lupone is luminous.

I have to note that the abridged concept can be confusing to those unfamiliar with the story, and some details are bound to be lost in translation. Yet no matter how you slice it, “Sweeney Todd” remains a theatre lover's feast - as deliciously rich and meaty as ever.

- Roma Torre