AUDITION INFO

Auditions will held on Wednesday, August 27, 7-10 pm in Chapman Theatre. Callbacks will be held on Friday, August 29, 7-10 pm, Chapman Theatre. Remember, if you are a Theatre or Music Theatre Major, you must attend cattle call auditions on Tuesday, August 26, 6:30 -10:00 pm. That audition is IN ADDITION to regular auditions on Wednesday. You must attend both.

Rehearsals will begin Sunday September 7, 6:45 pm, location TBA. We will rehearse Sunday through Thursday until Tech Week.

Auditions will all occur in Chapman Theatre for this show. Since there is minimal choreography, there will not be a separate dance audition. You will sing and then read from selections from the libretto. There are copies of the libretto available for checkout from Cindy in the Music/Theatre/Dance Office, 109 McCain Auditorium. If you wish to sing a prepared piece, an accompanist will be available. It will also be possible for you to bring prerecorded music. If you do not have a prepared piece, do not fret! The Music Directors will ask you to sing scales and determine your range.

SWEENEY TODD

Morose and brooding, a barber by profession, newly arrived in London after 15 years’ unjust incarceration in a penal colony. In despair he turns first on those who perpetrated the injustices against him, then on God, and finally on all humanity. He possess a dark sense of humor and is a powerful force. Vocal range–high baritone

MRS. LOVETT

An amoral survivor with a dark sense of humor and a high dose of street smarts. She is powerful, wickedly funny, and cruel. She would like to be more than merely a landlady to Mr. Todd. She comes up with the idea of using the bodies of those Sweeney kills as filling for her meat pies. Vocal range–Mezzo

ANTHONY HOPE

A young man, a sailor, who befriends Todd on the voyage home. He falls in love instantly with Johanna. He alone is kind to the Beggar Woman and remains hopeful and trusting. He can’t kill in cold blood in the end, and his naivete is his undoing .Vocal Range–high baritone

JOHANNA

A beautiful girl, Todd’s daughter but now claimed by Judge Turpin as his own. She is nearly driven mad by the Judge’s lust and abuse, falls in love with Anthony and finally kills when he can’t. She is the beautiful young heroine of the piece. Vocal range–soprano

JUDGE TURPIN

A corrupt and depraved official, an upholder of justice who twists the system to serve his own ends. He is the ultimate hypocrite and the true villain of the piece. This role requires courage. His sick sexual fantasies about Johanna are clear. In one musical number, he uses a scourge to whip himself into orgasm. Vocal range–baritone

BEADLE BAMFORD

Turpin’s accomplice in his crimes. He is an oily, cowardly hypocrite.   He is the little man who “brown noses” the Judge to gain power and money. He is also corrupt. Vocal range–high tenor

BEGGAR WOMAN

A mad old crone with a filthy tongue, whose cries go unheeded. She is in actuality Lucy, the once beautiful and moral wife of Sweeney who was destroyed by Judge Turpin. In this production she will function almost as the witches in MACBETH. She ultimately brings doom. Vocal range–mezzo

PIRELLI

An Irishman posing as an Italian barber. He blackmails Sweeney and dies for it. This is a comic character who will also be part of the vocal ensemble. The role is usually played by a male tenor, but in this production can also be a “pants part” played by a woman.

TOBIAS RAGG

A simple, kind-hearted lad. He works first for Pirelli,who abuses him, and then for Mrs. Lovett, but never trusts Todd. He comes to see Mrs. Loveitt as a mother figure, and, upon discovering the true horrors of the bakehouse, goes mad in the end. Vocal range–tenor

JONAS FOGG

Runs Fogg’s assylum. He is cynical and amoral. This is a speaking part that will be played by a member of the ensemble.

STREET PEOPLE/DENIZENS OF HELL

Four ensemble members who will create specific characters.

THE FOREMEN OR WOMEN OF HELL/DARK ANGELS

The musical ensemble.   HEAD FOREMAN–Paul Hunt!

CONCEPT NOTES

SWEENEY TODD is an exciting musical that has been performed on large stages with a full orchestra as well as small stages with a small instrumental ensemble. The amazing Broadway revival was a concert version in which the actors also played all the instruments. We will be doing a pared down version in Chapman Hall.

