I have hair from Bernadette Peters, Betty Buckley, and Idina Menzel. All I need is Patti LuPone and my Broadway diva wig will be complete! - Jack (Will and Grace)
Mom treated me to a ticket to Sweeney Todd yesterday! We went to the Saturday matinee on a whim. Tried our luck with the TKTS booth and got first row mezz for half price. What a brilliant production! It hasn't been on the top of my list of show to see but something I was very interested in having seen the PBS version with Angela Lansbury several times and loving the score in general. Well, if I had known how fantastic it was going to be I would have been singing its praises long before this post.
It's a very different version of Sweeney. Instead of a fully staged version with a large set, costumes, full orchestra, this production comes to us stripped down, concert-style but with a twist. There is one set, about a third of the size it normally would be, with a cast of about 10 people. Every perfromer also serves as a member of the orchestra. The entire score is played onstage by the actors - guitar, piano, cello, violin - even Ms. Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett hauls around a tuba from time to time! And the score loses nothing in this staging. It's still the lovely, spooky, scary, complex Sondheim masterpiece we know and love. When a character is murdered and made into a meat pie, all the lights go red, bathing the stage in a creepy crimson glow. A shock of bright red light. Mrs. Lovett then pours blood from one pale white bucket to another and the actor dons a white coat dripping with blood for the rest of the performance.
Michael Cerveris brings a brand new Sweeney Todd to the stage. Past actors have usually been much older and with a deeper, more growling voice. Cerveris has a much higher - but as it turns out - broader range. He scares the bejeezus out of the audience without much vamping and no campiness. It's no wonder this man already has a Tony. I wouldn't be surprised if he earned another for this.
And Patti LuPone! I have had mixed emotions about her for awhile. I respect her diva status and her past work. But for quite a few years I haven't found her work to anything that extraordinary. Not that she was phoning it in or anything. But there was nothing really amazing going on with her work in my very humble opinion. (Showing my theater snobbiness here, I know I know.) And when she was cast as Mrs. Lovett I thought - well that's a very typical choice and not all that surprising. She'll go ut there and do her thing and yada yada. Well nix all that. LOOOOVED HER! This was no Lansbury imitation. And not Patti playing herself. She was brand new demented Mrs. Lovett. She was everything I hoped for and more.
After the show we weren't going to stagedoor. Then Mom saw people taking pictures so we decided to give it a shot. Since it was a matinee performance we didn't expect to see many cast members - especially not Patti LuPone. They had another show in a couple hours and at many shows they stay in or sneak out another way. Surprise! We met Patti AND Michael Cerveris! AND took pictures AND got our Playbills signed!!!
Thanks Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom treated me to a ticket to Sweeney Todd yesterday! We went to the Saturday matinee on a whim. Tried our luck with the TKTS booth and got first row mezz for half price. What a brilliant production! It hasn't been on the top of my list of show to see but something I was very interested in having seen the PBS version with Angela Lansbury several times and loving the score in general. Well, if I had known how fantastic it was going to be I would have been singing its praises long before this post.
It's a very different version of Sweeney. Instead of a fully staged version with a large set, costumes, full orchestra, this production comes to us stripped down, concert-style but with a twist. There is one set, about a third of the size it normally would be, with a cast of about 10 people. Every perfromer also serves as a member of the orchestra. The entire score is played onstage by the actors - guitar, piano, cello, violin - even Ms. Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett hauls around a tuba from time to time! And the score loses nothing in this staging. It's still the lovely, spooky, scary, complex Sondheim masterpiece we know and love. When a character is murdered and made into a meat pie, all the lights go red, bathing the stage in a creepy crimson glow. A shock of bright red light. Mrs. Lovett then pours blood from one pale white bucket to another and the actor dons a white coat dripping with blood for the rest of the performance.
Michael Cerveris brings a brand new Sweeney Todd to the stage. Past actors have usually been much older and with a deeper, more growling voice. Cerveris has a much higher - but as it turns out - broader range. He scares the bejeezus out of the audience without much vamping and no campiness. It's no wonder this man already has a Tony. I wouldn't be surprised if he earned another for this.
And Patti LuPone! I have had mixed emotions about her for awhile. I respect her diva status and her past work. But for quite a few years I haven't found her work to anything that extraordinary. Not that she was phoning it in or anything. But there was nothing really amazing going on with her work in my very humble opinion. (Showing my theater snobbiness here, I know I know.) And when she was cast as Mrs. Lovett I thought - well that's a very typical choice and not all that surprising. She'll go ut there and do her thing and yada yada. Well nix all that. LOOOOVED HER! This was no Lansbury imitation. And not Patti playing herself. She was brand new demented Mrs. Lovett. She was everything I hoped for and more.
After the show we weren't going to stagedoor. Then Mom saw people taking pictures so we decided to give it a shot. Since it was a matinee performance we didn't expect to see many cast members - especially not Patti LuPone. They had another show in a couple hours and at many shows they stay in or sneak out another way. Surprise! We met Patti AND Michael Cerveris! AND took pictures AND got our Playbills signed!!!
Thanks Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom and Michael Cerveris (Sweeney Todd.)
Me and Patti LuPone
(it was windy and a big strand of hair is on my face - gotta photoshop it out - ha.)
Diva Patti
Mom at the stage door.
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