Sweeney Todd (School Edition)

In bare outline, this musical thriller tells the tale of an unsavory serial killer – the “demon barber of fleet street.”   The fictional character originally appeared as The String of Pearls in a lurid 1846 magazine (known as a penny dreadful). Sondheim’s version (based on a 1973 play by Christopher Bond) expands the story, including a secondary love story between a young sailor, aptly named Anthony Hope, and Todd’s long lost daughter Johanna. Even more important, the new version reshapes Todd’s motivation from pure greed to bitter revenge - and it’s this that makes all the difference. Todd’s actions are terrible, and yet we can feel his pain and have a glimmer of understanding (if not approval) of his behavior.

The score (kept in check by Kimberly Holden) is vivid, often operatic, the voices wonderful (particularly in the ensemble vocals), the lyrics (typically Sondheim) are complex and provocative. The balance of sound needed tweaking as the vocals were often drowned out by the overpowering volume from the orchestra.

Josh Kime and Nelly Tomlinson complement each other as Sweeney Todd (driven mad by his compulsion for revenge) and as Mrs. Lovett (the meat pie proprietor who is herself driven insane by a second chance at love and respectability) - both are brilliant! Josh’s vocals and intense characterisations are outstanding and Nelly’s humour is sharper than Sweeney’s blade!

Johanna, Sweeney’s long-lost, caged bird of a daughter, the fresh, frantic, golden-voiced Hayley Cheetham sings her role beautifully, Sam Ashall brings a similarly lustrous voice to the role of Anthony Hope, Johanna’s adoring suitor – though Anthony being played with more of a virile quality would have conveyed more believability in their relationship.

The role of Pirelli was taken by Sarah Bailey which is the first time I've seen this part played by a girl, this was understandable for this show has such a heavy line up of male principals, however, rather than trying to convince us she’s a man – once her true identity was revealed to Todd, It may have been beneficial to expose herself as Danielle O'Higgins and that she’d been posing as a male and that she is in fact Irish.  It was pleasing to hear the beggar woman - played by Danielle Whittaker - actually sung (and hauntingly gorgeous it was too) rather than babbled and groaned – I certainly did enjoy Danielle’s performance.

The set, props and costumes all worked well and told us, in an instant, that this production is set in Victorian England. I did notice that some hair styles were very modern which didn’t always look fitting with the piece and many of the cast were perhaps too clean with shiny, well groomed hair.

This was a solid production from start to finish, Director Dan Jarvis has staged a striking production here.   I appreciated the projected narratives to set the scene at the start of each act which is very reminiscent of old movies which Sondheim was highly influenced by – particularly when creating ‘Sweeney’. This is a unique theatrical experience made all the more impressive being performed by such young talent in a story that will make you laugh as well as cry and will give you something to discuss and remember after the show is long over.

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