Sweeney Todd review – Sondheim’s Devil’s Barber is still above par | stage

STiffin Sondheim was drawn to fairy tales — and not just the subject of the short story book Into the Woods. The origins of Sweeney Todd, the devilish barber of Fleet Street, lie in Victorian melodrama, but in the hands of the composer, working with book writer Hugh Wheeler in response to a Christopher Bond play, steeped in folklore tropes.

The story of a serial killer who delivers the grisly contents of his landlady’s pies is filled with the kind of dark, gothic humor that appealed to the Brothers Grimm. There are shadows of Hansel and Gretel in the cavernous oven and the little red lid on the possibility of turning into someone’s dinner. The composer’s lyrics even quote the nursery rhyme Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker’s Man.

Sensing the typical gravity of all this, director Joe Murphy gives Sweeney Todd the full operatic treatment. His brilliant play is as rich in detail as it is rigorous in execution. The chorus sets the tone, singing directly to the audience, fixed in place like ghost statues, especially under Rory Beaton’s icy lighting design.

They remain as still as the Lady Justice figure who dominates Elin Steele’s concrete-gray set, the balance of the law tipping in favor of a self-serving legal system and away from the vengeful Todd, who has been transported to Australia by a corrupt and greedy judge. This is London presented in bleak monochrome, with the period’s fashions standing out in pastel shades of mustard, lemon and peach in defiance of the poverty around them.

However, the seriousness of purpose does not make it difficult, even if Sondheim provides a large number of songs. Yes, the excellent Ramin Karimloo never smiles in the lead role, but that gives the razor-wielding barber a nobility that belies his actions. The frightening calmness of his surface suggests that all his efforts are aimed at suppressing murderous rage.

Balancing this anger is Meow Meow as the landlady Mrs. Lovett, a brilliant study in corruption and opportunism. That she has a cartoonish swagger is not to downplay her singing, which, as is the case with all the actors, is tremendous throughout.