‘Sweeney Todd’ razor sharp at UCI

Tom Titus

Stephen Sondheim has traversed many and varied avenues during his

more than 40 years as the monarch of the Broadway musical, from

slapstick comedy (“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”)

to lighthearted romantic fare (“Company,” “A Little Night Music”) and

even a flight of fancy (“Into the Woods”).

But with “Sweeney Todd,” subtitled “The Demon Barber of Fleet

Street,” Sondheim made an abrupt detour into Grand Guignol with a

story that has its origins in the London of 1785 -- the newspaper

account of a barber driven to murder by jealousy. That legend grew

and became magnified over the years until Sondheim gave it flight

with his grotesquely compelling musical.

Sweeney is swinging his razor with a vengeance at UC Irvine, where

director Eli Simon has mounted a magnificent production of this

nightmarish melodrama. The subject matter may be a bit grim for the

more squeamish theatergoers -- and UCI certainly hasn’t toned it down

-- but it’s a banquet for the theatrical gourmet.

Bodies litter the stage as two undertakers add to the pile while

ominous music accompanies the funereal scene -- and this is as the

play begins. Simon has created a macabre atmosphere that surrounds

the action, with a huge swath sliced across the back scenic wall that

turns red when a murder occurs.

At the outset, the audience must identify with Sweeney -- a barber

unjustly thrown into exile, whose wife and child have been taken by a

viciously corrupt judge. Having escaped, he returns to London vowing

revenge and living for the moment that this judge settles into his

barber’s chair.

Until this can happen, Sweeney practices his lethal craft on

various townspeople, who are then transformed into ostensibly

delicious meat pies by his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett. Together, they

manage to eliminate much of the population of London and feed it to

the rest, making light of their new joint venture in the show’s only

comic number, “Try the Priest,” which gleefully closes the first act.

After intermission, the mood darkens considerably, blackened even

further by the imprisonment of the barber’s daughter in an insane

asylum, a deranged beggar woman whose identity creates shock waves in

an already shocking production and the ultimate showdown between

barber and judge. Melodramatic? Definitely. But enthralling

nevertheless.

At UCI, Robin Buck is razor sharp as the mad barber, his eyes

glowing with the prospect of ever more carnage. Buck inhabits the

character of Sweeney with a throbbing passion fed by years of false

imprisonment and a magnificent singing voice and stage presence.

Valerie Rachelle is a welcome contrast, a comic delight as the pie

baker Mrs. Lovett, who supplies a practical solution for the disposal

of Sweeney’s victims. Rachelle hits her stride musically in the

coquettish “By the Sea,” as she attempts to turn Sweeney’s focus to

more pleasant matters.

The backward youth who becomes their unwitting accomplice is

splendidly played by Brett Teresa, whose reaction to the grim truth

is a chilling sequence. Kurt Norby is strong as the love-struck

sailor out to rescue Todd’s captive daughter -- played with sweet

vulnerability by Sharon Rietkerk.

Martin Swoverland renders a powerful performance as the evil Judge

Turpin, with Martin Giannini particularly impressive as his

accomplice and toady, Beadle Bamford. Daren Herbert prances through

his segment as a touring “showbiz” barber garbed much like Caesar

Romero’s old Joker in the “Batman” TV series.

The musical dominance of conductor Dennis Castellano’s pit

orchestra and the large, ghostly chorus choreographed by Donald

McKayle provides the continuous atmosphere of impending terror.

Jurney Jungim Suh has designed an all-encompassing background which

meshes hideously well with Elizabeth A. Cox’s period costumes and the

downbeat lighting of Lonnie Rafael Alcarez.

“Sweeney Todd” is an overwhelming challenge for any theater group,

and UCI has answered with a dynamic production calculated to give

playgoers nightmares set to music.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.