Sweeney in NJ

[jasonf]

Posted: 7/10/05 at 12:16am

Just got back from Sweeney Todd in Lawrenceville (there's a sentence I never thought I'd say)-- got the balcony, 25 dollar seats which were fine, though I wish the singers were miked as they got drowned out a bit in parts.

First, the orchestra was PHENEMONAL. Not being a musician myself, I don't usually notice this, but HOLY COW were they good.

My program is in my car, so I don't have actors names in front of me. Sorry...

The singing was universally good, so I'm not focusing on that:

Sweeney: Great singer, terrible actor. There was no expression at all -- the Epiphany got a mild applause at best because there was absolutely no fire there. Too bad. Jokes weren't hit ("Locksmith," maybe the single funniest word in musical theater -- maybe a new thread -- didn't get much of a laugh). During the second act Johanna he BADLY messed up the lines when the father and little girl come into the shop, and the guy playing the father was CRACKING UP as Sweeney literally mumbled his way through the lyrics. That said, the singing WAS really good, but he was still kind of a disappointment.

Mrs. Lovett: A little bit better actor than Sweeney. By The Sea was fantastic, though she kept saying "To the Sea" for some reason.

Toby: best part of the show. GREAT actor, great singer. Not While I'm Around got a good 45 second applause.

Beggar Woman: Also very good. Almost too good - she stood out too much in the early scene with Sweeney and Anthony which I would have thought might have ruined the surprise...

Anthony: His voice was surprisingly deep for the role, but he pulled it off. It's not such a great acting role anyway, and "Johanna" was beautiful.

Johanna: I don't like this part, can't stand "Green Finch..." but the actress pulled off the role pretty well considering.

Judge Turpin: Replacement actor, good, but not great.

Beadle: Very good -- the parlor songs were hilarious.

Pirelli: Funny in the contest (they did the tooth pulling scene).

I was surprised that they cut the Judge's "Johanna" -- is that too controversial or something? Overall, good staging, great singing and orchestra, acting was decent except for Sweeney who was way too stoic.
They show had supertitles, which I thought was interesting. They messed them up once and in the middle of Worst Pies of London we got a nice picture of some flowers. Very strange. BUT, because of the supertitles I caught a line I never noticed before: "We don't want no ink-piss" which made me laugh out loud at a point where no one else was. I just never caught the line before!
Jason