Theater Review | 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street' 

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The start of spooky season puts many in the mood for entertainment that shows humanity at its worst, such as slasher films and horror stories. When told with humor, skill and just enough aesthetic distance to keep the darkest moments feeling more stylized than real, these stories can have audiences walking away from three hours of cannibalism, sexual assault and murder saying, “That was fun!”

Blackfriars Theatre opens their 75th season with musical theater’s beloved macabre romp, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” directed by BFT Artistic Director Brynn Tyszka and co-starring Executive Director Mary Tiballi Hoffman as Mrs. Lovett. With showtimes through September 22, the run is already close to sold out.

The production’s engaging set design by Allen Wright Shannon pays homage to the source of the Sweeney Todd tale, the 19th century serial fiction “The String of Pearls.” The set consists of two stories connected by a movable wooden staircase, with a backdrop of images evoking penny dreadfuls and London newspapers, including an ad for Pears’ soap. It hearkens back to 1840s London, a time before food safety standards, when the sewage water from the River Thames contaminated households and no one could be certain what was in their kitchen.

The musical opens with “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” performed by the ensemble as a sort of Greek chorus as they emerge from every corner of the theater in drab Victorian dresses and suits (costume design by Samantha Burton) under ominous black and red lighting designed by Ted Plant. The song builds up to the reveal of the titular barber, played by Carl Del Buono, who immediately looks the part with his sullen glare, unruly hair and eyeliner heavy enough to make Gerard Way proud.

Sweeney is a barber who was exiled to Australia and is now returning to London, saved on the sea by kindly sailor Anthony (an earnest, optimistic Lucas Casey Brown). Sweeney hopes to reunite with his family — his wife, who was sexually assaulted by the same villainous Judge Turpin (a chillingly understated David Munnell) who cast him off, and their daughter Johanna (fluttering soprano Grace Plassmeyer), a baby when he left but now a young woman. However, all he finds when he returns home is the downstairs baker Mrs. Lovett, maker of “The Worst Pies in London,” who explains that his wife poisoned herself and his daughter was taken in by Judge Turpin.

Coincidentally, Anthony spots Johanna while strolling the streets of London, and the two fall in love at first sight (as blandly good-natured ingenues tend to do). When Judge Turpin decides he’d like to wed his adopted daughter himself, Johanna and Anthony plot to run away together.

Meanwhile, Sweeney and Lovett turn out to be quite a team: Sweeney wants deadly revenge on those who wronged him, but needs a way to dispose of the bodies; while Mrs. Lovett’s struggling meat pie shop is in the market for fresh fillings. Their natural conclusion, and basis for one of the punniest songs in musical theater, “A Little Priest,” is not for the weak of stomach.

Though widely produced, “Sweeney Todd” is no easy feat. Legendary composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s music is full of intricate counterparts, complex rhythms and lyrics that feel like tongue twisters (try saying “inconspicuous Sweeney was / quick and quiet and clean he was” five times fast). While there were a few mic issues opening night, they didn’t detract from the cast’s overall controlled delivery of the vocally demanding score, under the musical direction of Andy Pratt.

The show is inspired by theatrical traditions including melodrama and the French 'Grand Guignol' horror theater. Under Tyszka’s direction, the cast finds a smooth balance between humor and suspense. Tiballi Hoffman, as Lovett, is cheerfully morbid, leaning particularly hard into her lascivious interest in Todd. Del Buono balances her out with a solemn disinterest, becoming amiable only when it suits his revenge goal.

The supporting cast is rounded out with the weaselly Beadle (John Caboot), over-the-top Italian showman Pirelli (George Barberi) and an energetic, frenetic Tobias (Max Ruscio). Katelyn Machnica gives a standout performance as the Beggar Woman, never losing the gravitas of her character’s mental instability, even when playing for laughs.

At times, the actors lean heavily into the show’s melodrama, with exaggerated  performances that might land better in a venue larger than Blackfriars’ intimate space. The strongest moments are the understated ones, like the delicious tension as Sweeney serenades about “Pretty Women” while on the verge of slashing the Judge’s throat, or Mrs. Lovett’s maternal sweetness to Toby as he sings “Not While I’m Around,” unaware that she is as much a demon as the ones he vows to protect her from.

“Sweeney Todd” isn't to everybody’s taste. Audiences either savor watching corpses slide down a barber chair into a trap door against the backdrop of somewhat operatic and lyrically dense music, or they don’t. But for fans of the show or those looking for a solid introduction to Sondheim’s strange masterpiece, this production is sure to whet the appetite.

“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" plays through Sept. 22 at Blackfriars Theatre; more info and tickets at blackfriars.org.

Katherine Varga is a contributing writer to CITY.