ladydouji

SO last night I went to see a revival production of Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

There was no orchestra or chorus and featured all the actors playing the music, as well as a simplified some-what de-constructed set. Nor did any of the actors were period costumes. The only item that was really carried over was Sweeney's straight edge razor. Ms Lovett didn't even have her rolling pin, and even the the infamous chair is gone and only symbolically referenced with a small white coffin shaped box people sit on for their final shave.

Overall the show lost a lot of it's appeal. It seemed to rely on people being being familiar with the show in order to understand the plot and characters to follow the action. If this was my first time seeing the show I would have been very lost and confused, hell even with knowing the story I got lost as most of the characters didn't have their normal identifying characteristics(Anthony was in a normal suit rather then a sailor's uniform)

Watching the actors playing the instruments, especially when trying to sing like Tobias in "Nothing's Gonna Harm you" was frustrating and kept breaking me out of the show(the actors breaking forth wall and seeming to talk to the audience didn't help much either)

Most disappointing were Ms Lovett's death, instead of being thrown into the furnace her throat was slit by Sweeney, just like everyone else. And when Sweeney Todd was kill instead of the loud whistle that accompanied all the other deaths there was silence at first then he slooooooooooowlyyyyyyyyyy falls back onto a coffin/table with a hiss.

And that's just a short list of things that kept pinging me as wrong. I can deal with simplified set, but somethings Sweeney Todd needs is an actual chorus, orchestra, and the chair.

Overall the actors and the music was good, but it was a disappointing performance.