Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Norfolk Youth Music Theatre at Norwich Playhouse

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 13 April 2012.

Stephen Sondheim’s ground-breaking, musical revenge thriller is heavy with gore and bodies. This Norfolk Youth Music Theatre production puts some professionals to shame.

Adrian Connell directs a highly talented ensemble. Callum Bicknell plays the barber with an amazing voice, towering morosely over victims and innocents alike. Harriet Millsopp is just outstanding as the amoral Mrs Lovett, turning bodies into pies.

High soprano Emily Stangham, as Todd’s daughter, and Emma Hume as his tragic, lost wife, are superb. Fraser Davidson (the love-lorn Anthony), Daniel Herman (the depraved Judge Turpin), Jack Edwards (his accomplice), Alex Salzado (the rival barber) and Marland Barsby (the young, simple Tobias Ragg) are all exceptionally strong singers and actors.

This is extremely challenging musically. Mark Sharp’s necessarily hidden orchestra are consistently excellent and the on-stage chorus are spot on. The whole cast collectively and individually do full dramatic justice to the clever lyrical narratives and complex melodies.

Songs like The Worst Pies in London and My Friends (of his killer razors) have become classics. The ingenious chair served gruesomely well.

Recommended, and then some.