Casting Announced for KCRep's SWEENEY TODD

Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Artistic Director, Eric Rosen, today announced the cast for SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET which closes the 2017/2018 mainstage season at KCRep. SWEENEY TODD runs March 23 - April 15 at the Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus and will be directed by Rosen.

The cast for SWEENEY TODD includes Tally Sessions as the vengeful barber, Benjamin Barker, Ellen Harvey as the comically diabolical Mrs. Lovett, Emily Shackelford as the lovely Johanna, Tim Scott as Pirelli, Chris McCarrell as Anthony, and Jordan Haas as Tobias. Rounding out the ensemble cast are Lauren Braton, Joe Carr, Merwin Foard, Colleen Grate, Melinda MacDonald, Bradley Thomas, and John-Michael Zuerlein.

Tally Sessions has understudied major roles in the recent Broadway musicals WAR PAINT, FALSETTOS, Cirque du Soleil - PARAMOUR, and SCHOOL OF ROCK, and appeared in his own club show, A Fine Bromance, with Jeff Kready. He performed on the national tours of such hits as SOUTH PACIFIC and LEGALLY BLONDE and has worked on the stages of Signature Theatre, Goodspeed Opera House, and Roundabout Theatre, to name a few.

Ellen Harvey was most recently seen on Broadway alongside Kevin Kline in Noel Coward's PRESENT LAUGHTER at the St. James Theater. Her Broadway credits include THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, THE MUSIC MAN, and HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS. Harvey has appeared on the stages of regional theatres throughout the country, including Huntington Theatre, Merrimack Rep, and Two Rivers, and in over a dozen film and TV productions including House of Cards, Gotham, and Elementary.

The beloved musical SWEENEY TODD has become a bloody, worldwide success since being awarded eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, for its Broadway premiere. Stephen Sondheim's and Hugh Wheeler's (A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, PACIFIC OVERTURES) tasty, thrilling, theatrical treat has simultaneously shocked, awed, and delighted audiences for decades, and its appeal is as robust as ever.

In this infamous tale, Sweeney Todd, an unjustly exiled barber, returns to nineteenth-century London to seek vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which, he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett's luck sharply shifts when Todd's thirst for blood inspires the integration of an ingredient into her savory treats that has all the people of London dying for her pies!

SWEENEY TODD: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is part of KCRep's 2017/18 season and is sponsored in part by the Celebrating our Heritage Fund - Miller & Jeanette Nichols, the Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts, and Sprint.

Financial assistance for the season is provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment of the Arts.

Tickets for SWEENEY TODD start at $25 and may be purchased by visiting http://kcrep.org/show/sweeney-todd-demon-barber-fleet-street or by calling the KCRep box office at 816-235-2700. Groups of nine or more receive discounted tickets, call Andrew Cotlar at 816-235-6122 for details.