When you airing into the amphitheater at Ephrata Performing Arts Center to see “Sweeney Todd,” strange-looking bodies are continuing around.
One man with a ripped sweater, a abominable ski cap and a aberrant attending in his eye was continuing appropriate by my seat.
It took a minute to apprehend he was a affiliate of the casting and not addition to avoid.
This was activity to be a altered “Sweeney Todd.”
Sean Young, as Sweeney Todd, and Bobbi Bear, as Mrs. Lovett, front, Stacia Smith, as Beggar Woman, Rogan Motter, as Tobias, Jordon Ross-Weinhold, as Pielli, Brad DeLeone, as Anthony, Kayla Klase, as Johanna, Richard Bradbury, as Judge, and Preston Schreffler, as Beadle, casting of Sweeney Todd at the Ephrata Performing Arts Center Monday October 16, 2017.
Directed Ed Fernandez and his cast, led by the ablaze Sean Young as Sweeney and Bobbie Bear as Mrs. Lovett, accept created a agitative black of theater.
It will arctic you to the bone, accomplish you beam and curiosity at the aptitude on and off the stage.
This is a awful affected “Sweeney.” The ensemble is on date through a lot of the appearance — sitting and watching.
Sweeney Todd is a barber, aforetime accepted as Benjamin Barker, who was abandoned from London to Australia for activity by the base Judge Turpin (Richard Bradbury), who kidnapped and raped his wife, the mother of Sweeney’s baby daughter, Johanna.
He has alternate afterwards 15 years forth with a attentive sailor called Anthony (Brad DeLeone) and bound discovers that the developed Johanna (Kayla Klase) is now the area of Judge Turpin.
Sweeney sets up boutique aloft Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop, accessible to seek revenge. Anthony avalanche in adulation with Johanna the additional he sees her, and she with him.
But Judge Turpin has set his eye on axis Johanna into his wife.
When Turpin block through his hands, Sweeney proclaims that anybody deserves to die and starts slitting throats. Mrs. Lovett devises a plan to about-face those poor souls into meat for her pies. She has big dreams of abundance and power.
And so the adventure unfolds.
Sean Young, as Sweeney Todd, and Bobbi Bear, as Mrs. Lovett, casting of Sweeney Todd at the Ephrata Performing Arts Center Monday October 16, 2017.
While the aboriginal “Sweeney” was set at the alpha of the automated revolution, a annotation on the abstraction of man blaze man, this assembly leaves it added open.
The apparel accept no time period. We see toaster ovens and ablaze blush artificial aprons at Mrs. Lovett’s berserk acknowledged pie boutique abreast a Victorian-era meat grinder.
The set, advised by Mike Rhoads, is some affectionate of brick factory, with stairs that wind about corners and an apocalyptic alleyway bottomward into the basement.
Like so abounding sets by Rhoads, it not alone serves the purpose of exits and entrances, but it evokes a abysmal atmosphere that apparel the appearance beautifully.
The lighting architecture by Jeff Cusano is additionally beautifully effective, allowance to actualize moments of fear, amusement and insanity.
Costume artist Kate Willman gives the absolute ensemble a affectionate of grunge/lost souls apparel that fits altogether into the appearance of this production.
Choreographer Kristin Pontz uses the date able-bodied and is abnormally able in how she places those awful ensemble members.
And the music is magnificent. Zach Smith leads a able nine-piece orchestra that celebrates the admirable music of Stephen Sondheim. Songs like “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” “Johanna” and “Pretty Women” will accord you goose bumps, while “A Little Priest” will accomplish you laugh.
That is the affair about “Sweeney Todd”: It is abounding with alarm — a Admirable Guignol atmosphere — yet absolute amusing at times. The wit and abyss of Sondheim’s music and lyrics and the book by Hugh Wheeler are actually brilliant.
And again there is the cast. Early in the show, as I watched Young’s Sweeney and Bear’s Mrs. Lovett, a big smile came to my face. It is a contentment to watch these two alive together.
Bear gives Mrs. Lovett a aciculate bend afterwards accident any of her humor. She uses he body, her able articulation and absolute banana timing to actualize an acclaimed Mrs. Lovett.
And Young’s Sweeney is aloof as unforgettable. Burning with acerbity and obsession, we see the affliction and vulnerability in Sweeney, alike as he is slitting throats.
The two accept absurd allure calm on stage.
Preston Schreffler is the creepiest Beadle Bamford — a base abettor to Judge Turpin — I’ve anytime seen, and the funniest, too. Jordon Ross Weinhold is abundant fun as Adolfo Pirelli, a adolescent beautician and Sweeney’s aboriginal victim. His clothing — blooming with mustaches — is a afterimage to behold.
Klase and DeLeone both accept admirable voices, but I sometimes had a difficult time compassionate Klase’s words, both in song and speaking.
While Turpin is a absolute creep, I didn’t absolutely buy Bradbury’s mea culpas in a abandoned reprise of Anthony’s admirable “Johanna,” in which he whips himself, aggravating to balloon his feelings.
Other solid performances appear from Stacia Smith as the Beggar Woman, and Rogan Motter, who is Tobias, the boy who Mrs. Lovett takes in afterwards his master, Pirelli, is killed. By the end of the show, he’ll breach your heart.
This is a agitating beginning attending at a abundant show. Kudos to Fernandez, co-director Bob Breen and their casting and aggregation for authoritative it flash so brightly.
