It's meaty indeed! QUENTIN LETTS first night review of Sweeney Todd 

By Quentin Letts for the Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:

Sweeney Todd, by Stephen Sondheim, London Coliseum

Rating:

Here is a symphony of cannibalism, a gory, nauseous tale turned into high art by the bass baritone of big Bryn Terfel and the richness of English National Opera’s superb orchestra.

Mr Terfel plays the demon barber of Fleet Street, Todd, who has returned to Victorian London after deportation to Australia. What a voice. From the opening moments it kebabs you with its clarity and resonance.

Gory: Emma Thompson is Mrs Lovett, the pie-shop owner, while Bryn Terfel plays the demon barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd

Gory: Emma Thompson is Mrs Lovett, the pie-shop owner, while Bryn Terfel plays the demon barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd

Emma Thompson is Mrs Lovett, the not so engaging pie-shop owner who loves Todd and grinds his victims into sausage meat. 

Miss Thompson’s soprano has character and just about passes muster. It is in the Victoria Wood class of voice, and I do not necessarily mean that as an insult.

Stephen Sondheim can be a maddening composer, inserting so many teases and stop-starts to his melodies. Open the throttle and give us a long burst of TUNE, matey! 

But Lonny Price’s production makes one appreciate the score’s cleverness and the orchestra, under conductor David Charles Abell, gives each little melodic shimmy a sumptuous quality. 

Miss Thompson’s soprano has character and just about passes muster
It is in the Victoria Wood class of voice, and I do not necessarily mean that as an insult, writes Quentin Letts

Miss Thompson’s soprano has character and just about passes muster. It is in the Victoria Wood class of voice, and I do not necessarily mean that as an insult, writes Quentin Letts

The orchestra is centre stage, literally, the singers running in and through and round and about the musicians. 

At one point Mrs Lovett pinches the conductor’s baton. This moment is typical of Miss Thompson’s unstuffy comedy. 

Bryn Terfel (left) plays Sweeney Todd alongside Emma Thompson (right) in the musical

Bryn Terfel (left) plays Sweeney Todd alongside Emma Thompson (right) in the musical

Her Mrs Lovett is a less convincing crone than we had when Imelda Staunton recently played the role yet she has an ironic appeal of her own. She and Mr Terfel are well paired in their stage presence, if not in their singing voices.

Todd has a long-unseen daughter, Johanna, who is in the clutches of wicked Judge Turpin (Philip Quast). 

Katie Hall chirrups beautifully as Johanna. John Owen-Jones’s Pirelli has something of the Go Compare man to him. Meanwhile, Mr Terfel’s speaking voice reminded me of rugby commentator Eddie Butler. I kept expecting Todd to tell us Wales had won a scrum.

It is a pity the barber’s chair is not more spectacular but each murder brings a foghorn’s honk and red lighting effects – at one point the stalls are washed in red by a bank of football-stadium spots.

The grandeur of this show’s operatic sweep is asserted by a closing chorus of remarkable force, full-belt sopranos’ faces garishly illuminated by footlights. Meaty, indeed.

Meaty: The pair take a bow at the end of the first showing of Sweeney Todd at the London Coliseum last night

Meaty: The pair take a bow at the end of the first showing of Sweeney Todd at the London Coliseum last night

 

London

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