Get a Closer Look at SWEENEY RODD - Opening at The Encore Theatre in Dexter

Matthew Brennan, director of Encore Theatre's new production of "Sweeney Todd," has been driving the Dexter-based company's staff a little crazy in recent months.

"I kept calling and asking for all these measurements," said Brennan, who lives out-of-state. "Like, how wide is a chair? What about the rise of the seats? How much wall-to-wall space is there?"

If you're thinking that this doesn't sound like the typical stuff a director worries about, you're right. But then most directors aren't temporarily altering the layout of a performance space for their production, either.

Yes, for "Sweeney," Brennan envisioned a thrust stage experience, which would place the audience not just in front of the stage, but also on both sides of the action, where a number of seats would be integrated into the play's set.

"I get a little obsessive about things," said Brennan. "In all honesty, I've been working on this every day, well into the evening, since January," shortly after Encore co-founder Dan Cooney called and asked if Brennan would like to direct "Sweeney." " ... I had this idea, and I felt like I had to prove it was possible. So I started doodling on graph paper, and using painter's tape to tape it all together. ... I got insane about counting squares."

This is because he knew he needed specifics when presenting his vision to Encore's team; and though it determined that Brennan could lose up to 10 seats, if necessary, to execute this vision, Brennan's plan ended up offering space for almost exactly the same number of seats as are normally available for shows at Encore.

But you might be asking why this layout change was so central to Brennan's vision for the show.

"It all started from a desire to take the familiar and make it unfamiliar," said Brennan. "To build the foundation for something that's unsettling, but not necessarily scary. Like with 'Assassins' [which Brennan directed last season at Encore], I'm a big fan of theater where the audience is sitting forward and paying attention, rather than sitting back and being passive."

"Sweeney" star David Moan agreed. "We've talked about how you couldn't do this kind of change everywhere," he said. "You can't do it at the Fisher or the Fox. But because Encore allows us to do things like this, it makes it that much more special."

The groundbreaking show - with music and lyrics by Sondheim, and a book by Hugh Wheeler - debuted on Broadway in 1979. Based on Christopher Bond's 1973 play (which was inspired by a Victorian era serialized story, or "penny dreadful," called "The String of Pearls"), "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" tells the tale of a man who, banished by a corrupt judge who wished to pursue Sweeney's wife, returns to London years later to find his family. When he learns that his wife poisoned herself, and that their daughter has been the judge's ward, Todd vows revenge and teams up with meat pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett, whose business is struggling, thanks to a scarcity of meat.

The scheme the two hatch to get what they both want is one of the darkest and bloodiest you'll encounter in musical theater - but it's also one of the things that made the show so unique.

Plus, as it happens, Moan has grown accustomed to spending October covered in stage blood, having starred in "Evil Dead: The Musical" in Detroit in recent years. And while he enjoyed that annual gory foray into camp, Moan considered the chance to play Sweeney Todd irresistible.

"This is, in my mind, the epitome of roles that a baritone can play," said Moan. "The music is really difficult, probably the most difficult I've ever worked on, and it's also a beefy role in terms of the acting things that are required of you. ... (Todd) isn't just Micheal Myers or Jason. Sweeney Todd is like Hannibal Lecter scary. ... So for me, this role stands in the perfect middle of this Venn diagram of scary stuff, raw emotion, and music that's suited to my voice."

Moan admits that he's not as old as most actors who play the role - he didn't expect to tackle Sweeney this early his career - but he's intrigued by how a younger, unconventional Todd might alter the story's tone.

"We thought, what if he's not this giant, scary man in his 40s, but instead a man in his 30s who looked nice and well put together?" said Moan. "Someone who, if you saw him, you'd just implicitly trust him?"

Encore regulars may recognize Moan as the Wilde Award-winning star of the company's recent production of "Assassins" (in which he played John Wilkes Booth), also directed by Brennan.

Not coincidentally, the entire artistic team for "Assassins," and most of the cast, have been re-convened for "Sweeney Todd." Encore's production sets the action in a 1940s London factory - a context that grew out of Brennan imagining Mrs. Lovett dressed like a wartime pinup at the start of act two - and Brennan's team is working hard to present the show's characters as flawed humans, not caricatures.

"That's why we're keeping the Judge's tune in the show, because without that, he's just this villain twirling his mustache," said Brennan. " ... Everyone in this story is trying to do the best for themselves, which makes finding a clear antagonist tough. Everyone's making poor decisions. ... My hope is that the audience sees themselves in some of these moments, like, when you may find yourself cheering on a guy who wants to murder another human being. It should be a moment of self-reflection, but also a reflection of humanity as a whole."

And of course, fitting for the season, "Sweeney" promises to also be creepy and haunting.

"The first time I saw a production of 'Sweeney Todd,' I was in fifth grade," said Brennan. " ... I was scared that I would not put a chair back, like Sweeney does with his barber chair, for, like, two years."

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