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Sweeney Todd
'It's enough to make you come all over gooseflesh,' shivers Imelda Staunton's canny creative cook, Mrs Lovett, as she contemplates the grisly aftermath of one of the demon barber's deadly deeds.
She's not wrong: Jonathan Kent's production of Stephen Sondheim's gore-soaked musical is dark and dazzling by turns, and utterly hair-raising. It's not just that slitting people's throats and baking them in pies is a stomach-turning, if lucrative business; in this staging, social injustice and inhumanity emerge forcefully as commonplace obscenities.
And, thanks to the brilliance of Sondheim's score and lyrics, and stunning performances from a cast led by Staunton and an almost unrecognisable Michael Ball as Sweeney, a macabre horror story becomes both diabolically funny and genuinely tragic.
Anthony Ward's designs present a multi-level industrial setting that seeps grimy deprivation, pierced by shards of yellowy light illuminating swirls of dirty fog. An ensemble of toiling 1930s workers begin to entertain each other with the tale of Sweeney Todd, its gruesome thrills a panacea for lives of arduous, depression-era monotony. As Sondheim's music soars, there's a vocal explosion, as if this Victorian penny dreadful had ignited decades of rage and suffering.
Ball's grim, vengeful anti-hero is mesmeric, his eyes aglitter beneath his curtain of lank hair. His very stillness is menacing; his rich voice wrings every nuance of fury, madness and desolation from the score. When Mrs Lovett suggests her get-rich-quick scheme, he flashes a toothy, lupine grin; it's a delicious moment of ghoulish comedy.
And Staunton is nothing short of astonishing. She's hilariously adept with Sondheim's comic rhymes, and an earthy, gritty-voiced delight as she attempts coquetry with Ball. But she also conveys a devastating loneliness and longing that has you handing her your heart even as she's flinging body parts into the oven.
This is a production crammed with detail: it is vivid, nightmarish and exhilarating. Bloody marvellous.
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What is 'following'?This Grade II-listed building specialises in musicals and is jointly owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Group and Nederlander...
Read full venue reviewTransport Charing Cross
020 7492 9930
Mon-Sat 7.30pm; Wed, Sat Mats 2.30pm
£20-£67.50. Runs 2hrs 50mins
Fantastic cast and brilliantly produced, a must see if you are in to macabre style theatre. Very well acted, I couldn't even pick a favourite as everyone shone.
Amazing that something this dark, bloody, and potentially depressing could come off so well. The two leads are excellent, especially Mrs. Lovett--Imelda. I am sensitive to this dark sort of humor, morality tales, etc. but found this very very entertaining. I feel sorry for the cast and their bland, unappealing costumes. This is NOT Priscilla but equally as enlightening or entertaining.
An incredible production with thoroughly entertaining performances, yet it didn't leave me going 'wow' like Matilda, Les Mis or Legally Blonde. Something about it left me cold, though perhaps that's just the musical itself being quite different from the aforementioned.
I thought this was great and I don't even particularly like musicals. Incredibly dramatic, brilliant music and Imelda Staunton must surely be our next theatrical Dame.
Behind every mad, bad man there is an even madder, badder woman. Staunton & Ball given career defining performances. This is bloody brilliant. Further thoughts here http://frontrowdress.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/sweeney-todd-adelphi-theatre-thursday-5.html
A brilliant show done by a brilliant cast. Excellent production values and the strong chorus make this an exceptional production. I have never seen a better Mrs. Lovett -- Imelda is just plain terrific. There are still some tickets at TKTS daily, but with a limited run this superb offering will sell out quickly, I think. A must-see show!
It was grisly and hilarious. The songs are just exceptional and I'm still humming them.
Easily the best staging and performance of Sweeney Todd I've seen in a long time (and I've seen many versions). The cast make it their own. Outstanding.
I may be the only one, but I didn't even notice the updated setting. I thought this was a fantastic production, in large part thanks to Imelda Staunton. She is just magnificent. Michael Ball is very good as well, and the ensemble overall is strong. I happened to love the set and costume design, I thought it gave a great sense of place. This is definitely the best production of <a href="http://www.cheaptheatretickets.com/sweeney-todd/">Sweeney Todd</a> I've ever seen, and a must-see event.
I was disappointed. I wonder why they decided to set it in the 1930's as there is no reference to this in the actual text and it's clearly a victorial gothic piece. The set was dull and it looked like the cast had stepped into a production of View from the Bridge by mistake. There was so much dry ice it was hard to see the action through a veil of fog. I loved Imelda Staunton. She seemed to be trying to create enough energy for the rest of the cast who seemed very tired and lack lustre. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to it.
Marvellous show! Michael and Imelda are a wonderful team and you could be forgiven for thinking that Michael was not in the show - he looks nothing like the man we know and love.It's a "must see".
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