Tag Archives: Stephen Sondheim

2015

“Sweeney Todd” at the English National Opera

Leave a comment

Lonny Price’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd has been widely anticipated since its rapturous reception in New York last year. Now the hot ticket at the ENO, opera megastar Bryn Terfel plays the demon barber, seeking revenge for the injustice that ruined his family while supplying his landlady Mrs Lovett with filling for her cannibalistic pies.

The jewels at the centre of the production are the orchestra and chorus. It’s a precious treat to hear a Sondheim score performed so masterfully, under the baton of David Charles Abell, while a massive chorus, of mostly young musical theatre performers, benefits from the Coliseum’s impressive acoustics and thrilling atmosphere. This Sweeney Todd sounds fantastic.

ENO Sweeney Todd Emma Thompson and ensemble (c) Tristram Kenton
Emma Thompson and ensemble

The quality of many secondary roles is notable. Matthew Seadon-Young and Katie Hall are irresistible as the young lovers Anthony and Johanna. Hall’s performance of ‘Green Finch and Linnet Bird’ is the best I’ve heard. The excellent Rosalie Craig plays the Beggar Woman and Philip Quast is superb as the villainous Judge Turpin.

But what of the stars? There’s an impression we wouldn’t be here without Terfel and Emma Thompson as Mrs Lovett, here returning to the stage after 25 years. The audience response may be hysterical but minimal chemistry between the leads means they aren’t really a dream team. Thompson’s celebrity aura never quite leaves her – it doesn’t help she’s dressed like Helena Bonham Carter on a night out – and while her voice is surprisingly strong she is not that funny. It’s a serious allegation but I suspect a moment of shameful scene stealing as a curtseying exit is carried on far too long. Terfel isn’t the greatest actor you’ll ever see, but casting him makes sense. His stage presence cannot be doubted, and any inadequacies can be forgiven for his magnificent voice: pray for a cast recording.

Despite Terfel’s magisterial voice and that wonderful orchestra, Price presents a stripped-back Sweeney Todd. A minimal feel plays with the idea of a concert performance, with musicians on stage interacted with and simple banners used for signage. Musical instruments are transformed into props and the sense of scale comes from the large numbers of people on stage.

Price’s staging is witty and clever but there’s an unwanted irony that couldn’t have been anticipated. This kind of inventiveness, abundant and impressive as it is, is usually seen on the fringe rather than in an opera house. For those lucky enough to have seen the Tooting Arts Club’s production of Sweeney, which has its own West End transfer, it makes for a strange comparison. The two productions couldn’t be of more different scales but it’s possible, and oddly inspiring, that a small team from South London has made the more memorable show.

Until 12 April 2015

www.eno.org.uk

Photo by Tristram Kenton

2014

“Assassins” at the Menier Chocolate Factory

Leave a comment

Many musicals – and I love them for it – push the boundaries of the genre. Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins is a great example; musically and lyrically adventurous, with notably long spoken passages and a book by John Weidman that feels defiant. The idea of a musical telling the stories of those who have tried to assassinate presidents of America, seeking out their motivations and uniting them in infamy, is brilliantly bold.

The Menier Chocolate Factory’s new production directed by Jamie Lloyd does justice to the piece’s bravery. Lloyd isn’t frightened by how mad these men and women were. A fairground setting adds a scary surrealism and the staging in traverse makes it confrontational: most of the audience ends up looking down the barrel of a gun at some point. It’s appropriate that we feel ill at ease ­– these are tragic tales and Lloyd’s gory touches ensure there’s no chance of these characters receiving the acclaim many of them wished for.

The cast, onstage watching each other throughout, is tremendous. Intense performances, buoyed by demanding monologues, show the strength of the acting. Catherine Tate plays a hapless housewife who attempted to kill Gerald Ford and Mike McShane has a stirring speech as Samuel Byck who tried to crash a plane into the White House. Assassins takes us to dark places.

