Review: ‘Sweeney Todd’ at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre

Theater review

Following the late-March Broadway opening of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” a number of tweets mentioned how the production had attendees seeing one character, a woman simply known as the Beggar Woman, anew. “[Actor Ruthie Ann Miles] takes what I’ve always thought of as a throwaway role and gives it so much dimension,” tweeted David Gordon, president of Outer Critics Circle, the organization of theater writers covering New York City theater for non-New York publications. After seeing the Jay Woods-directed production of “Sweeney Todd,” running at 5th Avenue Theatre through May 14, I also found myself thinking more deeply about the Beggar Woman, a role that is intentionally written into the sidelines, but whose presence becomes perhaps the most crucial to the emotional climax of this musical melodrama, especially in a production where a spectacular design threatens to steal the show.

On its surface, the musical, which features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book from Hugh Wheeler, is about a barber whose life and family were torn apart. Returning to the London streets after over a decade in exile, and sporting a new name, Sweeney Todd is hellbent on revenge against the judge who, in multiple ways, destroyed Todd’s life. The story is rife for over-the-top theatricality as Todd trades shaving faces for cutting necks, sending his customers/victims to his partner-in-crime Mrs. Lovett, who turns the recently deceased into pies for the ravenous people of London.

It’s no mistake that nowhere in that synopsis is the role of the Beggar Woman, a character whose importance is only revealed as the story draws to its aching conclusion. Throughout the musical, she’s kicked out, ignored and ridiculed, but by the end of the show, the emotional catharsis of the story hinges on the audience connecting to her. It’s kind of an absurd ask, to have to build that much development into this all-too-scarcely seen character. So I admired Woods and choreographer Katy Tabb visually saying from the jump that this character is crucial by staging the opening number, layered with dissonant chords setting an eerie tone, with the ensemble surrounding the Beggar Woman.

Throughout the musical, this ensemble acts as a Greek chorus of sorts, appearing at key moments as our guide through the story. For instance, one moment has the chorus looming over Todd (wonderfully performed by Yusef Seevers) during “Epiphany,” a song in which Todd’s been pushed over the edge, singing, almost spitting, “we all deserve to die.” The chorus is strikingly backlit by lighting designer Robert J. Aguilar, who repeatedly bathes the stage in a blood red whenever Todd’s murderous intentions reach boiling points. 

It’s easy to argue that the design from Aguilar, and the way it plays with Danielle Nieves’ costume design and Lex Marcos’ scenic design, is a star of this production. Marcos’ set involves essentially scaffolding around the edge (think “Hamilton,” but black pipes instead of wood) and a central rotating structure that has Todd’s barber shop on top and Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop down below. Not only does the rotation of the set allow for fluid motion as moments move from inside one location to outside, but it also leaves plenty of room to play for Aguilar’s lighting design, which can completely flood the stage with color. At one point, as Todd’s brief rival Adolfo Pirelli (Jesus Garcia) takes center stage, the stage is washed with a gorgeous purple to match Pirelli’s bold costume.

Honestly, I could go on just gushing over how striking some of the stage pictures created by this team were, but there’s so much more to this show. Both the direction from Woods and the performances from Seevers as Todd and Anne Allgood as Mrs. Lovett continually reminds the audience that this show, perhaps surprisingly, is actually at its best when it’s goofy and when the production leans into how silly and bizarre aspects of it can be. Yes, you expect the fun wordplay of Todd and Lovett discussing which professions would be best to eat in “A Little Priest,” but then there are also moments like Todd awkwardly trying to hide his face from those around town who may recognize him from his pre-exile days. Or there are Todd’s victims gripping their throat and looking more confused than anything else as they’re almost cordially guided to a trap door that drops them into Mrs. Lovett’s larder to finish dying. The resulting feel is like we’re watching a story that sits just adjacent to reality, without ever fully settling there.

Which brings me back to the Beggar Woman (admirably played by Porscha Shaw). Even talking about the show, she gets lost among everything else going on. And so I found myself puzzled by the end. Woods has put together an incredibly fun show that highlights all the joy that can be found in this (by nature) overly theatrical tale of cannibalism and vengeance. It may simply be an obstacle of the show, that the little bits and pieces of context around the Beggar Woman get a bit lost along the way. Still, by the time I finished attending the tale of Sweeney Todd, and seeing an ending that felt like it never quite found solid ground, I felt like I was missing the heart at the center of this particular, very entertaining, theatrical pie.