We have decided to set our production in Hell rather than in an insane asylum as it is usually presented. The characters are all condemned humans who are doomed to tell their story, the story of Sweeney Todd, over and over again. Our version of hell is an abandoned warehouse and foundry. The scenes will flow into each other with locations created by found objects littered in the area. There will be a great deal of audience involvement. The entire theatre will be used, including the catwalks, and there will be multiple levels. Within the foundry will be rusted tubs of blood, an old furnace, hooks, and large pipes through which bodies will fall!   The costumes will be a tattered mix of Victorian and modern shapes. Dana and Kathy are creating designs that are very exciting. There will be nine musicians total in the ensemble, and the musicians, as well as Paul Hunt, the Music Director himself, will all be characters in the show and on-stage all the time. This production will truly be an ensemble production; the show thus requires strong acting as well as singing. The rehearsal period is long because of the extreme demands of the work.

THE PLOT

ACT ONE

Down at the docks of Victorian London, two men disembark and greet their native city. For Anthony Hope, after years overseas, There’s No Place Like London. Sweeney Todd echoes that sentiment but for different reasons: London is a hell hole, a black pit in which all the vermin of the earth are gathered. As they part, a deranged Beggar Woman pathetically offers herself to them. Todd is cruelly abusive, to the surprise of Anthony, who has only known him as kind and gentle. Now, he seems embittered and hateful. But London can do that. Todd relates the sad story of The Barber and His Wife – and the rich, powerful man who desired her.

Leaving the docks, he makes his way to Fleet Street and Mrs. Lovett’s shop, wherein are sold The Worst Pies In London. There are lodgings above, difficult to let since a nasty incident a while back: there was a nice gentlemanly barber who worked and lived there with a young daughter and a pretty little wife who attracted the attentions – Poor Thing – of a corrupt Judge and his Beadle. They had the barber unjustly transported, lured his sweet naive wife to the Judge’s house, where she was raped and her beautiful child taken from her. The barber was never seen again, the wife took poison, but the girl Johanna still lives with the Judge. Even as she tells the tale, Mrs. Lovett knows to whom she speaks: Sweeney Todd has returned to have his revenge. She hands him the tools of his trade, carefully kept by her since the day he was convicted. My Friends, murmurs Todd, caressing his razors. “I’m your friend, too,” adds Mrs. Lovett. He takes the lodgings and sets up business as a barber.

Outside Judge Turpin’s house, a Birdseller’s Green Finch and Linnet Bird are serenaded by another helpless caged creature from the highest window in the house: Johanna. Passing by, Anthony buys a bird and offers it to the young lady (Ah, Miss), but the Judge warns him to keep away from his “daughter”. Too late: Anthony is in love and determined to rescue Johanna

In St. Dunstan’s Place, a rival barber, Pirelli, is demonstrating the remarkable properties of Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir – much mocked by Todd, who challenges the mountebank to a shaving competition. The eager crowd enlists the help of Beadle Bamford, who umpires The Contest and pronounces Todd the winner. Business booms in Fleet Street, but the obsessed Todd awaits only the Beadle’s custom. Wait, Mrs. Lovett advises: vengeance will be his.

Unaware of Todd’s return, the Judge has decided to marry his “daughter” himself. He whips himself into orgasm at the thought of her in Johanna. Johanna is distraught, until Anthony climbs up to her room. Kiss Me, they cry, and plan their escape. With his wedding looming, the Judge is persuaded by the Beadle that Ladies in Their Sensibilities like a man freshly shaved and pomaded. They make their way to Fleet Street, and, as the lecherous Judge gleefully expounds on the subject of Pretty Women, he little suspects that Todd’s last visitor now lies lifeless in the barber’s trunk. Pirelli had recognized the returned convict and foolishly attempted a little blackmail. But, just as Todd is about to dispatch the Judge too, Anthony bursts in, gushing about Johanna and their elopement. Judge Turpin leaves, swearing that boy and barber are obviously in league. Todd rages at Anthony, at Mrs. Lovett, and, experiencing his own mad Epiphany, vows revenge on all humanity. Mrs. Lovett is more practical: what about Pirelli? Seems a shame to waste such fine, plump flesh. What with the price of meat, maybe she and Mr. Todd could be of mutual assistance. After all, her pies could do with some new flavours – Italian barber, Royal Marine and maybe A Little Priest.

