"Sweeney Todd" to premiere Friday
Tickets to musical on sale now from attendance office and online
The Blair theatre program will premiere its production "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" on Friday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m. The 1973 musical was based on a book of the same name by Christopher Bond, following the life of a villainous London barber who kills and robs his clients.
Senior set designer Joseph Rosen demonstrates the use of Todd's trunk, posing as dead. Photo courtesy of Gili Perl.
"Sweeney Todd" will be performed on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week as well as next Friday and Saturday. Tickets are currently on sale at the attendance office; they are also available over the phone at (800) 838-3006 and online here. Tickets cost $5 for students and senior citizens and $8 for adults, but admission for students is $3 on opening night.
Tim Burton adapted "Sweeney Todd" into a 2007 movie starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Director and English teacher Kelly O'Connor plans to stage the play differently from the recent movie. "Our production won't be as violent as the Burton movie was," she emphasized. O'Connor also noted that about half of the show's music was cut out in the Burton movie.
Students have been rehearsing for the production since January, and O'Connor is "very confident" in her cast.
The play will be set in the 1840s in a dingy London neighborhood, according to O'Connor. She encourages everybody to go see the play. "If all you know is the movie, don't be turned away by the violence," O'Connor said. "It's a great morality tale."
Senior Robin Dreher will star as the demon barber alongside senior Anna Snapp as Mrs. Lovett, his business partner and accomplice. Dreher aims to portray Sweeney Todd as playwright Stephen Sondheim wrote the part. "I think what I bring to the role is a true portrayal of Sweeney Todd's insanity," Dreher said.
O'Connor chose the play because it will be a challenge for the student actors. "It'll be a real workout for the singers, the orchestra and the stage crew," O'Connor said. "It will stretch the kids dramatically."
Some thematic material in the play could be inappropriate for young children, according to the Blair Drama Boosters web site.
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