SWEENEY TODD HAS A LOT OF POTENTIAL BUT SOME ASPECTS NEED TO GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

The story of Sweeney Todd first appeared on the stage in London in 1847 at Britannia Theatre, Hoxton. In a melodrama, ‘The String of Pearls’, based on a popular “penny dreadful” serialised story. Now it’s returned to London’s East End in a new production at historic Wilton’s Music Hall. The first Sweeney Todd would have been performed of storytelling with a score of orchestra music. And Opera della Luna restores the musical element of storytelling with an orchestra of 10 musicians.

Unfortunately, I really struggled the musical component. The music is used to create the ambience within a scene, but it’s disjointed. At some points it stops before a scene commences whereas at other points it runs across dialogue. This led to actors needing to shout over the music and some dialogue being drowned out. The orchestra was additionally used to create sound effects but only at certain times like half of the doors opening and closing. It’s a great premise but it needed some fine tuning in my opinion.

This is not a production of the musical by Stephen Sondheim. And the character of Sweeney Todd is not the tragic figure you picture from Sondheim. There’s no desire for revenge and his only motivation is greed and the thrill of getting away with murder. The character felt more pantomime villain in this production with the audience booing and the actor, Nick Dwyer, encouraging it. I wanted a more intimidating, menacing character but that’s not how the character was written.

I think there was need for a larger cast as seven actors portrayed twenty roles between them. Props to the actors, I have no complaints where they are concerned as they embodied all the different roles. But the problem came with the actors needing to dash off stage for yet another costume change. I will say though that the costumes were stunning and were what you’d expect to see in the Victorian era. The costume department did a wonderful job creating all the pieces.

One thing that I was seriously impressed by was the sopranos performed by Caroline Kennedy and Lynsey Doherty. And I thought Johanna Oakley was great in the role of Mrs Lovett, Sweeney Todd’s partner in crime. I really wish I had enjoyed this theatre but unfortunately, I really did struggle with the performance. I think there’s a lot of potential with the production, but some aspects need to be re-looked at.

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Photo Credit: Andy Paradise