“Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.”
Last weekend, these cautionary words opened the Fort Lewis College production of Stephen Sondheim’s massive revenge musical. At the beginning, the grisly story about “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is told three times. You can’t miss why Sweeney Todd serves a “dark and hungry god.”
The newly minted Department of Performing Arts delivered its debut show with considerable panache, combining high production values with strong leads and an energized ensemble.
Credit Director Michael McKelvey, his creative team and all of the musicians, for a colorful and intense performance. With few missteps, an errant spotlight on opening night and flickering backstage lights at the matinee, the production filled its three-hour span with unflagging energy. Shaping spoken dialogue and song, McKelvey made sure class conflicts propelled the story.
The fable centers on a victim of multiple calamities who seeks deadly revenge – first on his tormentor then in madness on all of humanity. The fictional tale has a long history, codified in the Victorian era to warn us about the perils of social injustice.
Credit Technical Director Andrew Brackett and his team for underscoring class divisions. An open London street, center-stage, functioned also as a rowdy café, a creepy ballroom and an intimate parlor. Framing the street, an elegant Palladian townhouse contrasted with working-class businesses: a pie emporium and its second-story barbershop. Set on a turntable, the shops revealed a parlor, and more importantly, the infamous oven where Todd’s victims are turned into meat pies. A movable metal staircase and a high-bridge catwalk enabled players to connect upper- and lower-class worlds.
Brackett’s lighting enhanced the storytelling with a liberal use of spotlights and full, dramatic blackouts. Color projections filled the cyclorama, the tall, shimmering back curtain, which continuously took the story’s emotional temperature.
Linann Easley’s costumes also intensified class divisions. Three-piece suits and white-on-white privilege contrasted with worn working-class brown, mismatched plaids and patterns. In the brief ballroom scene, misshapen animal masks underscored the show’s Darwinian themes.
Nine actor-singers filled the major roles with 17 additional chorus members. Music Director Wesley Dunnagan solidly conducted the 14-member orchestra, a mix of FLC faculty and students. Strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion supported Sondheim’s triple-challenge of sustained musical tension, rhythmic complexity and unrelenting dissonance. Sweeney’s Dies Irae motif seemed ever present.
Harrison Wendt (Sweeney Todd) brought an angry intensity to the barber’s obsession. Siena Widen (Mrs. Lovett) countered with a jaunty businesswoman who sees opportunity at every gruesome turn. Holden Grace (Judge Turpin) managed a complex mixture of pride, deceit and morbid self-hatred, especially in the Judge’s shocking maxima culpa song. It was added when “Sweeney Todd” transferred to the New York City Opera stage in 1984. Atlee Beam (Anthony Hope) and Deanna Overby (Johanna) convincingly sang of love and yearning. Sylvia LaGalbo (Beadle Bamford) gave casual brutality a spin. Tayler Smith (Beggar Woman/Lucy) haunted the story like a ghost. Liam Hahn (Pirelli) brought comic relief, and Harrison Abel (Tobias Ragg) tellingly shifted loyalties right up to the bloody end.
“Sweeney Todd” belongs more to the world of tragic opera than American musical theater. The title character shares more commonalities with “Pagliacci” or “Elektra” than Harold Hill or Max Bialystock. But the odd, opera/musical theater division continues to haunt the performing arts. Credit McKelvey and company for delivering a solid and colorful production, something even Mrs. Lovett and her customers could chew on for some time.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