ACT TWO

Mrs. Lovett’s distinctive pies are the talk of Fleet Street. God, That’s Good, belch the patrons of her thriving new ale garden. With such a harmonious business partnership, Mrs. Lovett is keen to put relations with Mr. Todd on a more intimate footing and hints flirtatiously how happy they’d he down By the Sea. But Todd’s mind has been twisted by hate and he thinks only of Judge Turpin and Johanna, now incarcerated in a madhouse. Anthony rushes in and begs Todd for help to free Johanna from the Madhouse, and Todd devises a plan to rescue her by having Anthony pose as a wigmaker intent on purchasing inmates’ hair in a Wigmaker Sequence.. Jubilant at the possibility of having his revenge fulfilled after all, Todd sends a secret letter to notify the Judge about Anthony’s plot, hoping through The Letter to lure the Judge to his shop, where he writes that Anthony plans to return with Johanna.

Mrs. Lovett’s new help, Tobias, is fearful of Todd, but no-one will harm her, he promises, Not While I’m Around. When he recognizes Pirelli’s coin purse in Mrs. Lovett’s possession, she distracts him by showing him the bakehouse where she makes her pies, instructing him on how to work the meat grinder and the oven, and then secretly locking him alone in the basement when she leaves. Back upstairs, she encounters Beadle Bamford sitting at her harmonium, commissioned by neighbors to investigate the strange smoke and smells from the pie shop’s chimney. Mrs. Lovett, frustrated, stalls for time. Finally, Todd arrives and offers the Beadle his promised “free shave”; Mrs. Lovett loudly plays music on her harmonium to cover the screams of the Beadle’s demise above through her Parlor Songs. In the bakehouse, Toby discovers a hair and a fingernail in a pie he samples when suddenly the Beadle’s fresh corpse tumbles into the basement. Above, Mrs. Lovett informs Todd that Toby has figured them out and they head downstairs to dispose of him. The smoke from the chimneys has also drawn the attention of the crazy Beggar Woman, who shrieks her warning of City on Fire. Anthony arrives at the asylum to rescue Johanna, disguising her as a sailor. However, Mr Jonas Fogg, the deranged owner of the asylum, attempts to stop them. Anthony brandishes a pistol, but when he is unable to kill Fogg, Johanna instinctively grabs the weapon and shoots Fogg dead, fleeing with Anthony. The asylum’s inmates pour out onto the streets, ecstatically proclaiming the end of the world, again with the City on Fire. Meanwhile, Todd and Mrs. Lovett hunt for Toby, and the Beggar Woman calls out for the Beadle to beware of Mrs. Lovett. as Todd’s scheme races to its conclusion. Anthony and Johanna, who is now disguised in a sailor’s uniform, arrive to find Todd’s shop empty. Anthony leaves to find a coach and he encourages Johanna, Ah Miss Reprise, as they reaffirm their love. Now alone, Johanna hears the Beggar Woman calling for the Beadle and hides just before the frenzied woman enters the barbershop. She seems to recognize the room as she sings The Beggar Woman’s Lullaby, but before she can make sense of it, Todd enters and, with the Judge about to arrive, quickly slits her throat, sending her down the chute a moment before the Judge bursts in . Todd assures the Judge that Johanna is totally repentant and the Judge lustfully asks for a quick face massage and some cologne before reuniting with her. Once he has the Judge in his chair, Todd soothes him as they both once again sing Pretty Women. Then Sweeney suddenly mocks him, alerting the Judge to his former identity. The Judge recognizes Benjamin Barker just before Todd, at last, passionately slashes his enemy’s throat and sends him hurtling down the chute.   He leaves to deal with Tobias, but turns back and catches Johanna climbing out of the trunk. Not recognizing her due to the sailor’s uniform, he forces her into the barber chair and nearly slits her throat before Mrs. Lovett shrieks from the bakehouse below, providing a distraction for Johanna to escape. Johanna is rescued by Anthony, the Judge joins the Beadle in the furnace.

Only as SweeneyTodd comes upon Mrs. Lovett dragging the Beggar Woman to the furnace does he have his final, horrible epiphany; he recognizes the Beggar Woman as his wife, his beloved Lucy, the one person in the world his poisoned heart still loved. He has killed the thing he loved most. Realizing Mrs. Lovetts complicity in the death, he takes the twittering landlady in his arms, they dance, and he flings her in the furnace before he, in turn, is killed by Tobias. When Johanna, Anthony and the police arrive, the boy is grinding the mincer. The ensemble sings the gruesome finale to The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.

