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| Sweeney
Todd Rolling Stone Issue 988 by Peter Travers |
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Stephen Sondheim’s indisputably magnificent “Sweeney Todd” is the greatest musical of the 20th century. Now, in this dark and dazzling reinvention by British director John Doyle, "Sweeney" stakes its claim as the gold standard for the next hundred years as well. The sweep that Hal Prince delivered in his original 1979 production has been replaced by Doyle’s claustrophobic, monster-in-a-box staging. The setting is a madhouse where the inmates have taken over the job of telling the story of “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” It’s some story. As played by a fierce Michael Cerveris, Sweeney is a 19th-century symbol of vengeance. Back in London after escaping a prison where he’d been sent by the evil judge who raped his wife and kidnapped his daughter, the barber means to slit the judge’s throat. Foiled at first, he decides to vent his rage by killing all of his customers. As he sings, “we all deserve to die.” His accomplice is Mrs. Lovett—Patti Lupone in a performance of vocal artistry, comic subtlety and scary brilliance. Tired of killing pussycats to stuff in the meat pies she sells in her shop, Mrs. Lovett persuades the barber to let her use the bodies of his victims. As Sondheim’s lyric bluntly puts it: “It’s man devouring man my dear/and who are we to deny it in here?” The original production played the story for social satire. Doyle internalizes the conflict and brings it up close and personal. In his riskiest move, Doyle has the ten principle actors double as musicians. The show’s young lovers (Benjamin Magnuson and Lauren Molina, both excellent) also play cellos. It works like a charm. The cast is flawless with Alexander Gemignani superb as the judge’s cohort and Manoel Felciano—possessed of an angel’s voice— heartbreaking as a boy caught up in this city on fire. Demons are prowling in this riveting rethinking of a masterwork. And don’t buy the Sondheim ballad about how “nothing’s gonna harm you.” Everything is. |
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