(Production photo by T. Charles Erickson)

by Tim Leininger

HARTFORD — Hartford’s two major regional theaters, Hartford Stage and TheaterWorks Hartford have long been friendly competitors, showing mutual support for each other, endorsing each other’s productions, and showing up for mutual opening nights. It was only a matter of time that artistic directors Melia Bensussen and Rob Ruggerio would come together for a joint project. Their joining of the minds has resulted in a moderately successful production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with music and lyrics by Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler, and directed by Rob Ruggiero, running at Hartford Stage at 50 Church St.

            Visually, Sweeney looks fantastic. Luke Cantarella’s scenic designed, coupled with John Lasiter’s lighting has created a deliciously layered set with a centralized Mrs. Lovett’s Pie Shop with the barber shop on top. Two additional structures set toward the wings. Stage right is used for Judge Turpin’s home and the asylum, while stage left is the basement oven. The details of the structures alone look great, but Lasiter’s lighting takes the design and manipulates the color of the set. Sometimes the lighting depicts the scenery with layers of gloomy browns, golds, and blues, and then will pivot to a starker pallet of gray tones.

(Photograph © T Charles Erickson, tcharleserickson.photoshelter.com)

            The design encapsulates the doom and gloom nature of the horrific revenge tragedy of Benjamin Barker, better known as Sweeney Todd (Matt Faucher), who has returned to London after being wrongfully imprisoned by the evil Judge Turpin (Edward Watts) who wanted to take Sweeney’s wife Lucy for his own. When Sweeney returns, he finds Lucy missing, presumed dead, and his daughter Johanna (Lauren Maria Medina) in the hands of the judge. He reopens his barber shop with the intent of killing the judge, which turns into a reaping of vengeance on a corrupt society that permitted the evils that have destroyed his family in the first place. Mrs. Lovett (Jackie Burns), who has had a long-standing love for Sweeney helps his bloodlust by disposing of his victims in what could be described as a well-baked plan.

            But it’s not revenge and bloodlust that seems to be on the mind of director Ruggiero as the story seems to focus more on the many facets of love the musical addresses, from its puritanical romance between Johanna and Anthony Hope (Willem Butler), the young man who helps Sweeney return to London, to the opposite of love in Judge Turpin’s possessive lust for Johanna. Sweeney’s motivations are tied into love also as everything he does is motivated by his longing for his lost Lucy and Johanna. Maybe most prominent than other productions that I’ve seen is Mrs. Lovett’s love for Sweeney, something that most productions I’ve seen tend to forget about except for around the number “By the Sea” in the second act and during the show’s climax.

(Photograph © T Charles Erickson, tcharleserickson.photoshelter.com)

            This emphasis on love and its various facets, healthy or otherwise, does help with the clear motivations of the characters, which is commendable to Ruggiero in delving deeper into the emotional motivation of the characters, but in doing so, the brutality of the show feels lost as it doesn’t match the added depth of character, causing this Sweeney to feel a bit tame. There is a wash of red light that hits during the killings that has an impact, but it needed to at least feel bloodier to match the emotions of the show viscerally. As much as I lauded the production design earlier, the stage mechanism of disposing of the bodies was a bit too smooth and missed the jarring quality of previous versions I’ve seen.

            This is a small cast for Sweeney, with only nine cast members, and vocally, the cast shows up with some powerful vocals throughout, especially by Lauren Maria Medina who carries the first soprano part with some serious pipes. The acting, though, rarely matched the volume of the vocals. Faucher has a dark stoicism about him that works when he is reflecting on Lucy and Johanna, but when he’s acting with other people, there isn’t much of a connection happening between him and the other actors. Jackie Burns leans toward a goofier Mrs. Lovett, which isn’t bad, but I would have liked a bit more psychopathy behind it as she revels in her profession baking pies with her newfound ingredient.

(Photograph © T Charles Erickson, tcharleserickson.photoshelter.com)

            This production utilizes the house space quite a bit, some to its benefit, sometimes not. When Adolfo Pirelli (Tristan Caldwell) shows up to sell his “hair tonic,” he goes into the audience with his assistant Tobias “Toby” Ragg (Cole Thompson) to offer his services to the bald men in the audience, which is a great bit. Later, when Mrs. Lovett takes Toby into the basement, she leads him into the house, which creates a weird inversion when we have the finale take place on stage in the same area that we were supposed to be seeing them run off to elsewhere.

            This is a solid Sweeney Todd. It has some real strengths. Much of the production design is great, and I find that drawing more focus to the various emotional or love connections between the story helps bring a deeper motivation to the characters. But some of the acting and actions that take place away from this focus come off weak and needed reenforcing. It’s a solid Sweeney Todd, worth seeing, but in the end, my bloodlust was not met.

TICKETS: https://www.hartfordstage.org/ or https://twhartford.org/

PRODUCTION

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; Book by Hugh Wheeler; From an adaptation by Christopher Bond; Originally Directed on Broadway by Harold Prince; Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick; Director: Rob Ruggiero; Choreographer: Ralph Perkins; Music Director: Wiley DeWeese; Scenic Design: Luke Cantarella; Costume Design: Fabian Fidel Aguilar; Lighting Design: John Lasiter; Sound Design: Beth Lake; Hair & Make-up Design: J. Jared Janas; Fight Coordinator: Michael Rossmy; Vocal Coach: Jennifer Scapetis-Tycer; Casting: Alldaffer & Donadio Casting; Production Stage Manager: Nicole Wiegert; Assistant Stage Manager: Julius Cruz

CAST

Carey Brown as Begger Woman

Jackie Burns as Mrs. Lovett

Willem Butler as Anthony Hope

Tristan Caldwell as Adolfo Pirelli/Jonas Fogg

Matt Faucher as Sweeney Todd

Lauren Maria Medina as Johanna

Brian Ray Norris as Beadle Bamford

Cole Thompson as Tobias Ragg

Edward Watts as Judge Turpin