A trio serves as the focus of the show. The always-excellent Simon Lipkin presides over the fanatics’ funfair. Aaron Tveit is superb as John Wilkes Booth, creating a charismatic prototype for those who followed his murder of Abraham Lincoln. Jamie Parker is marvellous, first as a balladeer presenting another side of the stories, then as Lee Harvey Oswald, embodying a contest between stability and disruption, so perfectly understood by Lloyd, who has created a show close to perfection.

Until 7 March 2014

www.menierchocolatefactory.com

2014

“Sweeney Todd” at Harrington’s Pie & Mash Shop

Leave a comment

Stephen Sondheim’s wonderful musical about the demon barber of Fleet Street, a psychotic shaver whose murdered customers were put into pies by Mrs Lovett, is always worth going to see. Staging it in a real pie shop is a stroke of genius. Believe it or not, you even pick up your tickets for the show in the barbers across the road.

More than on being on trend with immersive theatre, the staging goes to the heart of the production company’s ambitions: The Tooting Arts Club aims to unite theatre with the community in inspired fashion, and has created a very special event.

Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop, close to Tooting Broadway Tube, was established in 1908 and is still family run. It’s a tiny place with the kind of basic design beloved of hipster photographers. There’s nowhere to hide and, with only a trio of musicians accompanying, the weight on the cast to make this show work is huge. With director Bill Buckhurst’s help, the production rockets higher than the sales of Mrs Lovett’s pies. Standing on the tables, chatting to the crowd, each performer works incredibly hard. The singing, against the stripped-back score, in such a confined space, is awe-inspiring and the acting skills hard to beat.

Jeremy Secomb makes a superb Todd. Respect to him for playing it really scary, as it would be easier to go for the laughs in a space like this. Secomb provides the grim depth the character deserves and his voice is superb. The hugely talented Siobhán McCarthy plays his accomplice in crime, Lovett, with excellent comic skill. There are few chances to applaud during Sweeney Todd  – clapping seems like an interruption – it’s hard not to with McCarthy’s numbers.

Sweeney Todd usually soaks up a plentiful cast, with lots of extras for those big London crowd scenes, but here we have just six other performers, all of whom are wonderful. Grace Chapman and Nadim Naaman play the charming young couple Johanna and Anthony, Duncan Smith and Ian Mowat are excellent as the villainous men in power, and Joseph Taylor is great as the young Toby. Special mention to Kiara Jay, who seems to be everywhere, though credited as performing just two roles. The whole ensemble revels in the extraordinary buzz around the setting.

What does the unique setting add? To be honest, less than you want to admit. And it has to be said that it’s incredibly uncomfortable; crammed onto a bench with a twisted neck all night. But if you like your musicals up close and personal you can’t get more intimate than just 32 seats. The staging is a huge achievement but the real boast is the excellent production itself.

Until 29 November 2014

www.tootingartsclub.co.uk

Photo by Bronwen Sharp

2014

“Do I Hear a Waltz?” at the Park Theatre

Leave a comment

The Park Theatre’s first musical opened last night with the north London venue handing over to the Charles Court company for a production of Do I Hear a Waltz? It’s a real collector’s piece for musical theatre obsessives, being a one-off collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim that is seldom performed.

Rodgers and Sondheim make a fascinating combination. Sondheim’s lyrics bring wit and intelligence to Arthur Laurents’ book, based on his own play, while Rodgers’ ravishing score rises to the challenges of the younger artist and provides glorious tunes. Strangely, put together they often sound odd – a mix of the “ridiculous and the sublime” – a lyric that sums up the show and that I am sure we are supposed to take away with us.

A sensitive secretary visiting Venice has a holiday romance that she finds complicated, even though what’s on offer is simple. Commitment isn’t on the mind of the married antiques dealer she meets, but their shared sense of melancholy gives the whole show a kind of magic, despite its pragmatic approach to affairs of the heart. Added observations about Americans abroad and Italians at home are wry, if a touch too elaborated, and the scenario is impressively novel. But, in general, the premise is too slim to really grab you.

