Lincoln Center is known for its brilliant concerts, including the American Songbook series, classical music concerts and performances by musical theatre stars. From time to time a musical also gets staged, and as can be expected, they are always high quality. Knowing that, I was still surprised by how marvelous this production of Sweeney Todd is.
The cast gathered for the show brings together people from various backgrounds: Emma Thompson is an internationally recognized movie star, Bryn Terfel is a famous opera singer, Audra McDonald and Philip Quast are legends of musical theatre, Christian Borle is a brilliant Broadway actor, etc. This was a really good decision, and although I'm usually against casting people who are not musical theatre actors in musicals, here it seems the best people were chosen for each role even if musicals are not their main occupation. Bryn Terfel is a perfect Sweeney, making the character's need for vengeance fully believable, while being really funny in the comic scenes. Emma Thompson is absolutely hilarious as Mrs. Lovett and I would count her performance as one of the best in the history of this musical. The rest of the cast is equally perfect in their respective roles.
This brilliant group of performers isn't the only thing making this production so amazing. The director's choices are fascinating: what begins as a traditional concert performance with the actors standing side by side and singing their lines from their books, very quickly changes into a crazy show when the books are thrown away and the cast utilizes all of the available space. The fact that the orchestra is seated in the middle of the stage is used a number of times as characters "borrow" things from the musicians, which is hilarious every time it happens. Certain aspects are purely make-belive with people gesturing towards and "using" objects which are not there and without scenography each new place of action is announced by a new poster being put on a wall. In a traditional staging this would be a fault, but here is fits perfectly, as the concert style of the show allows for more imaginative techniques. As someone who has always been fascinated with stagecraft, seeing the solutions the crew came up with was a truly memorable experience.
I can't find one aspect of the show that is not absolutely perfect. From Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics making Sweeney Todd the gem that it is, to every single performance, to the staging and the fun the creators obviously had breaking conventions of concert performances. Watching the musical is pure pleasure and I'd recommend it to every musical theatre fan.
