Sweeney Todd

John Doyle's Sweeney Todd

“Inconspicuous Sweeney was,
quick, and quiet and clean he was.
Back of his smile, under his word,
Sweeney heard music that nobody heard.”

When Stephen Sondheim’s musical tale Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street first premiered on Broadway in 1979, audiences were overwhelmed with an epic-sized spectacle. The set was a vast industrial warehouse, complete with moving cranes, descending catwalks and an organist hunched over his keyboard beneath billowing Victorian pipes. Accompanied by a 27-piece symphonic orchestra, the 30-member cast sang the sweeping score while advancing on the audience as a gang of beggars in 19th century London.

In 2005 British director John Doyle pared down what is largely known as Sondheim’s picturesque masterpiece with a newly envisioned production. Set in a bleak, run-down psychiatric ward, Mr. Doyle minimized the conventional stage spectacle that audiences have come to expect from Sweeney Todd. Doyle begins the show with a young man bound in a straightjacket gazing as someone who has seen the unforgivable. When he sings the opening lyrics, “Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd,” the audience is immediately lured into the intimate and vengeful world of a madman with unsettling horror.

Originally produced at a small 216-seat theatre in London, Doyle’s scaled-back production was born of budgetary necessity in a financially strapped regional theatre that couldn't afford a large cast or orchestra. Doyle’s solution to the problem: Cast 10 excellent actors and 10 excellent musicians. Oh, and the actors and musicians need to be the same people. While this theatrical conceit was originally a result of monetary restraints, it became an artistic choice. This production has moved beyond that tiny theatre to reach a wider world. To date, Doyle’s production has been met with critical and commercial success in London’s West End, Broadway, and now across the United States with its National Tour.

Although Doyle’s production only uses 10 musicians, audiences do not leave the theatre feeling cheated of the drama and emotion inherent in Sondheim’s score. In previous large-scale productions, it was easy for listeners to ride the wave of the sweeping music. Now, with a small chamber ensemble, audiences become acutely conscious of every note and sound, whether bowed from a single cello or chimed from a triangle. In his review of the 2005 Broadway revival, Ben Brantley of The New York Times says, “You become newly aware of the harmony in Mr. Sondheim’s calculated dissonances.”

Because of this unique actor-musicianship, the performers are empowered to own the tale of Sweeney Todd, and their instruments become narrative tools. Mr. Doyle says, “It's a positive way at looking at smallness and intimacy. What we're all searching for, ultimately, is the honesty of the storytelling.” Doyle says that central to the success of this Sweeney Todd, “is the need to make the audience do some of the work — we ask them to use some of their imagination. There's no barber's chair, for instance; you can imagine it.”

With Doyle’s new staging, audiences have an opportunity to see a highly concentrated production that marries Sweeney Todd’s terrifying plot to its emotional center. Whether grand spectacle or small ensemble piece, there has never been a bloodier or grimmer musical written than Sweeney Todd — qualities that become a stimulating benefit in Doyle’s production. This leaner and meaner version highlights more than ever the show's unforgiving spirit, but somehow the artistry that Doyle brings to this Sweeney still lifts the spirits.

References
Shenton, Mark. Paring down the demon barber: An innovative Sweeney comes to Broadway. In The Sondheim Review. Retrieved from http://www.sondheimreview.com/v12n1.htm#sample
Brantley, Ben. Grand Guignol, Spare and Stark. In The New York Times. Retrieved from theater2.nytimes.com

Tickets

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