Anyone heard anything about this? Cast etc?

My friend Roisin Sullivan (ex-Mountview) is playing the Beggar Woman, and she's absolutely brilliant - really looking forward to seeing this (no connection to the theatre, just an excited friend ).

Can anyone give any info on this?

I've just had a look on here and can't see anything

http://www.sondheim.org/php/currentproduct...php?m=5&s=0

I can't believe how many Am Dram productions of Sweeney are going on - anything to do with the recent film?

There are some details here but pretty scant:

http://www.upandcoming.webeden.co.uk/#/swe...todd/4530233062



Anyone else notice the upcoming production at Wandsworth Prison.......?

Yes it is.

I'm sure we've discussed on here the relatively small number of shows which amateur societies can do which make any money - or won't lose money hand over foot. I reckon a lot of societies are thinking about the number of members of the public who might have seen the film and will hopefully be interested in seeing the show live. It is such a good quality show, really well written, and the film means that the stage version should be more likely to find an audience.

Right, I'm off to a rehearsal for one of those now. Not the prison one! If you hear lots of dogs barking in Croydon, it's my top B in "Kiss Me Part 2". "Sensi - tivi-teeeeeeeeeeeees".

I heard Emma Francis will play Mrs Lovitt.

Just found a new website for it www.sweeneyiscoming.com

Chris Howell is Sweeney, Emma Francis is Mrs Lovett, Leon Kay is Anthony, Adam Ellis is Tobias and Stephen Rashbrook is the Judge

I saw Adam play Rusty in the final tour of Starlight Express, great casting!! excited!!

Yes indeed - all details can be found on the website - www.sweeneyiscoming.com.

Well, the Union version (plus, of course, our Croydon version, and, to be fair, the Margate and Rugby School versions) opens on Wednesday.

I spent six hours of flyering for the Croydon one today. In the rain. And the wind. And the dark.

One woman asked whether it would be suitable for a tough five-year-old. Our chairman's daughter told her "Well, I'm seeing it, and I'm six." Only afterwards, I realised we only talked about the gore, and not "Mea Culpa" or "Wouldn't you like to push me parsley"/"I see it lists to starboard" etc.

Lots of flyers through letterboxes in the vicinity of the theatre too, although I heard a shout of "Oi! You've ruined my floor" from one man who was on his knees, varnishing I think. It was good to talk to a couple of people who had seen the film ("I'm afraid Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman were busy" ho ho ho), but not good to see a woman putting her flyer straight into the recycling 2 minutes after I'd posted it.

It's a shame, but the show has not been selling anywhere near as well as we'd hoped. Our production is on at a gorgeously decaying Victorian theatre - having now been front of house and backstage, I can't think of a more appropriate venue for the show. I'd never want to boast about the quality of amateur shows that I do, but I'm actually rather proud of how well it's been directed and how well the cast have responded to that. The problem is that the venue is towards the north of the borough, and our regular parade of grannies don't want to visit the area. "It's too far", or "I don't want to take the train home afterwards". A few said it was "too gory" - these were people coming out of a production of Deathtrap last night!

Well, we shall see how many tickets we sell at the door. It's very easy to get to, by bus or train - close to Norwood Junction.

And we've managed a load of publicity for the show, too, mainly due to the interest in the venue. I know "all publicity is good publicity", but...

http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/palace...il/article.html

I have seen the toilet in picture number 2 in the article, and I can say that it's backstage, so the audience don't get to see it, and there is now a toilet roll holder on the wall .

And although the article calls Sweeney Todd a "grizzly musical" rather than a "grisly musical", we will not be dressed up as bears.

Anyway, please forgive this mini-outpouring. I hope the Union productions (and all others) do really well, as the show is so good - exciting, thrillling, very funny, multi-layered and finally moving.

One performance in, and sort of going all right. If only, in the bit where Johanna is hiding in the trunk in Sweeney's tonsorial parlour, Sweeney would remember to clear the props he'd put on the top of the box. In the dress rehearsal, the Judge's top hat, cane and cape were on top, and on the first night the bottle of bay rum went sliding down as Johanna opened the box.

Last night went very indeed, which was good, as the local newspaper critic (plus one - see my thread in the general section) was in. And ticket sales have increased, so I'm happy. I'm impressed by some directorial touches that I hadn't noticed before - after "City On Fire" the lunatics stand and watch the next people who enter (and depart, in various ways) Sweeney's parlour. As if the whole of London has gone mad.

