Review by Paul Towers, 15/9/26
Sweeney Todd, music & lyrics Stephen
Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler
Directed by John Bale, musical staging by Keiran
Whelan-Newby
Produced by KW Productions
At The Little Theatre til Saturday 19th
September 2026
Surprisingly the tale of Sweeney Todd, The Demon
Barber of Fleet Street, first appeared as a weekly serial in a ‘Penny Dreadful’
in 1846 and was staged as a play in 1865. By then his dreadful deeds had made
him the bogeyman to most Victorians.
In 1970 Christopher Bond fleshed out the
story to give it a psychological backstory and it was this version that
Sondheim used as the inspiration for his 1973 musical version.
The story and staging were ripe for Gothic
Horror, which the Victorians loved. But wasn’t until Tim Burton’s blackly comic
2007 film version that the full gory, blood-soaked horror hit the modern audience
between the eyes.
On stage, understandably, much has to be
imagined and implied.
In recent years KW Productions have made a
name for themselves as proponents of Sondheim’s work with great success. Sweeney
Todd is no exception.
The barber (Keiran Whelan-Newby) has returned
to London after having had his heart broken and been deported by a corrupt
Judge (Steve Elliot) who had designs on Todd’s wife (Nicole Collins). Years
later, alongside shipmate Anthony Hope (Dan Rowberry), Todd has returned to
exact his revenge on the Judge and takes his old barber’s shop above Mrs
Lovett’s Pie Shop (Alexandra Elliott). Her pies are the worst in London due to
the scarcity of fresh meat. The pair conspire to remedy that problem as well as
indulging Sweeney’s lust for revenge when he kills his first victim, Adolfo
Pirelli (Freddie Perkins). The Italian’s gofer, Tobias Ragg (Harry Woodward),
is left without a protector and Mrs Lovett takes him under her wing. Thus the
grotesque double act of barber and baker is born as the ideal method of body
disposal is to use them to fill her pies.
With his nemesis, the Judge, in his sights,
Todd continues his murderous mission to fill Mrs Lovett’s pies as quickly as
she can sell them. All the while he schemes to entice the Judge to within
striking distance so he can despatch him to the meat grinder and Mrs Lovett’s
best pies.
Sondheim’s score is both sinister and comedic
as the story becomes more and more grisly, unlike Mrs Lovett’s pies.
A live band of ten under the auspices of
musical director James Steven fills the auditorium as each victim is
despatched. While a suitably gloomy set incorporates the grubby pie shop, Todd’s
gruesome barber shop is above with its notorious chair which tips to slide the
bodies down into Mrs Lovett’s meat grinder.
If you like your musical horror laced with comedy
then get down to The Little before Saturday 19th September for the best
pies in town.
Pics: Russell Webster
https://thelittletheatre.co.uk/
https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/
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