It’s actor-slash-musician in this ‘Sweeney Todd’

The cast serves as the
orchestra in revision of musical.

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

VINDICATOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

PITTSBURGH — The version of “Sweeney Todd” that arrived in Heinz Hall on Tuesday doesn’t revel in blood. Instead, it utilizes an arty re-staging of the now-familiar tale.

With the Tim Burton movie still in theaters, it’s a good time to give grisly “Sweeney” a new look. Director John Doyle’s cutting-edge reworking of the musical acts as a book-end to the film, with the original Broadway musical at center.

Someone unfamiliar with the story might want to see the film before attending “Sweeney,” because there are few props and no scenery. Doyle’s version uses a bare stage, save for a black coffin that gets taken apart and re-formed as suits the story: a judge’s bench, a shop counter. As a result, a first-timer might find it difficult to follow the intricate storyline with its various settings. Thankfully, the flood of lyrics, so critical to “Sweeney,” are crystal clear in the acoustically sound hall.

There is no meat pie shop or Signor Pirelli’s barber wagon, and the scene where the young sailor catches the eye of the beautiful Joanna through her window doesn’t visually translate. Also, the infamous barber’s chair, in which Mr. Todd slashes his customers’ throats and then slides them into the basement, is just a standard chair.

Nevertheless, the dark mood of this classic tale of vengeance is thoroughly intact.

What is most unique about Doyle’s “Sweeney” is that there is no orchestra: the cast doubles as the musicians. All members are on stage at all times, performing as an ensemble and rotating to the front when their character has lines.

David Hess and Judy Kaye are at the forefront as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, and they are fantastic. Both Hess and Kaye played the leads on Broadway, before taking the show on the road.

Kaye is so vibrant as the buxom Mrs. Lovett, joyfully serving up lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s macabre humor in “Try the Priest.”

Hess is also true to the original as Sweeney Todd, with his lurching body language. It’s a powerful moment when Sweeney snaps, washing away his anguish with vengeance.

Neither Kaye nor Hess have to do any heavy lifting as musicians; Kaye provides comic relief with a triangle and tuba, while Hess occasionally plays accordion and trumpet.

But the remaining eight members of the cast perform as beautifully as any orchestra. It couldn’t have been easy to find so many multi-talented performers.

Edmund Bagnell as the house boy Tobias and Lauren Molina as Joanna are standouts. Bagnell, in fact, alternately demonstrates his acting and violin skills in the same revelatory scene with Mrs. Lovett. He is impassioned as he sees his world crumbling, then matches it and instant later with a musical flourish.

Molina, who possesses an operatic voice, is also a mainstay as the cellist.

X“Sweeney Todd” show times are 7:30 tonight; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. For ticket information, go pgharts.org or call the Heinz Hall box office at (412) 392-4900.