Sweeney Todd Original Broadway Production Beggar Woman Question

[Hot Pants]

Posted: 1/1/20 at 5:29pm

First of all, spoilers for Sweeney Todd are in this post.
I was rewatching a tape of Sweeney Todds original Broadway production, and I was curious about something in the song Poor Thing. We see an actress portraying Lucy Barker representing the flashbacks that Mrs. Lovetts singing about. As all people whove seen the entire show know, the Beggar Woman is actually Lucy. I know Merle Louise portrayed the Beggar Woman in the original production, but what I want to know is if she also played Lucy during Poor Thing. I could see it going either way. On one hand, it would make perfect sense to have her play Lucy in the past if shes portraying her in the shows current timeline. On the other hand, it would also make sense to have another actress play Lucy so that the audience wouldnt recognize the actress playing her as the same actress playing the Beggar Woman, which would help them figure out the shows big twist. At the same time though, much like most productions, the original had Louise all made up to look uglier and dirtier, so by removing that make up, putting her in a different costume, and changing her to a blonde, they could have convincingly tricked the audience into thinking Louise was a different actress playing a one scene role. So does anyone know who played Lucy during Poor Thing? Merle Louise (and the other actresses who portrayed the Beggar Woman), or an ensemble member?

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 1/1/20 at 5:40pm

First off, what you watched is the videotape/film of the First US National Tour during its Los Angeles stop. That is not the original Broadway production. Angelina Réaux played the Beggar Woman and an ensemble member always plays the young Lucy in the “Poor Thing” number.

[Hot Pants]

Posted: 1/1/20 at 6:00pm

Thanks for clearing that up, but the video was actually a bootleg of the Broadway production, not the professional video with George Hearn. The video is obviously way worse than the professionally shot tour, but I prefer the Broadway cast that didn’t transfer to the tour than that cast (unfortunately Victor Gerber and Sarah Rice weren’t in that night, so their understudies who played the role on tour appear), and the darker lighting (although occasionally appearing too dark on such an old camera) gives a better, moodier atmosphere.

[SoCalDirector]

Posted: 1/1/20 at 6:46pm

Actually Angelina is not in the great performances recording. It is her understudy Sara Woods.

I was living in the Washington DC area at the time it came to the Kennedy Center. I bought a ticket for several weeks into the run. I knew someone who worked at the Kennedy Center and she said I have a couple tickets to opening night of Sweeney Todd if you’d like them. Free tickets to one of my all-time favorite musicals was an unexpected pleasure.

Opening night I saw Angelina is the beggar woman. At some point early in the run a horrible accident happened. My friend who work there told me all about it. When Angelina as the beggar woman went through the trap door it malfunction and flipped back up. It broke both her ankles and tractor in the door. They closed the curtain. It took an hour to take the set apart and to get Angelina to the hospital. So the audience waited for the last five minutes of the show with her understudy playing the dead Beggar woman. As far as I know Sara did the rest of the tour. She was the bigger woman when I sought the second time.

And she’s on the video. It certainly ranks up there with one of the more unfortunate things that happened during a live performance.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/1/20 at 8:55pm

SoCalDirector said: "...It certainly ranks up there with one of the more unfortunate things that happened during a live performance."

And a lengthy lawsuit ensued. I have no opinion on the merit of the suit (and I don't know how it was finally resolved), but it was claimed that actors had been reporting for some time that the drop down the "slide" was unsafe. (A relative of mine worked at the Prince office during the litigation.)

I know you said "live performance", but I think to the press and public the TWILIGHT ZONE movie set accident--not live, obviously--a year or two later completely overshadowed the SWEENEY accident.

They must have done a great job with the make-up, because I saw the original production at least a dozen times on Broadway--often from the front row--and never noticed that Merle Louise, or her replacements, if any, were NOT playing Lucy in the "Poor Thing" party scene. I don't know why one would sub an ensemble member unless the Beggar Woman can't make the change; I think Sondheim's leitmotif for the character is more likely to give her identity away than her brief appearance for the rape scene.

