Composer: Stephen Sondheim
Author: Hugh Wheeler
From and adaptation by Christopher Bond.
Director: Joe Murphy
Set and costume Designer: Elin Steele
Lighting: Rory Beaton
Sound: Kelsh Buckman -Drage
Musical Director: Leo Munby
‘Visually and vocally razor sharp.’
There is possibly no Sondheim score that is more immediately thrilling and able to get the blood rising from the first pulsating bars than that of Sweeney Todd -The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This twelve time Tony Award winning masterpiece is 100% a solid crowd pleaser and with international stage star Ramin Karimloo taking on the lead role it proves to be almost a religious experience for the Birmingham audience plus plenty of other fans from near and far. Apart from regular explosions of rapturous applause after every very well executed song and choral piece from the eleven strong ensemble the audience appears to be holding its collective breath for the next episode of macabre Machiavellian mischief to hit the stage. From the initial line of pale vapours offering meagre light in the greasy sooty darkness of Georgian London, the ‘Prelude: The Ballad of Sweeney Todd. Attend The Tale of Sweeney Todd’ broods with an underscore of Gothic church organ danger and a vocal crescendo worthy of an early standing ovation.
John Rigby and his talented seven piece orchestra allow us, as Artistic Director Joe Murphy expresses in the programme notes, ‘to experience every surge of emotion, every moment of menace and every breath-taking musical detail. Plus the way that the steep auditorium is laid out at Birmingham Rep there isn’t a bad view seat in the house. The production seems to defy description as whilst it honours Sondheim’s original concept of intimacy and stripped back feel it is also performed on a very large stage dominated by two solid-looking sets of steps stage left and right and overlooked by a giant statue of Lady Justice holding a sword and scales. The back wall is a perfect frame for deathly shadows as Todd the barber dispatches his victims.
For other scenes there are rising structures depicting Mrs Lovett’s Pie Shop and Sweeney Todd’s scantily furnished barber’s emporium. A lowered iron grid with a gaol house appearance symbolises the lunatic asylum. Several open door spaces in the centre and rear of the set are used to great effect for mobile and frozen dramatic entrances and exits. The colouring of intense charcoal black bleeds to pure whites of old marble the higher we get on the set, and nearer to justice. This is echoed in most of the costumes. The colour palate forms a powerful visual metaphor for the corrupt nature of Fleet Street and the dodgy denizens thereof. Georgian England was a time of stark contrasts. It was an era of unprecedented elegance, a golden age of British architecture and classic consumerism and Middle Class wealth but also a time of immense inequality. Gin soaked slums and child labour in factories were commonplace and public executions were a form of weekend entertainment. Within these conditions and horrors such extremities of living and dying and murderous acts were acted out. This is the grim world of the fictional Sweeney Todd -The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!
Brief historical excursions into the darkest corners of Georgian London aside, we, the modern day audience, graciously attend the tale of Sweeney Todd at Birmingham Rep with its eleven strong cast that features two ensemble players Emily Evana Hawkins and Hadrian Delacey and nine named parts who also form the chorus. Those are Ramin Karmiloo (Sweeney Todd), Meow Meow (Mrs Lovett), David Bedella (Judge Turpin), Jo Stephenson (Johanna), Julius D’Silva (Beadle), Jack Gibson (Tobias Ragg), Florence Andrews (Beggar Woman), Shem Omari James (Anthony Hope) and Silas Wyatt-Barke (Adolfo Pirelli).
The two main principals, Karimloo and Meow Meow are exceptionally good, each giving their portrayals of Todd and Lovett layers upon layers of unique character exposition, vocal dexterity, strength and physical depiction that supports any expectations we may have envisaged before being seated, and then some. As the saying goes ‘their performances are worth the ticket price alone.’ But, it ain’t just them. Oh no sir. This show is a team effort and each performer/mutual storyteller, is rock solid in their singing and ensemble playing.
Sometimes, it is more naturalistic like the creepy Judge Turpin; other times cruelty ridden caricatures like Perelli and the Beadle Bamford. There is also a beautiful yet disturbed romantic connection happening between Anthony and Johanna. Bedella rightfully gives one the creeps as Judge Turpin. Yet who is this deranged hag constantly begging and offering up clap-ridden sex and warning that the city is on fire? And finally the pitiful boy Tobias Ragg, badly mistreated by Perelli (spoiler alert, not his real name) and taken under the wing of pie maker to the gentry (and often made of similar high born folk) Mrs Nellie Lovett. Well duckies, sit back and enjoy the blood letting. There may be ‘No Place Like London’ but grab yourself a bottle of Perelli’s Miracle Elixir and watch your hair grow longer by the second. Or so it says on the bottle.
There is no doubt this musical is chock-a-block with memorable songs such as ‘The Worst Pies In London’, ‘The Barber and His Wife’, ‘My Friends’, ‘Pretty Women’, ‘By The Sea’, ‘Not While I’m Around’, ‘A Little Priest’ and The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.’ All of which will be in your head for days or even weeks after your visit.
Birmingham Rep’s high calibre razor-sharp production of Sweeney Todd -The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is, and will be, one for the theatrical history books and if Mr Sondheim were still with us he would be immensely proud that his astonishing theatrical work was represented and presented with such panache by the Rep. Unlike Sweeney’s barber shop victims I would back in a flash to experience this momentous production again.
Photos credit: Manuel Harlan
