Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

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You couldn't ask for a more perfect Mrs. Lovett than the one Harriet Harris is presenting in the Barrington Stage Company's mostly compelling production of Sweeney Todd.

A schizo glint gainsaying her porcelain-doll features, she's the kind of lovelorn schemer, at once flighty and flinty, that playwright Hugh Wheeler and composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim must have dreamed. Granted, Harris' voice is not huge -- but the same goes for the role's originator, the inimitable Angela Lansbury.

Director Julianne Boyd has tucked a nine-member orchestra right into the proscenium; a sliver of apron often brings the action right into viewers' laps. The layout is especially effective when Todd (Jeff [...]