Sweeney Todd

Synopsis

The demon barber of Fleet Street who used to kill customers and dispose of them in meat pies! Set in Victorian London. Sweeney is bent on revenge for the death of his wife and has started to murder indiscriminately - and suddenly meat for the pie shop next door is no longer in short supply!

Our Review:

11 June 2011

It’s been over 30 years since audiences were first implored to “attend the tale of Sweeney Todd”, yet Bolton Octagon’s new production of Sondheim’s legendary musical makes an ambitious attempt at re-imagining the show for a new generation of theatre-goers.

Mixing professional actor-musicians with a locally recruited community chorus, Elizabeth Newman’s production is non-conventional from the outset. Crammed with stylistic devices, in-jokes and metaphors, this dizzying production sets Victorian London’s infamous demon barber in a context described in the programme as ‘CSI-style Sweeney Todd’. Obsessed with gaining vengeance on a society he blames for the loss of his wife and daughter, Mr Todd slits the throats of his customers in a world where he also receives deliveries from Amazon.com.
 
Part fetish nightclub, part forensic cr...

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Latest User Review

Ecbian - 1 July 2011:

All a bit of a mess, unfortunately, with the sound balance wrong, the set at odds with the costumes and the performances variable. Had it not been for the ever excellent Ruth Alexander Rubin I would have been even more grumpy. A pity that the excellent season at the Octagon has to finish on this scrappy production, which is afr below the excellent standards that the theatre has established as its norm....

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