‘Sweeney Todd’ @ Upright Theatre Company

—Jan Farrington

It’s certainly the right season for Sweeney Todd—witches in windows, pumpkins on porches, black cats on branches. Who’s up for the “Demon Barber” and his doings, gleefully set to music (and lyrics) by Steven Sondheim?

Well, not me. BUT (don’t panic, there’s a “but”)…

Upright Theatre Company’s timely take on Sweeney should be as satisfying as a tasty meat pie if scary stuff is your thing. It’s an unusual musical for sure, but created by a master of the genre—and I’m guessing you’ll enjoy the thrills and chills.

When I review, I generally play down the personal—but in this case, I think it’s only fair to come clean: I’m not a horror-story person, but rather the kind of kill-joy who (when left babysitting her younger siblings) would turn off Dracula and order them outside to play.

That said, here’s the actual review, with apologies to Upright for going on a bit.

The tale of Sweeney Todd the murderous London barber seems to have been a 19th-century urban legend in the Big Smoke—told over and again to scare the pants off the population with its details of random death and cannibalism. Sondheim’s musical thriller, with a script by Hugh Wheeler, drew on a 1970 play he’d seen in London—which, in turn, owed a lot to an 1870 “penny dreadful” (cheap popular horror stories) called A String of Pearls. Sondheim’s Sweeney premiered in NYC in 1979; it won the Tony for Best Musical and the Olivier for Best New Musical.

Well directed by Natalie Burkhardt, with music direction by Noël Clark (a lot of fine singers in the mix), this Sweeney has the advantage of playing in Upright’s intimate cabaret venue; there’s no way you aren’t going to be right up close to the action. The actors use the whole theater, too—so you may find yourself nervously checking over your shoulder to see which villain or madman is just behind you in the aisle.

The lead actors make a delicious pairing: grim, hollow-eyed Rocky Massey as the bitter Sweeney Todd and Brandy Raper as chattering Mrs. Lovett, the music-hall Cockney baker downstairs. Both have rich, true voices in very different registers and styles—but the blend is quite nice. Todd and Lovett are both entirely insane: he for reasons we understand up to a point (years ago, he was unjustly convicted and kept from his wife and child by a corrupt judge), and she from a cheery willingness to turn anything to her profit—even grinding Todd’s victims into fresh meat to improve her wares (“The Worst Pies in London”).

Laura Lester is a sad, creeping presence as a mysterious Beggar Woman who matters more than we know. Andrew Cave is upright Anthony (a young man who saved Todd’s life at sea), who sings sweetly to romance the girl Johanna (Jacy Schoening in maiden white and curls), who also plays a part in Todd’s history. Anthony’s stumbling words in “Ah, Miss” have a classic Sondheim rat-a-tat:

Lady, look at me, look at me, miss, oh
Look at me, please, oh
Favor me, favor me with your glance
Ah, miss, what do you, what do you see off
There in those trees, oh…won’t you give, won’t you give me a chance?

Nathaniel Clark, who does well with the show’s prettiest tune (“Not While I’m Around”) is Toby, a helpful but weak-minded young man others find they can use. There are villains galore, all doing a good job with the requisite sneering, conniving, blackmailing and lusting: Sascha Connor as Judge Turpin, Joshua Hawkins as The Beadle, and Devon Watkins as Pirelli the con man.

This is almost an opera—minimal dialogue, moving from one song to another, some of it akin to that sung/spoken hybrid opera calls recitativo. As such it maintains an edgy momentum throughout, hurtling the players toward inevitable (and multiple) dooms. Todd’s black-as-midnight view of humans and life is so destructive—to others and himself—that his end comes as a kind of relief. We let out a breath.

He “served a dark and vengeful god,” did Sweeney Todd. Quiet, clean, inconspicuous…and forever among us, a thought Sondheim saves for the finale: Sweeney waits in the parlor hall / Sweeney leans on the office wall / No one can help, nothing can hide you—Isn’t that Sweeney there beside you? Brrrr.

WHEN: October 6-29, 2023

WHERE: 2501 N. Main Street, Euless TX

WEB: uprighttheatre.org