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Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
At the Monroe Forum Theatre at the El Portal
Through May 10
RECOMMENDED:
There’s such an assortment of riches in this stellar rendering of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s operatic musical that I can only begin by commending director Kristin Towers-Rowles. She’s brought together a superb ensemble, equally impressive musically and in dramatic performance. It’s an accomplishment all the more notable for being produced in such a small venue.
The story of a working man done wrong, who wreaks random revenge on his unsuspecting clients, Sweeney Todd traces its story back to mid- 19th century Britain, first appearing as a “penny dreadful” serial entitled A String of Pearls.
Sondheim and Wheeler’s version was adapted from a 1973 play by Christopher Bond, in which social injustice is a front-and-center component of the story, thus bathing the barbarous barber in a sympathetic light.
The wrongs against Sweeney (Douglas Ladnier) are perpetrated by a Judge Turpin (Chuck McCollum), a privileged member of the upper class. Years before, he had raped Todd’s wife and shipped the barber off to a penal colony on a trumped-up charge.
Sweeney’s beautiful wife has since died, according to Mrs. Lovett (Alison England), Sweeney’s partner-in-crime, but there is a daughter, Johanna (Devon Davidson). She’s been raised by the judge and taught to call him Father, but now that she’s reached womanhood, he’s casting his lascivious eye on her.
After Sweeney comes (literally) within an inch of slitting his nemesis’s throat but is halted by a chance event, he loses it, and the carnage begins. The victims end up baked into Mrs. Lovett’s pies, and we’re privy to the delicious irony of some prim and proper folk eating their own.
It’s unnecessary for me to comment on the brilliance of Sondheim’s music. It’s enough to say that under Joe Lawrence’s musical direction, every bit of its complex luminosity comes through.
As drama, the production is stamped with Ladnier’s terse commanding presence; the parameters of an almost stately tragedy are there from the start, despite the broad bawdy carryings-on. England as Lovett, McCollum as Turpin and Matt Steele as Sweeney and Lovett’s unknowing apprentice are among those whose heightened performances skirt the absurd but never lapse into caricature.
The fun elements are underscored by Michael Mullen’s colorful costumes and wig styling by Debi Hernandez. The makeup, a striking addition to the spectacle, is uncredited.
The Monroe Forum Theatre at the El Portal, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., Noho. Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through May 10. (818) 508-4200, https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/943893
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