Actor Dylan Wilson suggests that those squeamish among us might try re-framing “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
“It’s a love triangle, but with a razor,” he said.
Wilson pairs his sharp, scissor-wielding Todd with Greer Gibbens’ lustily perverse baker, Mrs. Lovett, in next week’s BPA Teen Broadway production at Bainbridge Performing Arts. The oft-reprised musical, originating with the 1979 Stephen Sondheim smash, portrays the gruesome heights (or depths) to which people will rise or sink for the sake of revenge, greed or a mix of the two.
Todd, formerly the highly skilled barber and loving family man Benjamin Barker, was wrongly imprisoned by a judge who wanted his wife; years later, he returns to his home in London to wreak vengeance on those who harmed him.
Living below him is Mrs. Lovett, an unsuccessful baker who makes, and sings of, “The Worst Pies in London.” She proposes to Todd a diabolical remedy to tough times: turn his victims into mincemeat, and serve them up to unsuspecting patrons.
The thing about “Sweeney Todd,” the two young actors said, is that it’s not just a show about bad people doing disgusting things. Both Todd and Mrs. Lovett are driven by deep impulses – in his case, revenge, in her case, greed but also a desperate, unrequited longing for Todd. The story has the same geometric structure that any strong tragedy does, hinging on early misunderstandings and missed opportunities.
Furthermore, Wilson pointed out, Todd himself tells the audience exactly how he got to where he is; his self-awareness leaves them conflicted. What he’s doing is so nasty, but his story is so sad.
Then there’s Mrs. Lovett, dastardly on the one hand yet oddly cozy on the other. She’s a foster mom, a helpful neighbor, and for Pete’s sake, a baker.
“Some people call her reptilian…but I find her very warm-blooded,” Gibbens said.
Wilson and Gibbens particularly enjoy the number “My Friends,” a duet that perfectly illustrates the pair’s disconnect, which in many ways is her tragedy. He loves his razor, she loves him, and although they are partners in crime whose paths undoubtedly lead toward equally unsavory ends, those paths will always remain parallel.
Still, at least they have each other.
“It’s kind of cute. These two have very different stories, and they find their little niche,” Wilson said.
The show, acknowledged to be one of Sondheim’s most musically challenging, is also one of the more complex productions undertaken by Bainbridge Performing Arts for its annual Teen Broadway youth theater event. The set, creepily Victorian-themed, even features a slide that sends Todd’s victims down toward the furnace room, where the second phase of their transformation – post-shave – occurs.
A slide. How fun is that? With this brand of dark humor permeating the show, Gibbens said she routinely guffaws her way through rehearsals. And both actors have completely dug in to their roles.
“I’m a big meat-eater myself,” Gibbens said.
A slice of life
“Sweeney Todd” runs July 29 – Aug. 2 at Bainbridge Performing Arts, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets, $18/$15, are at www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org. Also catch BPA Theatre School’s younger student performances today, featuring actors in grades 3-8; see the website for details.
