‘Sweeney Todd’ Makes the Cut

The name Sweeney Todd will ring in your ears for quite a long time if permitted.
‘Sweeney Todd,’ a classic Broadway production, was presented on campus at the Claire Trevor Theatre Nov. 14 and will continue to Nov. 22. With the collaboration of director Eli Simon (artistic director of the California Commedia Troupe), musical director Dennis Castellano, choreographer Donald McKayle and many more, this revived musical is sure to send chills down your spine.
With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (‘West Side Story’), ‘Sweeney Todd’ made its Broadway debut in 1979 and won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and the Tony Award for Best Musical of that year.
The musical is based on a 1785 English legend about a barber journeyman who slits the throat of a customer whose talk of fancying a certain woman led the barber to believe that he was describing his wife.
Set in London during the mid-19th century, the play takes place at the height of the Industrial Revolution. ‘Sweeney Todd’ is a musical about the story of Benjamin Barker, a London barber who was sent away from his wife and daughter Johanna to an Australian prison by the town’s crooked Judge Turpin. While in prison, the judge raped Barker’s wife, which Barker discovered upon his release. Barker then vows to seek revenge against the judge and thus moves into a flat above Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop. Mrs. Lovett returns Barker’s shaving knives, which he uses in a failed attempt to kill the judge. The plot evolves into a collaboration between Barker and Lovett