THE MEANING AND THEME OF THE WORK

SWEENEY TODD, for me, is finally Shakespearean. Sondheim likens the play to a Jacobean revenge tragedy, and indeed it does follow on plays of that genre; it also harkens back to the popular revenge tragedies of Shakespeare’s time. To me, however, the work has a great deal in common with Shakespeare’s MACBETH. The music elevates the work the way Shakespeare’s language elevates his story.   Todd is already fallen at the opening of the piece, but he hopes to find his wife and child. When he is hit again with the ultimate injustice of the world, he sets out to punish those who destroyed him. In the process, however, he goes from killing his enemies to killing everyone. He shouts, “They all deserve to die.” Thus, he loses his soul and meets the worst fate a human can face: he kills the thing he loves; he kills Lucy. This is a dark, funny, moving piece that proves Gandhi’s point: “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

NOTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT

I have taken my concept of the work from the lyrics and lines of the piece itself as well as other secondary research. That research includes Sondheim’s comments about the play by Christopher Bond that he adapted for the musical, as well as comments by Hal Prince, the original director of the first Broadway production. Bond raised the play from its early roots as a melodrama to a carefully crafted tragedy. In the black-and-white world of melodrama people are divided into two distinct categories, the unblemished hero and the evil villain. Such was the original version of the story, “A String of Pearls: A Romance,” published in the penny newspaper–The People’s Periodical and Family Library–over a period of eighteen episodes in 1846. In Bond’s version, Sweeney is the victim of cruel injustice at the hands of the wicked Judge Turpin and Beadle Bamford. He is deported to Australia on false charges, his wife stolen from him and now presumably dead; his daughter has never known him as a father. Such suffering motivates and dramatically justifies his thirst for revenge.

There are four major characteristics that distinguish Bond’s work from earlier versions.First, Sweeney’s motivation for murder is not greed but revenge, dramatically, if not morally.

Second, Sweeney exists in a fallen state. Benjamin Barker, his former self, was apparently a good and upright man.   However, his idealism was his tragic mistake; he felt that virtue would be his protection. Such naiveté led to his fall. Now he has changed his name not only for secrecy but also as a sign that he is that man no longer.

Third, Bond’s sophisticated plot and language elevate the nature of the tale. Sondheim notes, “It had a weight to it . . . because he wrote certain characters in blank verse. He also infused into it plot elements from Jacobean tragedy and The Count of Monte Cristo. He was able to take all these disparate elements that had been in existence rather dully for a hundred and some-odd years and make them into a first-rate play”

Fourth, the new play presents a degree of social commentary on the times in which Sweeney Todd was written. Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies are no longer merely disgusting but are symbolic of the dog-eat-dog philosophy that pervades a mechanistic, materialistic society. Man loses his identity and therefore is trampled on by those who covet what he has but do not recognize his rights as an individual. Given such a world, Sweeney reasons that he is only repaying mankind for the miseries it has inflicted upon him.

Sondheim’s musical thriller engulfs the imagination and retreats into the darkness, taking the spectator with it. Sondheim states: “What I did to Chris’ play is more than enhance it. I had a feeling it would be a new animal. Our production was larger in scope. Hal Prince gave it an epic sense, a sense that this was a man of some size instead of just a nut case. The music helps to give it that dimension.”

The director of the original production, Hal Prince, took what Sondheim still considered “a small horror piece” and made it an epic depiction of “the incursion of the industrial age and its influence on souls, poetry, and people.” His scenic metaphor was also a foundry. Jack Kroll described the original design as “part cathedral, part factory, part prison.”

With such research in mind and after immersing myself in the libretto and the music, I went for the visual metaphor of hell. Here hell is dark, bloody, shadowed, rusty, hard, dank, dusty, forgotten. This is the hell of the Industrial Revolution, but also the hell of today: it is Detroit with its abandoned factories; it is the triumph of the 1% over the 99% without fairness or often hope; it is the shooting deaths that occur every day in poor communities where there is no justice; it is, finally, the endless wars in the Middle East based on revenge and hate. It feels like our planet is on fire and dark and vengeful spirits are on the loose.

Todd sings:

There’s a hole in the world
Like a great black pit
And it’s filled with people
who are filled with shit
And the vermin of the world
Inhabit it.

The ultimate emotion of this work is fury at a cruel, “dark and angry god.” There is no redemption for the characters in this piece, there is no hope. In the absence of hope, justice, and love, there is only hell.