Review: Jason Alexander Leaves a Little Gristle in New Production of Sweeney Todd

The musical meat pie known as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street contains scrumptious ingredients in the production currently being served up at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts: there are stirring performances, a gargantuan set, and an epic orchestra. And while setting the story in a madhouse lends a creepiness and desolation, director Jason Alexander’s personal stamp somehow leaves the product underbaked.

Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical thriller tells the tale of Sweeney Todd (Will Swenson), a naive barber whose life was destroyed by an amoral London society, epitomized by the wicked Judge Turpin (Norman Large). He returns years later with a new identity and vengeance on his mind. A conniving baker, Mrs. Lovett (Lesli Margherita), who has always held a torch for him, aids him in his retribution. As the bodies pile up, Mrs. Lovett has a notion how to clean up the carnage and scrounge a spare shilling or two in the process.

Sondheim mixes passionate love songs and rage-filled arias with devilishly comical numbers dripping with bloodlust and haunting melodies that are lovely ditties on the surface but quiver with antipathy below. The libretto by Hugh Wheeler rockets with intensity for almost three hours to its inevitable, tragic conclusion. The story features characters rich with backstories and devious motivations.

The production is peppered with many delights, featuring a savage title performance by Will Swenson. With stringy hair in his face and an aura of agony, he plods the stage—a sleep-deprived, punch-drunk shell of a man. He resembles a walking corpse from the beginning, only to detonate when sparked. Swenson’s baritone voice reverberates around the stage like a slicing scythe.

Margherita brings sass and buoyance to the meat pie proprietor too deranged to hear her own atonality—the Florence Foster Jenkins of serial killers. Chris Hunter and Allison Sheppard make charming lovers. Austyn Myers is off-beat and tender as the fragile Tobias, and his rendition of “Not While I’m Around” is heartbreaking. Andrew Polec is hilarious as the supercilious, fraudulent barber Pirelli, while Large plays a judge oblivious to his own depravity, the perfect projection of a man who truly believes he’s just and honorable. Meghan Andrews is naughty and pathetic as the crazed beggar woman.  The ensemble, Sweeney Todd’s Greek chorus, have great operatic voices.

Darryl Archibald’s orchestra pulsates with stirring melodies one moment and frightening cacophony the next—the organ and steam whistle will haunt your dreams. Paul Tate dePoo III’s set, a grouping of compartments separated by curtains, is reminiscent of Dario Argento’s Suspiria, where evil hides behind each gossamer cloth. Kate Bergh’s costumes are so effectively worn through that one can almost smell their rankness. Jared Sayeg lighting uses crimson washes and lightbulbs to evoke visual horror.

With such a cast and crew, and a work that is masterful in every moment, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street might have been better served. While directors should bring their own stamp to productions, too many of Alexander’s changes dampen the show’s innate thunder.