SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET run dates: 7/11/2008 - 7/27/2008 Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, Clinton, Iowa ____________________________________________________________________________
Stephen Sondheim’s SWEENEY TODD, THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET is that rare sort of musical – a macabre, laugh-aloud comedy that also features both high drama and great music.
The Clinton Area Showboat Theatre’s production of this show is good enough to also make it a relative rarity.
Wonderfully lively and scarily intimate, this is a SWEENEY TODD to really appreciate. Director and sound designer Craig A. Miller has put together a really great show that features a marvelously talented cast, and this is the time to make sure you get a chance to see it.
The cast, led by Blake Adams in the title role, does a heck of a job with the material – and no doubt many of them have been waiting all summer to sink their teeth into its rich score and creepily-drawn roles. Music director Adam Wiggins, who also plays piano, leads an accomplished orchestra that seems to easily handle the challenge of this larger-than-life work.
With a cast this talented, it is difficult to find a place to start when describing the work of these talented performers. Christina Stroup’s intermittent appearances as the Beggar Woman are all fully formed, and this character does much to help create the mood and anchor the setting firmly in the street environs of 19th century London.
Joshua Estrada lends his lovely vocals to the role of Anthony, playing this earnest young sailor with a self-effacing purity that is as touching as it is endearing. Mitchell Greco is a sweetly appealing Tobias, and Zach Borja is a fine Pirelli. Karl Wolf is icky (a compliment in this role) as Judge Turpin.
Center stage in this great SWEENEY TODD is Adams, of course, and he is well-matched (even, in a couple of numbers, virtually upstaged) by Dallas Milholland as Mrs. Lovett.
Adams’ Sweeney is striking and passionate, a man with deep feelings, and his every move – from dramatic entrance to the final moments – is perfectly pitched. In strong voice and able to convey so much with just a slight change of expression, Adams is a stunningly impressive Sweeney.
Milholland’s spry and heavily-Cockney Lovett is a deliciously comic treat, and she is more than up to sharing the stage with Adams. She has many wonderful moments in this outstanding performance, but her solo "By the Sea" is one of the very best. A duet with Greco, "No One’s Gonna Harm You" is lovely, presaging a later plot point with gloriously-delivered poignancy, and "A Little Priest," a comic piece she performs with Adams, is also quite good (though, at the performance I saw opening weekend, the words were difficult to understand).
On the subject of words, I must say that some performers accents wavered opening weekend, too, and others were flawless in spoken lines and completely absent from song lyrics. This minor issue might be so small as to be undetectable to most, though, since audiences are no doubt caught up in all the other things that are so great.
Overall, this SWEENEY TODD is tremendously successful, featuring sound design, lighting and other technical elements that are on par with the cast and orchestra – and you’d be a fool to miss one of the remaining performances.
