Musical Mondays: Sweeney Todd Off-Broadway
Sweeney Todd won the Tony for Best Musical in 1979 as well as the Olivier for Best New Musical in its 1980 opening in London. The show was revived on Broadway to critical success in 1989 and 2005, and it was on the West End in London again in 1993, 2005, and 2012. Combine that with the successful film adaptation in 2007, which featured Johnny Depp and Sacha Baron Cohen is roles that simultaneously made none and tons of sense, and I felt like Sweeney Todd had been done. And done. And done. I really like the show, but when I heard it was being produced for an Off-Broadway run at the beginning of last year, I was a little skeptical. Then I was told it was being put up in a makeshift pie shop, and I was simultaneously more skeptical and more intrigued.
A gimmick alone can be annoying, but just because something involves a gimmick does not devalue the whole. There is no way to categorize the increased use of 3D’s in movie theater as anything other than a gimmick, but it can be used really well as in the Fern Gully remake of shockingly gorgeous proportions Avatar or it can make a dumb movie even more dumb such as A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas 3D, which asked the question: can a movie be made better by including slow motion shots of irrelevant moments in the film and utilizing painfully over the top 3D? The answer was no. The movie was garbage.
The gimmick of putting Sweeney Todd in a pie shop would not make the performance good if it sucked, but if the play was good, eating a meat pie before the show was a pretty funny concept. Cannibalism can be funny in musical and musical tangential/related ways—at least, much more funny than I imagine actual cannibalism would be. And probably more flavorful, though I am proud to say I cannot attest to the flavor of baked human flesh.
The pies were fun, and it was something even more fond in retrospect as the show was an incredible, intimate portrayal. Actors singing mere inches from our face, the play taking place all around us, and actors dancing on the tables. Sweeney is an immensely emotional show and to see not only the theatrics up close but to see the acting in the eyes, on the faces, and in every moment was great.
The show keeps getting extended, and as of the drafting of this review, tickets are on sale through August 26th of this year. There has been no cast album, and to be honest, I’m not sure it would do it particular justice. Even if you don’t have a pie or sit in the bench seats on which the performers dance, go see the show. It is intense, emotional, and it will make you realize why people love Sweeney Todd enough to keep it coming back and back again.