| Sweeney Todd | Swan Theatre, Wycombe 3-8 April 2006 Eves: 7.30pm Wed & Sat Mat: 2.30pm |
A Sondheim musical is always going to be a challenge for cast, musicians and audience alike, and so I approached this production of "Sweeney Todd" with some trepidation. Would Jason Donovan make the leap from Stock Aitken and Waterman, Lloyd Webber and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"into the discordant realm of a Sondheim stage production? But more of that later. Firstly though a couple of surprises for those who haven't researched this new touring production beforehand. The question of where the orchestra was to be located was answered as soon as the curtain lifted. The cast are also the musicians! So you have two cellists, a double bass, violin, clarinet, trumpet, piano accordion, keyboard and percussion all on the stage thoughout. They play the whole two hour piece without music and sing and act as well!
 | | Harriet Thorpe and Jason Donovan |
For me, another very pleasant surprise was the appearance of that fine comedy actress Harriet Thorpe as voluptuous pie purveyor Mrs Lovett. You might remember her as the deliciously demented receptionist Carole in "The Brittas Empire". She was the one who kept her baby in a drawer under the counter.She does demented well, but I might be doing her a disservice by saying she is not a musician - although she adds the percussion and her use of the triangle actually becomes a comic device! Stylised There's an overtone of Macbeth about "SweeneyTodd" and her driving of Todd from a man seeking personal revenge into a murderer providing the meat which transforms the "worst pies in London" into culinary masterpieces is a tour de force. The secret of course is in the mincing techniques - three times gives a smooth texture and is a vast improvement over the previous ones made from animals found dead in the streets. Thorpe spends a lot of the second half moving buckets of blood around, transferring the contents from one to another. This is a stylised production. As each cast member is reduced to pie filling they wear a blood stained white coat. The murders are achieved by freezing the action with red lights and an ear-shattering shrill electronic scream. It worked for me. Jason Donovan manages to portray Todd adequately. His singing is strong and he adds guitar to one of the numbers, although as his contribution to the music is fairly low down in the mix, his musicianship is obviously not up to the high standards of the rest of the cast! I didn't feel too convinced of the decline into demonic madness driven by Mrs Lovett's desire and hunger to improve herself, but his unshaven hollow-eyed appearance makes him look the part though and perhaps it’s the pace of the second half that leaves no chance for character development. Strong
 | | Harriet Thorpe as Mrs Lovett |
Indeed the singing by the whole cast is strong. James Spilling as Tobias is impressive as the servant of Todd's first victim, a mountebank hair restorer salesman. Tobias ends up in an asylum after he has been locked in the bakehouse making the human pies from Todds victims. I also liked the way in which the young lovers played by Greg Barnett and Joanna Hickman both played cellos. A lot of thought had been given to how to move around the set with the instruments as well, and Gemma Page's portrayal of a tormented beggar woman whilst playing the clarinet illustrates the achievement of this production. I'm sure other productions will have captured Victorian London far better. In fact this one makes no effort to do that and Donovan's designer label jeans and rubber soled shoes are not disguised as he lies dead at the end. As an introduction to Sondheim though, this works well. The story is easy to follow and the words are clearly audible. That’s important because the lyrics contain some good gags. I particularly liked Thorpe and Donovan's delivery of the word play as they discuss the merits of various occupations once turned into pies! You won't come away humming the tunes but you will enjoy an accomplished performance different in style and delivery to anything else you'll see on the provincial circuit this season. At the moment I think I may have to pass on the pies at Preston (North End v Luton!) this coming weekend. | 
