Review: SWEENEY TODD at Greenfinch Theater And Dive Bar is Killer Entertainment

Sweeney Todd is likely the most gruesome musical ever written. A barber who is wrongly accused of a crime is imprisoned. He loses his wife and daughter only to find out after his release that the corrupt judge who put him in prison now is holding his daughter against her will. Sweeney Todd descends into madness and goes on a killing spree. He slits the throats of his victims with his straight edge razor. No Londoner is safe when seated in his barber chair.

In the current production at Fly North Theatricals, director, lighting and sound designer Colin Healy and co-lighting designer Lauren Perry waste no time startling the audience with bone chilling and goosebump inducing lighting and sound effects to accompany the orchestra’s opening notes.

Healy takes full advantage of the diminutive black box theater and immerses the audience into the macabre. The second act opening number “God, That’s Good” is usually staged as a tongue in cheek number to add a bit of levity before Sweeney Todd goes on his killing rampage. But in this production, Healy’s cast devours Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies like cannibalistic zombies. The gluttonous actor’s faces, hands, and clothing are stained with blood as they gorge themselves on human remains. It sets the stage for the horrific brutality that is still to come. Fly North Theatricals production is one of the most gory and grisly productions of Sweeney Todd that I have personally seen.

Healy’s biggest challenge working within the small space was finding a strong enough singing ensemble to carry off “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” and the other large sweeping ensemble numbers. He cast a dozen vocally gifted actors who wow with their mastery of Sondheim’s huge choral pieces.

Music director and pianist Stephen Schermitzler and his 9-piece band handled Sondheim’s difficult score wonderfully. The orchestrations sounded much richer than you would expect from a small band. Schermitzler’s more than 20-years experience with Broadway Touring Companies shone through in his St. Louis debut.

He and Healy’s skilled collaboration on the vocal arrangements was apparent from the cast's preparation and their ability to master the exceedingly difficult score. Quite honestly it was surprising that just 12 actors sang with such robust sound. The vocals were simply phenomenal.

The company was led by Chandler Spradling as Sweeney Todd and Jennelle Gilreath-Owens as Mrs. Lovett. In the second act Spradling’s Sweeney seemed almost emotionless, with flat affect, as he executed customer after customer. His descent into madness left him cold and unfeeling and solely focused on the revenge he is seeking. It was a unique, but effective take on the character. Spradling handles Sweeney’s parts of the score with his rich and resonant bass-baritone. He is at his best when singing in his lower register giving Sweeney a dark, brooding, and vengeful disposition.

Gilreath-Owens is a scene stealer as pie shoppe owner Mrs. Lovett. She captures all of Lovett’s comedic quirks and is light-heartedly daffy singing “Worst Pies in London,” “A Little Priest,” and “By the Sea.” While her actions as Sweeney’s accomplice are ghastly, her carefree, deranged attitude and morbid charm make her the likable character among a group of really awful characters.

Gilreath-Owens is having quite the year in St. Louis theater. She was a hilarious as a repressed housewife in Upstream’s Myth of the Ostrich and was a standout in Stray Dog Theatre’s 9 to 5 The Musical. Now she is slaying audiences with her darkly endearing take on the baker who is making meat pies from corpses.

There were some interesting directorial choices made by Healy that were unique to this production. The Beggar Woman’s, played by the always strong and uber-talented Rachel Bailey, face was visible throughout the entire production. Usually, the Beggar Woman’s identity is hidden by an oversized hood until the late second-act reveal.

Some of the action in the bakehouse and asylum was staged behind the audience. It was a purposeful use of the space given the small size of the black box theater, but it was not visible to many in the audience and required them to crane their necks to see what was happening. Because the material is mostly familiar to audiences, it did not derail the story’s narrative, but it still would have been preferable to have those scenes accessible to the entire audience.

Crispin Shininger as Tobias often sang so softly that the audience could not hear him. There’s little doubt that it was an acting choice, but it did not allow his gorgeous tenor to shine. There were a handful of other instances where actors were hard to hear or under mic’d that can be easily fixed.

Even with these few nit-picky comments, Fly North has staged a solid and frightening production of Sweeney Todd. It is impressive that Healy and his Fly North team chose to stage an epic musical in a very small space with just 12 actors. The cast, including Parker Miller, Nathan Hakenewerth, Margaret Beekman, Ken Haller, Matt Ingram, Dereis Lambert, Mia Millican, and Isobel Ramsey sings their faces off with haunting vocals that add to the production’s sinister eeriness.

Make sure to attend the tale of Sweeney Todd at Greenfinch Theater and Dive Bar. The Fly North Theatricals production continues through August 6, 2026. Visit flynorth.org for more information.

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