For one week only, on Melbourne’s Playhouse Theatre stage, fans of the late American composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, will be thrilled to get their fix with the darkly entertaining tale of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
At Saturday’s opening night, fans galore revelled in Victorian Opera and New Zealand Opera’s co-production which premiered back in 2015 on the same stage, then headed across the pond and back to stages around the country.
Directed by Stuart Maunder, who has since stepped into the role of the Victorian Opera’s Artistic Director, it’s an intelligently thought-through, efficient and effective production in which Maunder expertly mines the dramatic tension, grotesqueness and wittiness of the work along with his team of creatives.
Sondheim fans will know the intricacies of the plot and quite possibly all the lyrics. For those who don’t, Botany Bay escapee, Benjamin Barker, returns to 1840s London after a 16-year absence hellbent on avenging himself upon the loathsome Judge Turpin, who wrongly sentenced him in order to make advances on Barker’s wife, Lucy.
Under the assumed name of Sweeney Todd, Barker slips into his former barber trade, abetted by scheming pie-maker Mrs Lovett, and revenge spirals murderously out of control. Throats are slit, bodies disposed of and their parts are minced for a variety of pies ranging from “priest” to “marine” – certainly appetising theatrical fare.
Roger Kirk’s set design consists of a handsome network of timber stairs within a sooty brick vault, serving as both the buildings and alleys of the “great black pit” of Industrial Revolution-era London and a subterranean pit in which “man devours man”.
The centrepiece is a compact and inventive two-level cube that is manoeuvres about featuring Mrs Lovett’s pie shop below and Sweeney Todd’s barber shop above. Kirk’s costume designs define the period with hints of artistic edginess and Philip Lethlean’s lighting broods and punctuates with dramatic precision.
The visual experience itself reflects the many dualities exhibited by the musical’s characters themselves. Much like other Sondheim works, such as Into the Woods, the idea that people and circumstances are not always as they seem, is pervasive.
Todd and Lovett are primary examples but everyone else is masking something, none more so than Judge Turpin who sits in high office but underneath is a rapist and sexual deviate. Sondheim – undoubtedly one of the greatest and gifted figures in 20th-century musical theatre – forges these dualities with remarkable sophistication through music and lyrics of potent energy and poeticism.
For this revival, an overall strong cast imbues the work with lashings of vitality and nuance. Ben Mingay takes meaty command of the title role – a menacing, hefty, rumbling, smokey-voiced and solid presence as Todd. Capturing the ordinary man-done-wrong-by turned murderer with outstanding subtlety of movement and expression, Mingay is casting gold.
The gold keeps shining with Antoinette Halloran’s magnetic portrayal of chattery and frisky Mrs Lovett, showcasing the work’s most memorable songs with delightfully animated comic appeal and perfectly timed delivery. Halloran has long owned the role and she delivers in spades, having appeared in every season since 2015’s production premiere while giving ongoing freshness and form to her character.
Together, Mingay and Halloran bring a powerful, unsettling and simmering chemistry to their relationship that clearly points only one way to demise.
Adrian Tamburini never holds back whether on the streets or behind closed doors with his dangerously authoritative Judge Turpin, while Kanen Breen gives a masterclass of dark comedy and eloquent song as Turpin’s shadowy offsider, The Beadle.
Other notable performances include Mat Verevis’ endearing but abused Tobias Ragg and Euan Fistrovic Doidge is flamboyance on steroids as the fake Italian barber, Adolfo Pirelli.
But it wasn’t entirely rosy on opening night for everyone, starting with a little complacency in diction from an otherwise melodious and compelling portrayal of city folk by the chorus of twelve.
While looking and acting the part of Todd’s daughter Joanna, radiant-voiced Alessia Pintabona struggled with the music’s mellifluousness of line. Lachlann Lawton’s Anthony, Joanna’s lover, needed a little toughening up but commendably signed off his music with heroic appeal and Margaret Trubiano’s overly fractured vocals didn’t help to endear her mad Beggar Woman.
Conductor Phoebe Briggs, however, worked tirelessly behind the scenes to enliven Sondheim’s score, giving total attention to persuasive tempi and textural richness. The 12-member Victorian Opera Chamber Orchestra played a hearty treat.
In the final moments, after Mrs Lovett’s bake house is strewn with several bloodied bodies, The Ballad of Sweeney Todd is reprised, the dead come back to life to join in the chorus and Sondheim, as he does so insightfully, reminds us once again, things are not what they seem. The only way to know might be to experience it for yourself, a recommendation made without hesitation.
Sweeney Todd
Playhouse – Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Performance: Saturday 14 September 2024
Season continues to 21 September 2024
Bookings: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au
For more information, visit: www.victorianopera.com.au for details.
Images: Ben Mingay as Sweeney Todd – photo by Charlie Kinross | Antoinette Halloran as Mrs Lovett – photo by Charlie Kinross | The cast of Sweeney Todd – photo by Charlie Kinross | Adrian Tamburini as Judge Turpin and Kanen Breen as The Beadle – photo by Charlie Kinross | Mat Verevis as Tobias Ragg and Antoinette Halloran as Mrs Lovett – photo by Charlie Kinross
Review: Paul Selar