Music and
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh
Wheeler
Produced by
D’arcy Pierce
Direction
and Set Design by Gowrie Varma
Musical
Direction by Katrina Tang
Costume
design by Nell Fraser
Lighting and
sound design by Stu Thompson
Presented by
ANU Interhall Productions and the ANU School of Music
ANU Arts
Centre until 13th August, 2016
6th
August performance reviewed by Bill Stephens
ANU
Interhall’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” is a brilliant
example of what can be achieved in musical theatre by an imaginative director
with the ability to inspire a hard-working enthusiastic cast and creative team,
despite the constraints of an obviously limited production budget.
By tackling Sondheim’s
complex masterpiece for her first musical theatre directorial effort, director,
Gowrie Varma, had set herself a formidable challenge. “Sweeney Todd” demands
excellent actors with fine singing voices, as well as clever staging, if it is
to do justice to the challenging score, and macabre storyline. It says much for
this production, that so many of those inherent challenges are so successfully
accomplished.
For this
production Varma has designed a striking, adaptable setting of huge golden
organ pipes, in which she confidently manipulates her actors and ensemble in bold
and concisely choreographed movement sequences for heightened dramatic effect.
Most importantly
she has teamed with talented musical director Katrina Tang, who has assembled,
and conducts, a magnificent thirty-piece orchestra to do justice to Sondheim’s
remarkable, atmospheric score.
Set in 19th
century London, “Sweeney Todd” details the return of Botany Bay escapee,
Benjamin Barker, who having been transported for life after being falsely
convicted by the corrupt Judge Turpin, escapes to return and search for his
wife, Lucy, and daughter, Joanna.
Discovering that his family is either dead or
captive, Barker assumes the name of Sweeney Todd, and forms a liaison with the
cunning and manipulative, Mrs Lovett, to set up a barber shop above her bakery,
from where he embarks on a terrifying path of murder and revenge.
 |
| Spencer Cliff as Sweeney Todd Georgie Juszczyk as Mrs Lovett |
Spencer
Cliff gives an effective performance as Sweeney Todd, delivering his spoken
dialogue in a cold, flat voice, with eyes distant, and using his commanding
presence and fine baritone voice to excellent effect to instil a growing sense
of dread in his audience.
He is well matched
by an appealing performance from Georgie Juszczyk, as his willing
partner-in-crime, Mrs Lovett. Juszczyk nails her difficult first solo, “The
Worst Pies in London” with aplomb, later lifting the mood with the clever duet
with Todd, “A Little Priest”, then successfully capturing Mrs Lovett’s growing
unease with Todd’s response in their later duet, “By the Sea”.
Colin Balog,
though cast against type as the corrupt Judge Turpin, also impresses with his
ability to successfully convey the Judge’s suppressed sexuality behind a façade
of reserved dignity. His superbly sung interpretation of the flagellation song,
“”Johanna (Mea Culpa)”, so unnerved his audience that they forgot to clap at
the end.
No such
trouble for Cameron Allan with his delightfully detailed comic interpretation
of Turpin’s servant, Beadle Bamford, or for Will Collett and Amy Jenkins, who
both sang beautifully and acted with conviction as the thwarted lovers Anthony
and Johanna.
 |
| Will Collett as Anthony Amy Jenkins as Johanna |
Costumes
play an import role in indicating the status and personality of the characters,
and while budget considerations no doubt played a part, Nell Fraser’s
deliberately ambiguous costume designs were very “curate’s egg”. The decision to costume of the charlatan,
Adolpho Pirelli as a sort of Victorian Frank N Furter, destroyed Jeremy Hoskins
chances of creating a creditable character.
And even though she sang prettily, Sachini Poogoda needed much more help
from wardrobe and make-up to be convincing as Tobias Ragg, and as a result, the
poignancy of her duet with Mrs Lovett, “Not While I’m Around”, was squandered.
But overall,
there is so much to relish in this absorbing production that anyone with even a
passing interest in the work of Stephen Sondheim, would be mad to miss the
opportunity to experience this ambitious staging by ANU Interhall Productions.
Photography by Archie Chew
This review was first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 8th August 2016.
