Review: SWEENEY TODD - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Milton Theatre

“There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit

And the vermin of the world inhabit it

And its morals aren’t worth what a pig could spit

And it goes by the name of London.” – No Place Like London

Milton Theatre’s motto is “small town charm, big city entertainment” and I’d certainly concur after seeing this fiendishly fabulous production of Stephen Sondheim’s macabre, operatic masterpiece Sweetney Todd:  The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  Directed by Fred Munzert, the show, which originated from a Victorian penny dreadful called The String of Pearls featuring a murderous barber, brings to life on a tiny stage 19th Century London, a grimy industrial world of poverty and menace.  The 9-piece orchestra plays on a catwalk and the vocally masterful cast, some of whom are dressed in tatters and spookily lit, at times function like a Greek chorus warning the audience of the horrors and moral decay they witness.  The intimate, historic Milton Theatre is a wonderful venue for this dark musical thriller, once described by New York Magazine as one of the three greatest musicals ever, steeping the audience in lurid yet beautiful ambience (kudos to lighting designer J.P. Lacap) as they sit at little, cabaret-like tables.  It is the perfect theatrical experience for the Halloween season.

 After a young sailor Anthony Hope (Adam Forward) rescues a barber called Sweeney Todd (James Vederarmo) at sea, Todd tells him of his tragic past when he was hopelessly naïve and a treacherous judge falsely incarcerated him so he could get his mitts on Todd’s beautiful, virtuous, young wife.  Shortly afterwards, Todd meets a widowed and struggling shopkeeper Mrs. Lovett (Caitie L. Moss) in a meat shop which she laments has the “worst pies in London.”  He is interested in her apartment for rent.  As fate has it, the former tenant, she tells him, was Benjamin Barker, who had been falsely charged by Judge Turpin (Christopher Whipple).  After putting Barker away, Turpin, aided by his servant, Beadle Bamford (Jake McCutcheon), raped Barker’s wife Lucy when she refused his advances.  Mrs. Lovett recognizes Todd as Benjamin Barker and promises to keep his secret.  She confides that his wife Lucy poisoned herself and his daughter Johanna became a ward of the lecherous judge.  Meanwhile, Johanna is imprisoned in the Judge’s house and Hope, not aware she is Todd’s daughter, sees her fair form in the window and falls in love with her. 

Determined to get revenge on both the Judge and Beadle and supplied by Mrs. Lovett with his old shaving razors, Todd reopens his barber’s shop on the upper floor of Lovett’s establishment.  It is an entrepreneurial match made in hell.  (Funny how evil people seem to find one another!)  Lovett sees an opportunity to revive her business and seduce her secret crush Todd in the process.  Soon unwitting victims are being dispatched in Todd’s trick barber’s chair that flips their bodies backwards down a chute into the bakehouse of Mrs. Lovett where they are turned into meat pies.  The grim pies become such a sensation on Fleet Street, Todd can barely keep up with the demand! 

Sondheim's musical was inspired after seeing Christopher Bond’s 1970 play Sweeney Todd at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, which gave more backstory to the original penny dreadful (so-called because they were cheap and lurid).  Over eighty percent of the production is sung, "each individual part meshing with others for the good of the entire musical machine," as noted by Larry Brown in Sondheim Notes:  Sweeney Todd.  Sondheim's unique musical and lyrical style requires first-rate singers, which describes this entire cast.  The songs are rapid patter and take as many twists and turns as the plot; you have to listen close to catch all the nuances.  Sondheim describes it as a "black operetta."  As Richard Eder once said in The New York Times, “There is very little in Sweeney Todd that is not, in one way or other a display of extraordinary talent.”

Baritone James Vederarmo brings suitable malicious intensity and brooding charisma to the titular homicidal barber.  He gives proof to the old saying that after the first victim, murder becomes easy.  (In real life, prior to professionally performing, he served active duty in the Air Force for ten years.  Thank you for your service!)  He has a great adversary, almost reminiscent of Holmes and Moriarity (although Holmes was not diabolical), in Christopher Whipple as Judge Turpin.  Whipple, who, among his diverse credits, is a veteran vocalist with the Manhattan Holiday Carolers, creates electric moments as the complex and tormented villain (with a streak of sadomasochism).  His powerful rendition of “Mea Culpa,” a number frequently cut from stage productions, is unnerving.  Whipple is given fine support and a touch of needed lightness by Jack McCutcheon as the judge’s pompous assistant, Beadle Bamford.

Caitie L. Moss as the Cockney meat pie maker Mrs. Lovett is a villain so entertaining, you almost don’t want her to get her comeuppance.  She’s my favorite character (and perhaps performance) in the show.  Her deliciously bawdy and hair-raising take does justice to the “dotty music hall character” originated by the late, great Angela Lansbury in 1979 (for which Lansbury won a Tony).  Lansbury had an English music hall background and Sondheim consequently gave a vaudevillian sensibility to songs like “Little Priest.”  Moss maintains the music hall gusto, but makes Lovett sexier if no less barking mad.  Like other musical theater lights such as Elaine Paige, she’s tiny but mighty.  

Moss’ comic undertones are matched by the deliciously flamboyant Mike Mags in a dual role as Adolfo Pirelli and Jonas Fogg, Pirelli being perhaps my second favorite character.  Mags is a delight whenever onstage, reminiscent of the late, great Tim Curry.  His ridiculously hilarious Pirelli is a great foil for Verderamo’s Todd, a contrast of light and dark.

Skylar Noyes, who had recently brilliantly played the endearing Sister Mary Robert in Sister Act, showcases her incredible vocals once again in this darker role as the mysterious Beggar Woman.  Shrouded in rags and peering fearfully from beneath her hood, she almost appears like a soothsayer as she hauntingly sings, “Mischief!  Mischief!  Devil’s work.”  Brimming with pathos, her character has as many layers as the shrouds she wears.

Rounding out the principals are Morgan Paige and Adam Forward as the star-crossed lovers Johanna and Anthony Hope, respectively and Devon Spencer Lynch as the simple-minded Tobias Ragg.  Paige, a delicate, yellow-haired damsel in distress, clad always in virginal white, has a gorgeous classical soprano and recalls the fragile heroines of Victorian melodramas.  She is matched by Forward’s noble-minded sailor who originally trusts Todd “like I trust my right arm.”  Lynch as the haplessly loyal orphan is perhaps the most affecting, seamlessly navigating Ragg’s darker and tragic arc.

The company is completed by a top-notch ensemble, including Jackson Barnes, Kevin Ilardi, Kohl Pilgrim, Jordan Kilgore, Gavin Guthrie, Nadia Jewel Vito, Juliette Marcella, Skye Stauffer and Marge Egein.

Although Sondheim is an institution with more resurrections than Freddy Krueger, as one critic put it, Sweeney Todd is unique in his canon of work in several ways.  In spite or maybe because of the dark subject matter, it’s more fun and riveting than his other musicals with its homicidal humor and continual twists and turns in character and plot.  Milton Theatre does full justice to the work and I’d concur with the witty recommendation in the playbill  “Attend the Tale – Ignore the Aftertaste.” 

As a footnote, across the street from the theater is a barber shop if anyone is so inclined to get a close shave before or after the show.

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