If love is best served hot, and revenge best served cold, then murder must be best served warm, doused in shaving cream and wrapped in a barber’s cape—or at least, that’s what Sweeney Todd would no doubt have you believe.
Known as “The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” the character of Sweeney Todd is brought to life in the raucous and macabre Cabrillo Stage production of “Sweeney Todd,” playing through Aug. 10 during the annual Summer Music Festival at Cabrillo College’s Crocker Theater.
The lead character is Benjamin Barker, played by Adam J. Saucedo, a barber convicted wrongfully who—after 15 years in an Australian penal colony—escapes and returns to London using the new name Sweeney Todd, only to find that Judge Turpin—the man who is responsible for his conviction—has raped his young wife Lucy and adopted Todd’s daughter Johanna. He at first plans to kill Turpin, but when his prey escapes, he swears vengeance on humanity in general and begins to wreak havoc on his customers’ throats.
The story follows an unjustly exiled barber (Todd) as he returns to 19th-century London seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett’s luck sharply shifts when Todd’s thirst for blood inspires the integration of an ingredient into her meat pies that has the people of London lining up…and the carnage has only just begun.
Saucedo’s booming, hypnotic baritone voice scales operatic limits during his scenes as Sweeney Todd, the eponymous star of the musical. While Saucedo is the only Equity actor in the production (he appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States), the rest of the cast strives to match Saucedo’s acting and singing chops in the production.
Angela Jeffries plays the vivacious, outrageous Mrs. Lovett, the pie shop owner whose business is floundering due to the lack of meat filling in her pastries. Lovett determines that her baking oven is the perfect receptacle for several innocent townspeople who have landed on the wrong side of the barber’s ledger, and they are transformed into something…tastier.
Saucedo and Jeffries light up the stage with their sassy, caustic caper to resolve each of their needs—his for bloodlust, and hers for a successful entrepreneurial pie enterprise—in their hilarious duet of “A Little Priest,” and that’s only one of the numbers in which their respective voices soar.
Louis Santia plays Adolfo Pirelli, a hustler on the streets of London who is selling a magical tonic that promises to resurrect one’s hair growth. His rendition of “Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir” is the perfect pick-me-up tune for those with (and without) a full head of hair, while the ensemble’s “God, That’s Good” celebrates the renewed sensation of Lovett’s pies.
Haley Clarke plays Johanna, the lovely, fair-haired daughter of Sweeney Todd who is being wooed aggressively by two men on the prowl: Judge Turpin and Anthony Hope. Turpin is Johanna’s legal guardian and has raised her in captivity, with the intention of marrying her. His possessive and controlling nature leads him to imprison her and keep her isolated from the outside world, while young Hope is a sailor who is determined to rescue her from the judge and falls madly in love with Johanna.
Clarke’s voice is soft yet strong, controlled yet wistful as she wends her way through Johanna’s ordeals at the hands of David Murphy’s Turpin, whose dastardly selfishness finally drives Johanna away. Conor Warshawksy is perfect as the madly-in-love Hope, a man who treats Johanna with the respect and adoration all women crave, and with a head of hair that may well have been the result of a few applications of Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir.
Everything in this production deserves to be celebrated, from the vocal talent to the pitch-perfect costumes, set design and orchestra. While “Sweeney Todd” has some unsavory elements, this dish is probably best served to ages 16 and up.For more information or to purchase tickets, visit cabrillostage.universitytickets.com/w/.