The production itself makes the best of things. There’s a fine performance from Rebecca Seale in the demanding lead role and Philip Lee sounds lovely as the charming shopkeeper looking to add to the itinerary of her holiday. Best value comes from the signora who runs the pensione in which the action takes place, with Rosie Strobel giving the “very, very” character her all. The bare staging and musical accompaniment from just piano and percussion reflect a chamber music feel, but I can’t help wondering what a fuller sound would have been like, as some numbers seem to cry out for it.

Musical director David Eaton has done a wonderful job and clearly knows his stuff but it’s speculation about the piece that will probably excite the aficionado – I suspect it’s more of a curiosity to collect than something that might cross over to a bigger audience.

Until 30 March 2014

www.parktheatre.co.uk

Photo by Bill Knight

Written 7 March 2014 for The London Magazine

2013

“Merrily We Roll Along” at the Harold Pinter Theatre

Leave a comment

Another transfer, another success for the Menier Chocolate Factory – Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along has just opened at the Harold Pinter Theatre. It is the show’s first presentation in the West End, which seems remarkable since it is one of the master-composer’s greatest musicals – a complex work with the potential to appeal to a wide audience. The Menier’s production deserves its new location, showcasing the piece to perfection.

Making her directorial debut, renowned singer and Sondheim soulmate Maria Friedman excels. Under her supervision, Merrily We Roll Along serves as a tremendous vehicle for its leading trio: Damian Humbley, Jenna Russell and Mark Umbers, who star as Charley, Mary and Frank. Just as excellent are Clare Foster and Josefina Gabrielle as the women in Frank’s life. The latter benefits from an additional number, requested from Sondheim by Friedman, that makes a rollicking opener to the second act. With the chorus the production’s modest origins reveal themselves – positively – this is a mature team that sounds fantastic.

The musical is played backwards: we meet our heroes at the height of their careers, but bitter and weary. And in the finale we see the college chums ready to take on the world. It’s a device used to great effect and adds layers of meaning to music that emblazons itself on the memory. The score becomes simpler as the evening progresses, but feels richer with each number – a magical trick to pull off.

Nothing is lost in this production. The performances make the most of the narrative device of hindsight, but keep it sincere and never gimmicky. Merrily We Roll Along is clever stuff but it’s intelligent not pompous. All in all, it’s a brilliant piece that mustn’t be missed.

Until 25 July 2013

Photo by Tristram Kenton

Written 2 May 2013 for The London Magazine

2012

“Sweeney Todd” at the Adelphi Theatre

Leave a comment

Arriving in London from rave reviews at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Jonathan Kent’s production of Sweeney Todd is the must-see show of the summer. Arguably Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, certainly his most famous work, it’s a musical that’s as intellectually stimulating as it is approachable.

Kent and his team make the most of each show-stopping number: almost to the production’s detriment as the evening is in danger of turning into a collection of hits rather than flowing as the excellent book by Hugh Wheeler intends it to. To be fair this really isn’t Kent’s fault – the audience response is rapturous, the atmosphere fantastic.

There is plenty to applaud. Michael Ball is remarkable in the title role. His transformation into the demon barber of Fleet Street makes him unrecognisable. More to the point, he gets to show what a fine actor he can be and remind us what a great voice he has. He does justice to Sondheim’s challenging score and embraces Sweeney’s tragic predicament in a stark manner that avoids camp.

Sweeney’s partner in crime, Mrs Lovett, is a role to kill for and Imelda Staunton has a great deal of fun with it. Her comedy is spot on and her voice strong. In love with Sweeney, Lovett’s descent into crime is swift, inevitable and wickedly funny, giving the production great pace. Staunton’s is a cracking performance that never slows and continually impresses.

Several recent productions of Sweeney Todd have been performed by opera companies reverent towards the score and resourced in a manner you might miss here – the chorus seems small and at times unsatisfying. There’s also a suspicion that Anthony Ward’s set feels a little lost on the large Adelphi stage; Sweeney’s London hardly teems with people, even if Mark Henderson’s lighting design creates atmosphere in abundance. But such cavils certainly won’t stop you enjoying the evening. This isn’t the perfect production of Sweeney Todd but it’s within a whisker of it.

