Colin McCarthy and Paige Andrews Photo

From: Photo Flash: Timberlane Regional High School's Canceled But Restored SWEENEY TODD Takes a Bow

As BroadwayWorld previously reported last year, Timberlane Regional High School planned to present a PG version of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd but administrators feared it would not be family friendly and attempted to cancel the production. In response, hundreds of supporters for SWEENEY TODD gathered at a meeting to fight for the show. At the three-hour forum, the majority of the attendees were in support of SWEENEY. Superintendent Earl Metzler said he was not completely opposed to the play but that he needed to think of the community as a whole. In the end, the show went on, an Stephen Sondheim himself even wrote to the company to applaud their persistence. He writes: 'I've never understood why Sweeney Todd is considered 'controversial.' The incidents in the plot may be lurid, but the show's themes are primarily injustice, morality and greed, as Howard Sherman pointed out. More important, it's a wonderful scary story- what Sweeney Todd is really about is having a good time.' Check out his full letter below!