Are you a fan of beef pot pies, with their flaky crusts and yummy insides, the ones that warm your tummy on cold winter nights? Might you fancy one in the immediate future? Well, the Downtown Cabaret Theatre in Bridgeport has a cautionary note for your perusal that you might want to heed. Weekends until Sunday, October 13, a man bent on vengeance is wielding a razor in London for his personal amusement in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” with book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and it is sharp, memorable, and on target wonderful.
You might ask where do the beef pot pies fit into the story? The answer is that Sweeney Todd has returned from years in an Australian prison where he was sent, unjustly, by an unscrupulous Judge Turpin and his untrusty aide the Beadle Bamford. The Judge fancied Sweeney’s wife and “stole” her and her infant daughter for his own disreputable desires and sent Sweeney away for life.
When Sweeney escapes, he is rescued at sea by a good Samaritan, Anthony Hope. Now Sweeney needs to set his plan of vengeance in motion and he finds a willing Mrs Lovett who aids him in his momentous task.
Mrs. Lovett’s pie business was once a flaky failure until she teams up with a certain mad barber in London’s Fleet Street to create a sensational savory of unusual and peculiar flavor. You’ll figure out the pies' distinctive secret ingredient if you are paying attention.
This is a musical adventure set in concert form as the barber becomes a barbarian in this passionate tale of revenge. Perry Liu is superb as Sweeney Todd, the alias he assumes who blames Judge Turpin (Mark Feltch) and his liege The Beadle (John Michael Whitney) for the treachery which led his wife to kill herself and the Judge to claim their infant daughter Johanna (Maddy Flagg) as his ward.
Now Todd, played with a steely determination and macabre manner, 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 Priscilla Squiers, and a naval man Anthony (Charles Romano), Todd sets his diabolical scheme in place. Complications in the form of an old beggar woman (Carly Jurman), a blackmailer Pirelli (Elias Levy) and a wide eyed lad Tobias (Isabel Sonnabend) threaten his plans. Bradford Blake directs this involving dark tale plagued with the “chill of ghostly shadows.” The concert form features an orchestra of three on stage, conducted by Mark Ceppetelli on piano, with Harry Kliewe on reeds and Phoebe Suzuki on violin, magical lighting by Johanna Jackson and period costumes designed by Lesley Neilson-Bowman. The projections are dramatic.A
For tickets ($43.50 and 49.50) call the Downtown Cabaret Theatre, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport at 203-576-1636 or online at tickets@dtcab.com. Performances are Friday at 7:30 p.m.and Saturday at 3:30p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 3:30 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 neighborhood pub for a succulent beef pot pie.
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