Updated On: 1/1/20 at 08:55 PM

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 1/1/20 at 9:06pm

As I recall in the original production, the masked ball sequence at the Judge's house had the ensemble entirely dressed in black and was chiefly lit with only backlight, no front light. No-one's face was clearly seen there unless they had a follow spot on them. I'm relying on my memory of a preview performance I saw back in 1979, so take this with a grain of salt, but it would have been a simple thing to conceal the identity of any actor playing Lucy without giving away that it was (or wasn't) Merle Louise.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/1/20 at 9:27pm

That is my memory of the lighting, too, Someone. I also saw the show first at an early preview (the Judge's flagellation scene was still in). Obviously, I didn't know Lucy's eventual fate at that point.

But at later performances I DID know the BW and Lucy were one and the same, but the lighting of the rape/ball was so dim I just assumed I was watching the same actress play both. 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 1/1/20 at 10:19pm

In the Angela Lansbury/George Hearn PBS recording of the tour, which I have seen an embarrassing number of times over the past twenty-something years, I am 90% sure the Beggar Woman also plays Young Lucy, so I assume it was the same in the Broadway production.

My impression has always been that because of that, the audience was supposed to know the twist from the beginning. Then again, you would have to have been really looking closely. In the Uris (now Gershwin) you would have to have prime seats at least.

Other productions have had an ensemble member do it, or the actress playing Johanna.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/3/20 at 12:22am

Baritone, I conclude the opposite from the low lighting: that Prince & Co. did NOT expect us to guess the identity of the Beggar Woman until late in Act II. Though so many of us consider it a work of high art, I think Sweeney was intended to be a popular melodrama, with plenty of thrills, chills and surprises.

Of course, knowing the entire work by heart has never kept me from seeing a production. I'll have to check out "Poor Thing" on the DVD now that you've reminded me to look.

[ChairinMain]

Posted: 1/3/20 at 1:13am

Looking at the National Tour Video, I am about 60% sure it's Sara Woods playing both the Beggar Woman and Young Lucy. But I'd want to look REAL Hard.  

Every production I've seen live that included a flashback sequence (ie, not the John Doyle version) has had Johanna double as young Lucy, which neatly solves this issue given the two characters are supposed to be nearly identical. 

 

(PS. Angelina Réaux's own recounting of her injury on SWEENEY is not quite as dramatic as SoCalDirector would have it - she was not caught in the set for over an hour and the show was not stopped. Here's the Relevant quote. https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/BWW-Interviews-Angelina-Raux-Compares-Opera-Animals-and-Bernstein-20150710

"AR: They were doing the first national tour of Sweeney Todd and were interested in me for the part of Joanna. The only female role available was the beggar woman. So I did that on tour with Angela (Lansbury). Hal (Prince) directed, and Steve (Sondheim) was there everyday. I was blessed to work with them. But on the 13th performance at KennedyCenter Opera House, with 15 minutes left to go, my legs got caught in the trap door after my throat was slit. You could hear my feet and ankles breaking on the way down. Angela was with me, took my wig off and gave it to my understudy. I kept saying, "Drag me on stage." She said, "You can't get up, you can't go on stage." They didn't stop the show. My ankle had practically been torn off my leg, every bone in my foot broken, and ankles as well. I spent two years learning how to walk again, going to opera classes in a wheelchair. Stephen Wadsworth had just started being an opera director and he taught this class. I went in a wheelchair and then crutches. It really changed the course of my career. I auditioned and got into Santa Fe. I was very lucky I made the transition quite easily."

[joevitus]

Posted: 1/3/20 at 3:51am

Someone in a Tree2 said: "As I recall in the original production,the masked ballsequence at the Judge's house had the ensemble entirely dressed in black and was chiefly litwith only backlight, no front light.No-one's face was clearly seen there unless they had a follow spot on them. I'm relying on my memory of a preview performance I saw back in 1979, so take thiswith a grain of salt, but it would have been a simple thing to conceal the identity of any actor playing Lucy without giving away that it was (or wasn't) Merle Louise."

Yes, but there's also the earlier part of the flashback where we see Young Lucy rocking her baby in her arms in the upper room and then the Judge and Beadle trying to get her attention.