Swanson and Pillsbury and Betty Crocker are highly unlikely to be fighting over the rights to use Mrs. Lovett’s secret recipe. Mrs. Lovett’s pie business was once a flaky failure until she teamed up with a certain mad barber in London’s Fleet Street to create a sensational savory of unusual and peculiar flavor.
The Legacyy Theatre in Branford is mixing up a batch of tasty treats as it offers for your culinary and theatrical pleasure the Stephen Sondheim musical, with book by Hugh Wheeler, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" now extended to Sunday, August 31.
The barber becomes a barbarian in this passionate tale of revenge. Sweeney Todd is the alias assumed by a barber who was transported to Australia on trumped up charges almost two decades before. He blames Judge Turpin (Eric Santagata) and his liege The Beadle (Thomas Beebe) for the treachery which led his wife Lucy to kill herself and the Judge to claim their infant daughter Johanna (Ava Broneer) as his ward.
Now Todd, played with a steely determination and macabre manner by Karl Gasteyer, has returned to the scene of the crime to right the wrongs his family has suffered. With the aid of the lusty Mrs. Lovett, played delightfully by Stephanie Stiefel Williams, who runs s failed meat pie shop and a naval man Anthony (Charles Romano) who has saved Todd’s life, Todd sets his diabolical scheme in place.
Complications in the form of an old beggar woman (Sarah Anne Hughes), a blackmailer Pirelli (Amron Salgado) and a wide eyed lad Tobias (Brayden Esler) threaten his plans. Colin Sheehan directs this involving dark tale plagued with the “chill of ghostly shadows.” The musical form features an orchestra of four led by Mark Ceppetelli, magical lighting and set by Jamie Burnett, choreography by Paola Rarick and period costumes designed by Jimmy Johansmeyer. The more than thirty tunes drive the action beautifully, led by the incredible performances of the cast, led by the magical pairing of Gasteyer and Williams.
For tickets ($50.50 and $56.50) call the Legacy Theatre, 128 ThimbleIslands Road, Branford at 203-315-1901 or online at info@legacytheatrect.org or www.LegacyTheatreCT.org. Performances are Thursday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Return to nineteenth century London, if you dare, but be careful to have witnesses if you go to a local barbershop for a trim or a shave or a neighborhood pub for a succulent shepherd’s pie, a savory sweet treat of dubious origin.
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