Until 22 September 2012

Photo by Johan Persson

Written 23 March 2012 for The London Magazine

2010

“Passion” at the Donmar Warehouse

Leave a comment

Given the background of the Donmar’s history of brilliantly staged Sondheim musicals, the  production of Passion to celebrate the composers’ 80th birthday should be something of an event. Working once more with James Lapine, the 1994 musical tells the story of a Risorgimento soldier in a particularly 19th-century love triangle.

Passion is very much a chamber piece, well suited to intimacy of the Donmar. Director Jamie Lloyd handles the space superbly, translating the epistolary structure of Lapine’s book. With Scott Ambler’s choreography, the small cast creates the claustrophobia of a military environment and brings out the gothic overtones of Iginio Ugo Tarchetti’s original source material.

The superb Elena Roger plays the invalid Fosca, portraying insanity while skillfully avoiding the comedic. Frightening and manipulative (in Giorgio’s dreams she appears vampiric), her intensity convinces him that his happy affair with the radiant Clara (Scarlett Strallen) isn’t the real deal.

David Thaxton handles Giorgio’s initial repulsion of Fosca with sensitivity, and portrays his subsequent decision to abandon Clara with a degree of mania inherited from his new lover. Thaxton’s voice is a revelation, deeply commanding yet retaining the romance of Sondheim’s sweet score.

For, despite the morbid overtones of disease, Passion is a romantic musical. The explorations of two different kinds of love interweave with a satisfying symmetry, though while Sondheim avoids sentimentality, he also loses his sense of humour.

It seems perverse to criticise a composer known for innovation when he changes his style, but in abandoning his usual wry touch in favour of something more heartfelt, the fun is missing and that seems a shame. For all its sincerity, and the quality of this production, it is difficult to get passionate about Passion.

Until 27 November 2010

www.donmarwarehouse.com

Photo by Johan Persson

Written 21 September 2010 for The London Magazine

2010

“Into the Woods” at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Leave a comment

Into the Woods is Sondheim’s masterpiece. A musical score full of invention yet accessible, lyrics that are at once moving and hilarious, and both perfectly accompanying James Lapine’s wonderful book.

Interweaving fairy stories, questioning what these tales are really about and then, after the interval, returning to the characters to find out what happens after the happily ever after; it’s one of the cleverest things you’ll ever see and one of the most rewarding.

Director Timothy Sheader gives the show a production it deserves. His new spin is to cast the narrator as a child. This adds little, but where Sheader excels is to bring out the musical’s qualities. This is particularly well executed in the way he brings out the dark side of the fairy stories we tell children – the woods are a sinister place and we fear for the babies in them.

With Soutra Gilmour’s wonderful set and some startling choreography from Liam Steel, the dynamism of the piece is given full scope. The mix of stories is hectic and a controlled chaos appropriately challenges suspension of disbelief.

The characters’ knowledge of the artificial world they are a part of, along with the lessons they learn and impart, is relished by the cast. There are some wonderful performances here. Beverly Rudd is great as the greedy Red Ridinghood, managing a tune while she stuffs buns in her mouth. Michael Xavier and Simon Thomas play the Princes with a nod to Russell Brand and get the most out of their duets.

There are three great leading ladies. Hannah Waddingham is on excellent form as the witch and Jenna Russell is as superb as ever as the Baker’s wife. Helen Dallimore’s sweet voice serves well in the role of Cinderella, whose proclamation, “I wish”, starts the whole glorious evening.

It seems obvious to stage Into the Woods at Regents Park. There must have been a collective, “ah, yes”, when it was announced, yet it is to Sheaders’s credit that it is done so well. It is great to hear the wind in the leaves accompany Sondheim’s score and see the characters retreating into the trees at the end of the evening. The only problem with this production is the short run. Given the number of wonderful touches, and surprise voice over, it would be great to see it transfer or return to the park next year. That’s my wish anyway.

Until 11 September 2010

www.openairtheatre.com

Photo by Catherine Ashmore

Written 17 August 2010 for The London Magazine