Sweeney todd by stephen sondheim6/20/2023 ![]() ![]() My cousin was a drama student in college, and this was their mainstage musical production. When I was nine years old, my parents took me to see Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He is real, and he is watching, and whatever you do, you better do as he pleases…or else. ![]() They acknowledge that we are in a theatre seeing a play, that these are actors on a stage, yet in doing so, they also confirm that Sweeney is real. ![]() Even the final word is a jump scare, a note purposefully out of rhythm, unexpected and off-kilter… There's a wink there with the snarl. The lyrics are playful, even though they anticipate death and darkness. ![]() They speak directly to us, the audience, inviting us to join them on a dangerous journey, and to hear a tale so ghastly its namesake has become a thing of legend.īy the end of the opening song we meet Sweeney himself, a ghoulish barber with a singular focus and drive behind his eyes, eyes that have seen so much tragedy. A factory whistle screams in the darkness, jolting us to attention.Ī group of lower-class dockworkers stand amidst an iron foundry, their skin ghostly pale, their eyes sunken and dark, soot and ash staining their soiled clothes. ![]()
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