by Cari Lynn Pace

Sweeney Todd is the malevolent plot likely inspired by the campfire song “Dunderbeck’s Machine” which my Dad sang to us as youngsters. We boisterously sang along as mean old Dunderbeck turned critters into sausages, ultimately getting his just reward.

Stephen Sondheim created an amped-up plot of human gruesomeness in this entertaining and dark production. It’s a diabolical story of an obsessed barber’s revenge gone amuck. Sweeney Todd won multiple Tony awards including best musical, despite having only two memorable songs including “Pretty Women” and “(Nothing’s Going to Harm You) Not While I’m Around.” Daniel Savio helped make these stand out directing a live band.

Director Brennan Pickman-Thoon took an amazingly talented assemblage of fresh-faced high school youth and molded them into vagrants, beggars, and corrupt politicians. Costume Designer Abra Berman lent her award-winning skills to the costumes while Christine Donahue’s hair and makeup aged young actors into faces to sweep through the eerie fog. Scenic Director Steve Coleman and Jean-Paul LaRosee transformed the Throck into such an impoverished scene of 19^th century London you can almost smell the desperation.

It’s hard times for all but the upper crust politicians. A brooding sailor looms over the crowd, calling himself Sweeny Todd (double cast in fine voice by Finn Davis and Max Pigoski.) His shipmate Anthony (Parker Hall and Tony Morales) learns Todd escaped a prison colony, where Todd was cruelly sent to allow the judge (Morgan Hunt) to seduce Todd’s innocent wife. He learns his wife took poison rather than succumb to the judge. Their little girl Johanna (performed beautifully by sopranos Bella Martinez and Maddie Basich) has grown into a lovely young woman and the legal ward of the lecherous judge.  

Todd’s skill as a talented barber captures the admiration of the street scene. He challenges the local swaggering barber Adolfo (Tallula Rice and Felix Maxwell) to a shave-off. Adolfo’s young assistant (Alex Ausman and James Chui) hawks phony hair growth elixir but switches allegiance when Todd wins the barbering match. When Adolfo returns to blackmail Todd and extort his earnings, he becomes Todd’s first victim.

Todd is indifferent to the entreating clutches of Mrs. Lovett (a challenging role mastered by Reyes Lake and Helen Kay) the widow pie-maker. She sets him up with a shop above her pie store and – conveniently – a huge oven below. Since meat is in short supply, crafty Mrs. Lovett spots the opportunity to grind some fresh filling for her pies from Adolfo’s body. Customers line up for her pies while a taciturn Todd sharpens his blades awaiting a chance for revenge with the Judge and his cohort Beadle (Deven Reis.)

Unlike the campfire song, Sweeney Todd has situations and morals not appropriate for children. Some in the audience sniggered at the body dumping, in a chair built by Doug Bauer. No spoilers here, but this show doesn’t have a happy ending.

These young actors sing and move as professionals, delivering Sondheim’s challenging songs and rapid-fire lyrics with spot-on precision. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is deliciously devilish and bloody well done.  

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street plays at the Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley, through November 16.

Info and tickets at www.throckmortontheatre.org/

Photos courtesy of 142 Throckmorton

Cari Lynn Pace is a long-time Bay Area theatre critic whose reviews were regularly featured in the Marinscope Community Newspapers.