Although Sweeney managed to leave both the Judge's accoutrements and the bottle on top of the box last night. The bottle had its top off too, so there was a "glug glug glug" sound as it emptied its contents onto the stage...

People afterwards were very complimentary about the singing. And about my page turning in Parlour Songs. Which was nice. I also got a little laugh for the "That's the sort of scalawag that gets this neighbourhood into disrepute" line, almost as if it was about South Norwood, ho ho ho.

I must book for the Union Theatre version soon.

EDIT: I just have. They'll get back to me if the date is unavailable.

A couple of reviews of the Union Theatre production, should you wish to read them:

http://www.sweeneytoddforum.org.uk/ then click on "featured production".

And, as always, The Stage reports:

http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.p...26/sweeney-todd

The Guardian reports back:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/nov/1...re-review-union

How, exactly, is Adam Ellis too old to play Tobias? The role is generally played by somebody in his twenties, as a character with a low mental age, rather than actually being a boy. The role was only played by a boy in the movie - I've never seen a child play Tobias before or since. I've just played Tobias and I'm 29... The Guardian really knows how to make a chap feel old!

Saw it tonight, and it was excellent. Great ensemble work, really well performed. Everything I could have wanted (and more) from a Sweeney Fringe production.

Opening, as the reviews have stated, was quite something, with the candles and the darkness. To hear the big choral moment on "Swing your razer" from the dark, with the voices coming from all directions (and mainly in the dark from behind) was quite something. Although I looked the wrong way for Sweeney's big entrance.

So much was so good: Worst Pies was great. Those 'orrible masks in Poor Thing. The electric feeling of silence on "Let them quake in their boots". Pirelli's jacket (although a name change!). "I show you a chart". Choreography in God That's Good was great, a sort of mindless trudging in, and then an almost Mad Hatter-inspired round table thing, with the wiping of mouths strangely reminiscent of the slitting of throats. Candles around the Beggar Woman in the Act 2 quartet worked very well too, imho.

Musically absolutely great. I think there were a few flashes from the TV with the conductor's image on it near the beginning of the first act, so it got turned off for the rest of the act. I think there was a colour replacement in the second act. Might have explained why Anthony and Johanna sped up during Kiss Me, but the MD got it together again perfectly. The extra organ bits worked really well in the intro to Mea Culpa (adding a sort of quasi-religous element to the Judge's ritual) and on "And I'll never see Johanna" in Epiphany, as well as a couple of extra bass bits. Not so sure about the off-beats in By The Sea: it was a bit like "Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside" on a Wurlitzer. The restrained chorus volume at the beginning of the closing number was great too.

I loved Tobias's reaction when he realised (at the very end) he had all these bodies to grind three times, and such a little grinder. And I'm pretty sure Mrs Lovett sang "I loved you" rather than "I love you" at the end - I thought I heard it, and I listened out for it and heard it again. And, for Sweeney completists, Anthony ended up killing Fogg instead of Johanna (which I normally like, as it shows she is her father's daughter). Good decision to have the Judge's proposal scene with Johanna after the bit of Mrs Lovett shoo-ing away the Beggar Woman, as it gave the Judge a chance to change into some more respectable clothes. Although his whip was made of wool - what a whimp!

The reviews all state that Nigel Pilkington as the Beadle was brilliant, and I have to agree: he made Parlour Songs absolutely his own, and the look on his face when the Judge put his hand on his shoulder on the walk from the Old Bailey was priceless. I never realised "pro... clivities" could be so suggestive.

Mini quibbles? Not sure about Anthony coming from oop north. It's not "There's no place like Barnsley - I feel home again." And Johanna was a brunette! But very good performances from both of them, so I'm not going to complain.

I think Lyn Gardner's Guardian review was ungenerous. Mrs Lovett was great, and Tobias was not too young! It's just that he looked older than Pirelli, and Pirelli looked about twelve. Mind you, in Greenfinch, I thought Johanna looked about eight.

In short, very very good indeed. You'll probably have to slit someone's throat to get hold of a ticket now, though.

Great detailed post, Michael. I've never thought Anthony to be a Londoner, though. He feels home again in London as a British sailor who's sailed the world and beheld its wonders. London is the first and best place that he visited. He does'nt really "know" London or the people in it; Todd has to explain so much to him.

Johanna as a brunette? That's just weird.