Brainerd Community Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street transports you to a time and place both distant from our own and yet still scarily prescient towards the world we live in now. Stephen Sonheim’s classic musical embodies the rage everybody feels towards the corrupt while also showing the self-destructive nature of revenge. The production had some technical issues, but strong direction from Travis Chaput and an outstanding cast make this a perfect show for the Halloween season, and one that nobody who sees it will soon forget.
Sweeney Todd is played by Matt Hill, whose previous more lighthearted performances in Dracula: a Comedy of Terrors and The Cottage did not prepare me for what he unleashed in this show. Hill’s Todd is fierce, angry, and charismatic while still finding ways of showing the minuscule amount of humanity that remains inside him through his memory of his wife Lucy and daughter Johanna. Hill’s brooding antihero is matched by Lauren Forsythe’s excellent performance as Mrs. Lovett, whose outwardly joyful and charming personality hides an internal ruthlessness that shows she’ll do ANYTHING to get what she wants, including Sweeney Todd himself, who she hangs onto throughout the show like a particularly obnoxious cat.
The supporting cast is filled with terrific local talent like Noah Barnhart as Anthony, whose passionate performance of “Johanna” practically brought the house down, and Baird Brutscher who is perfectly cast as the flamboyant and devious Pirelli. Marie Fahey makes a strong impression as Johanna, who has been kept by Judge Turpin (Andy Ellison) for so long that she’s as surprised as anybody when she’s able to find love with Toby, while Paul Freelove’s Bradley Bamford perfectly embodies the type of person whose status as an authority figure serves as a thin veil for bullying and brutality. As Toby, Heston Cleveland shows very good talent as a physical performer, but his vocals seemed a little lacking, at least at first. However, he nailed his performance of “Not While I’m Around” and his scenes at the very end are truly chilling.
The ensemble also contains a great deal of local talent, but in the performance I saw they were held back by uneven sound and audio mixing. The music overwhelmed the vocals at times, especially in the first few scenes, although this seemed to improve somewhat later on in the show. There appeared to be occasional issues with the lighting as well – it took served minutes before the show’s start for the show’s very energetic ASL interpreters to get a spotlight, and during the show itself there were some scenes where the actor’s faces seemed obscured by shadow. Elsewhere, however, the lighting was excellent, including some very effective use of silhouettes for flashbacks and flashes of red to illuminate scenes of violence.
Occasional sound and Lighting issues aside, the ensemble is served very well by Lydia Jendro’s excelllent choreography and the effective vocal direction of Kennedy Niska, who help to serve Chaput’s overall nightmare-like atmosphere. This isn’t a show that offers happy endings to anybody. Every character here is touched by tragedy, brutality, and corruption in some way, and while some of the worst do get their comeuppance, there’s little catharsis to be had. Sweeney Todd might initially feel exhilarated by his decision that “we all deserve to die”, but this eventually leads him to realize you can’t just turn off the bloodshed when you think you’re done. This is a world where if you’re seeking revenge, you don’t just dig two graves… you have to dig a grave for everyone you’ve ever met, and the best you can wish for is that a couple people manage to escape the carnage.
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET plays at the Chalberg Theatre at Central Lakes College in Baxter through October 25th.
Leave a Reply