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37°F / 2°C
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415 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA
94108
+1 415 749 2228
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"You like a good story, do you?" coos Broadway veteran Judy Kaye as Mrs. Lovett in the American Conservatory Theater's production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, John Doyle’s re-make of Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical horror story. Her tone is devilish, and although she's recounting the tragic melodrama that befell the title character's wife after his exile from his native London, she's clearly relishing in the sordid tale. Of all of Mrs. Lovett's lines, it's far from the most twisted, and yet it's one of her most chilling.>“Sweeny Todd prompts viewers to examine their own relationship to the piece as audience members, as it plays on those personal reactions that most people would prefer to ignore. It's not only that many of the character's actions appear evil – it’s that telling the story even feels morally reprehensible, and watching equally so - for the simple reason that this production is so enjoyable. It's beyond entertaining - though certainly that as well, with the surprising melodies and twists of whit that abound in Stephen Sondheim's complex original score, including wonderfully comic numbers like "The Worst Pies in London" ("That's enterprise/ poppin' pussies in the pies" sings Mrs. Lovett - referring to the neighborhood practice of killing housecats for meat) and "Pirelli's Magic Elixir" , a parody of Victorian-era advertising filled with titillating rhymes, delicious reversals, and surprisingly subtle double entendre. Yet this story is downright alluring: we want the blood, the depravity, the visceral thrill of fear. More than anything else, we have the universally human desire to follow a good narrative, to experience the peculiar satisfaction that comes from following a story to the heights of its climax -- it just so happens that this particular climax will most likely involve a blood bath.>The performances certainly allow viewers little distance from the characters. Each actor doubles as a musician, no easy task with such complicated song structures and with no conductor to direct the ensemble. This demands a level of engagement among the actors which comes across in the performance: even when silent, the entire cast (most of whom remain on stage throughout the show) appears extremely involved with the characters in action, creating entirely new dimensions of relation among them that further reinforce the show’s theme of voyeurism and complicity. Half the cast watches the action on stage, and the other half stares straight out at the audience, emphasizing our own morally questionable relationship with this story. It seems that it’s only polite restraint that keeps the audience from displaying the naked morbid fascination that the spectator chorus projects.>While a less conscientious director might have encouraged more flamboyant, typically “scary performances, the ensemble handles their roles delicately, and with great depth. David Hess, as the vengeance-driven title character, begins with a tense electricity that feeds our anticipation of his eventual descent into insanity, when what began as good old-fashioned vigilantism turns into moral anarchy. It would have been easy to play this role sticking to a few sharp notes, but Mr. Hess accomplishes a nuanced performance that allows us to see his humanity even as he slits the throat of an innocent. Of course, ‘humanity’, in the context of this play merely suggests that while a person has compelling motivations for their moral trespasses whereas a monster does not, it does not take much for the soul, like all living things, to fester in the right environment so that something once healthy and beautiful is distorted into a chaotic mass of ugliness.>As Mrs. Lovett, Judy Kaye lends her character an organized chaos. While Mrs. Lovett lacks the consistency of self common to the morally upstanding, she shows one sharp side at a time: she is at times the classic British mum in a starched white apron, providing bubbly-voiced comfort and an ample bosom to cry on, then with an adept twist she’s the bawdy wench in a short (for the era) black skirt and torn fishnet stockings, making snide asides with a wink and a nudge. This duality forms the essence of the character, as well as an inexhaustible source of comedy. For example, in “By the Sea, Mrs. Lovett shares her conventional dream of life in a beach-side bed and breakfast cottage, wherein she’ll get her “rumpled bedding legitimized through marriage to Mr. Todd, and his bathing dress will be navy and for her – “maybe stripes? she thoughtfully considers with the same level of attention she pays to the gravest moral decisions she faces, and it’s easy for her to accept that the upkeep of this fantasy will necessitate the occasional doing in of a guest. In this way, “Sweeney Todd uses the classic mother-turned-monster mechanism, and we see a similar duality in all the female characters, who fluctuate between asexual decency and bloodlust, wanton sexuality and vulgarity, or simple disobedience. This is an interesting parallel alongside the murderous barber, under whose care one would be completely vulnerable.>Other performances emphasize that this dangerous flexibility of character is something we fear in ourselves as much as in others. The corruption of Sweeney Todd and the more sympathetic characters is startling because we identify with them, and go so far as to root for them – up to a point. Keith Buterbaugh, playing the superficially respectable Judge Turpin, addresses fear of the self more directly in his tortured solo “Johanna. He curses with convincing self-loathing, cradles his temples in hopeless despair, and stifles his spontaneous ejaculation because though it’s against his better judgment, the object of his lust is his own daughter. Edmund Bagnell demonstrates the opposite extreme – a lack of awareness- in his role as the simple-minded orphan Tobias, who embodies that childish unselfconsciousness which allows him both cruelty and innocence, often in the same moment. Yet while Tobias’ faults are easy to forgive, Judge Turpin loses all sympathy when he attempts to conceal the atrociousness of his desires in the cloak of propriety, wanting to wed his daughter like any other well-intentioned man possessing the appropriate social status.> The most despicable character of all, however, is “The Beadle, the slick young lawyer played with finesse by Benjamin Eakeley, whose classic good looks and tall, sharp-shouldered frame make him the striking representation of the swift and merciless hand of civilized “justice. While most of the characters wear a combination of white and black clothing that reinforces the contrasts of good and evil we observe in their characters, Mr. Beadle is dressed from head to toe in black. Nothing is so heartless as the impersonal Establishment.>This critique of civilization itself is a prominent theme throughout the show. The streets of London and all its inhabitants is a horror to behold, and this production recalls any number of Dickens novels and the more pessimistic of William Blake’s poetry. The masses are as morally bankrupt as they are materially, and the privileged few – usually represented as pillars of patriarchy – have little regard for the suffering of others. Even fresh off of a makeshift raft, Sweeney Todd is far from elated at the prospect of returning to his native London. But then, he’d hardly be elsewhere, either. As he sings in his opening number, “The cruelty of man is as impressive as the Seven Wonders of the World.> While literal escape from this world cannot be achieved, “Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street suggests that creative escape is possible. Our human desire for narrative is both a weakness – because it can lead to corruption – and a strength, because it allows us to release our pain, and to create beauty out of the ugliest of realities. The actors themselves seem to experience a kind of catharsis, and in the final number of the show, the singers stretch their voices to the limits of their vocal chords and horsehairs split on the bow under the pressure of the violinist’s arm. After such levels of intensity, audience applause seems superfluous. Check website for further details.
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