‘Sweeney Todd’ Comes to Boise State
If you missed it last weekend, there are four performances of Sweeney Todd left at Boise State this Thursday through Sunday. After this, you'll know why he's the "demon barber Fleet Street."
Sweeney Todd was required viewing when I was in performance classes in high school. My drama coach was a big fan of it, but the first time I saw it I'll admit didn't really get it. I was totally grossed out and shocked that the barber was slitting the throats of the men who came in for haircuts and sat in that super unlucky chair. But as a musical thriller, it wasn't supposed to win awards for being uplifting!
I had such an awesome speech and drama teacher that he quickly got me to see the artistic side of the musical, and now I think of it as one of the best, most interesting performances I've ever seen. I developed a keen fascination and appreciation for the story line, and for Angela Lansbury, who played Mrs. Lovett in the movie that we watched in high school. She was the baker who made the meat pies in the basement out of the folks that came down the chute from the barber's chair. And she was kind of cute about it, if that's possible.
Boise State’s Departments of Theatre Arts and Music will present their own take on Sweeney Todd again this weekend at the Special Events Center.
Boise State's synopsis says it this way. "Sweeney Todd is a barber in Victorian England, who gets revenge on a society that has done him wrong by killing his unsuspecting, well-heeled clients." The story gets deeper, and shows how the upper classes used and abused the lower classes socially and in the job market during that time.
Since there will be no actual killing this weekend at BSU, the costume department had to get creative in depicting death and dead bodies being made into meat pies. There will be lots of ribbon-like neckties to represent the murders, and "theater of the mind" may apply.
After watching the movie in speech and drama class, I also caught a live performance of Sweeney Todd when I lived in Austin, Texas. It's fantastic, and well-deserving of the Tony Award for Best Musical if you ask me.
If you're looking for a different date night or girls night that doesn't happen every weekend, this is totally it!
Performances are Thursday March 15 through Saturday March 17 at 7:30pm, and there's a 2pm matinee on Sunday March 18th at the Special Events Center at Boise State.
Just eat before you go because you may not have an appetite after. For pie anyway.