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‘Concert staging’ is not a sexy phrase: it basically means doing a musical without the sets, or the dancing, or most of the other things people like about musicals (apart from the music, admittedly).
Director Lonny Price starts this sumptuously orchestrated ENO concert production of Sondheim’s gory masterpiece, ‘Sweeney Todd’, off by making it look almost hysterically boring. Then, in a great coup de théâtre, he pulls the rug away. The singers lined up gloomily at the front of the stage rip up their evening dress, throw down their lyric books and upend a grand piano as the dull façade falls away to reveal designer James Noone’s grungy, modern London backdrop. Then Bryn Terfel unleashes the full force of his seismic, operatic baritone on the deathlessly wonderful ‘The Ballad of Sweeney Todd’.
The chills never quite run down the spine in the same way again. But it’s certainly nifty enough not to look hopelessly square next to Tooting Arts Club’s ultra-hip pop-up ‘Todd’, currently ruling the roost on Shaftesbury Avenue.
Truth be told, it’s a curate’s egg: Terfel’s singing voice is booming menace personified, but he lacks the acting chops to nail Todd’s character: his murderous barber vacillates between grumpiness and modest charm, without ever seeming especially threatening. And he’s not helped by hair and costume that make him look like late-period Steven Seagal. As amoral pie shop owner Mrs Lovett, big-name co-star Emma Thompson emphatically can act – and sing, too, her ‘The Worst Pies in London’ is a rowdy delight. As enjoyably dotty as her performance is, however, it’s an odd way to return to the stage after decades away, and she sometimes feels thrown away in a staging that’s so much about the orchestra and Terfel’s voice. And Noone’s design becomes a bit irritating: while the punky modern costumes are fun at the beginning, not setting the musical in Victorian London is pretty hubristic, especially when all that replaces it is a few Occupy-esque stencilled slogans.
Still, this slightly odd endeavour sounds absolutely phenomenal, and if it persuades Emma Thompson to spend more time on the London stage, then so much the better.