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About the Story...
The history of the world, my sweet, is who gets eaten and who gets to eat - Sweeney Todd
Business is brisk for barber Sweeny Todd, aka, Benjamin Barker returned convict. But the gentlemen who visit his shop in Fleet Street, just above lovely Mrs. Lovett's Pies, do not realize they are under the knife of a man whose heart is blistered with tragedy. A sharp razor plus a lust for revenge and a shortage of meat downstairs equals blood, and it's not just a shaving cut.
It might not be opera, but Sondheim's hugely accessible score treats this story of murder and passion - not to mention pies - with an emotional immediacy and comic flair that Mozart himself would applaud.
The murderous Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, whose victims were baked into pies by his friend Mrs. Lovett, seems an unlikely figure for musical treatment. But Sondheim's extraordinary imagination links the music and drama together so powerfully that an atmosphere of operatic achievement is in the air from the work's first thrilling chords.
Award-winning director Gale Edwards returns bringing her extraordinary gift for potent theatrical imagery to this production. Peter Coleman-Wright performs the title role, and Judi Connelli brings her legendary theatrical charisma to the role of Mrs. Lovett. |
