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The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Sweeney Todd promises high energy performance

    actors laughing

    Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd, played by Analynn Sober and Stephen Rushing,
    joke about how awful her pies are, saying they are “the worst pies in London.” 
    The Lion's Roar / Tamara Alexandar 
     

    A man goes to the Barber Shop for his routine haircut and shave, but what happens next is a bloody surprise. “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” returned to the limelight after the 2007 Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter was released, but the gory thriller was first an award-winning Broadway musical in 1979. 

    The Southeastern Opera/Music Theatre Workshop of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” will be the first production of this musical in Louisiana since the 1990s. Performances will take place at the Columbia Theatre on Sept. 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m. 

    “When you watch a movie, the sets are realistic, the costumes are realistic, it looks like real life,” said Charles Effler, the musical director who has been conducting Opera/Music Theatre Workshops at the university since 2002. “When you watch a show, there’s no doubt that you’re in a theater and that this is a show. There are all kinds of things that you can do in live theater that don’t come across well in film because film looks so realistic.” 

    The Burton film did not include the large chorus the original Broadway production utilized throughout the show. The crowd and pie shop guests chant the repeated chorus, telling the audience extra information about the main character Sweeney Todd.

    “In the movie, the audience is there, but they don’t sing,” said Effler. “But they have a big part to sing in the show, so it makes a big difference. It’s a completely different number.”

    In a “Sweeney Todd” film bonus feature, Burton told the actors to keep the energy low because raising the energy during songs is unrealistic and does not mesh well with the serious tone of the film. 

    “There’s going to be lots and lots of energy during the songs [in the Southeastern production],” said Effler. “If the actors didn’t do that, the audience would leave at intermission. It just wouldn’t be interesting.”

    Effler and guest director Alton Geno, an award-winning director who comes to Southeastern once every few years, carefully selected the cast. Geno directed Southeastern’s Opera/Music Theatre Workshop of “The Light in the Piazza” in Fall 2012. Geno lived in New Orleans for many years, directing shows for Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, Le Petit Theatre in the French Quarter and dinner theaters in the area. 

    Due to the low number of male students involved in the program this year, professor of voice Dr. Stephen Rushing was cast as Sweeney Todd. Rushing has been a member of Southeastern’s music faculty since 1992 and maintains an active regional, national and international performance schedule.

    “The original production was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning eight including Best Musical,” said Rushing. “It is a unique musical theatrical experience that offers different things to different people. The genius of Sondheim and Wheeler will remain a standard in the repertoire for years to come and the opportunity to experience it live, as opposed to a film version, should not be passed up.” 

    Since there are only three female roles in the musical, Effler and Geno made the decision to double-cast the roles, meaning each performer will sing their part for one night of the show. Kristina Temple and Analynn Sober will play Mrs. Lovett, Dana Arthur and Allison Joiner will play Beggar Woman and Lauren Gibson and Michelle Guillot will play Johanna. 

    “I started working with the cast on the music over the summer,” said Effler. “Usually when I do a musical, I just have two weeks of music rehearsals and then we go to the staging rehearsals, but this music is so complicated and so hard, I knew that was not going to be possible.” 

    A major aspect of the show is the murders that take place at Sweeney Todd’s barbershop. In the film, victims would be murdered, gush blood and then fall backwards down a shoot to the basement. In one scene, a victim gushes so much blood that it splatters the camera. 

    “We can’t do that because the stage blood stains the costumes,” said Effler. “We’d have to have a different costume for every night. We will have stage blood going across [the necks], just not like it was in the movie.”

    Theater professor Steve Schepker designed the set. Recent graduates Zach Slough and John Dalton Atkins designed the specialty props including the barber chair with the handle, the razors and the oven that Ms. Lovett uses to bake her pies. The victims will go down a shoot from Sweeney Todd’s barbershop chair through a large cube to Mrs. Lovett’s bake house. 

    Mignon Charvet is the costume designer and Ellen Lipkos is in charge of lighting design.

    Tickets for the Opera/Music Theatre Workshop production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” can be purchased at the Columbia Theatre on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. or an hour before show time. Students get in free with their Southeastern I.D., and non-student tickets cost $21 a piece.

    cast stages scene

    Adolfo Pirelli, played by  Chase Ledet, discusses with the townspeople
    the location of the origination of hair cutting. 
    The Lion's Roar / Tamara Alexandar

     

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