Moonbox Productions’ ‘Sweeney Todd’ Sets The City On Fire

October 19, 2023October 19, 2023 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Joy Clark and Davron Monroe in Moonbox Productions ‘Sweeney Todd’

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Ryan Mardesich, Director/Co-Producer. Dan Ryan, Music Director/Conductor. Joy Clark, Choreographer. Cameron McEachern, Set Design. Kat C. Zhou, Lighting Design. Rebecca Glick, Costume Design. James Cannon, Sound Design. Lauren Corcuera, Properties Design. Margaret Clark, Fight Choreography. At Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge, through November 5.

by Linda Chin

With their intensely powerful Sweeney Todd christening the new black-box theatre at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge, Moonbox Productions is “setting the city on fire.” Mercifully, not because all hell has broken loose in Harvard Square, with ‘rats in the grass!…or lunatics yelling!…or great black crows screeching!’ like in Sondheim’s London, 1846. But rather because, like when used in rap music or modern slang in 2023, the term ‘set the city on fire’ means a large number of people are excited and interested in what’s happening.

SWEENEY TODD

May 22, 2023June 7, 2023 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Tony Annicone

Trinity Rep’s closing musical of their 59th season is Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd,” which opened on Broadway on March 1, 1979, and won 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. This musical is a macabre tragicomedy based on the legend of a half-mad 19th Century English barber driven to crime when an evil judge takes his wife and daughter from him. Unjustly imprisoned, Todd eventually escapes 15 years later and vows to bring justice to the judge who destroyed his life and all the people of London. He forms a partnership with Mrs. Lovett, an enterprising bar mistress whose previously worst meat pies in London soon become the tastiest, with Todd’s victims as their secret ingredient. This musical also shines with a fabulous turntable set by the late Eugene Lee and Patrick Lynch with terrific costumes by Shahrzad Mazaheri. Director Curt Columbus infuses his cast with the energy and insight to pull off these complex characters. At the same time, music director Andrew Smithson taught the talented cast members the intricate and precise Sondheim music and lyrics in this over three-hundred-page score. The diction is crystal clear. Their combined efforts produce a sensational musical that must not be missed. It is rewarded with a resounding standing ovation at night’s close.

Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ – Meaty Material Performed to Perfection at Company Theatre

October 19, 2022October 20, 2022 michaelhoban8 Comments

MaryAnn Zschau, Peter Adams in ‘Sweeney Todd” at Company Theatre

Sweeney Todd – Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Directed by Sally Ashton Forrest. Musical Direction by Steve Bass. Lighting Design by Dean Palmer Jr. Costume Design by Bri Plummer. Set Design by Ryan Barrow. Presented by Company Theatre, Norwell, through October 23.

by Linda Chin

Legendary lyricist-composer Stephen Sondheim, who became a “giant in the sky” in November 2021 at the age of 91, is arguably the most important figure in musical theater history, and Sweeney Todd is arguably his masterpiece. Yet it is produced less frequently by regional and community theaters than Company, Gypsy, or Into the Woods. Set in London during the Industrial Revolution, the story of a villainous duo who make meat pies filled with human remains is brilliant, but more macabre than Sondheim’s other works, and most musicals in general. Its dark presentation of lust, murder, obsession and revenge, societal and mental health decline, may not appeal to audiences looking for light-hearted entertainment in these depressing times. Even in the best of times, it is a colossal undertaking that asks for customized set pieces and scenic elements, and actors and musicians who can play the complicated characters and handle Sondheim’s challenging score.