Fleshing Out Fleet Street

Amidst a slew of recent retellings of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club (HRDC) is returning to the black comedy’s bloody roots. The dark musical about the vengeful Todd and his accomplice Mrs. Lovett, who sells Todd’s murder victims off as meat pies to poor Londoners, will run on the Loeb Mainstage through this Saturday.

A number of revivals have drastically changed the feel of “Todd,” including Tim Burton’s blood-soaked 2007 movie and a 2005 Broadway production, set in an insane asylum, in which the actors played their own instruments on stage. While each of these versions exaggerated the characters’ derangement and London’s grittiness, the HRDC production seeks to return to the original feel of the script.

“We wanted to try to take what was there originally and showcase that,” says Jason M. Lazarcheck ’08, one of the stage directors. “It’s just a great story and great music.”

While the alternate versions sought to provide more goosebumps, the HRDC production looks to move audiences by showing how truly three-dimensional characters suffer in a horrifying world.

“There’s a risk of [Todd] coming off as a very two-dimensional character,” says Arlo D. Hill ’08, who plays the title role. “The challenge for me and for anyone in the part is to round out the part and make him an understandable person.”

Todd was not the only character who needed fleshing out; his counterpart, Mrs. Lovett, did as well. “Playing with the idea that she is madly in love with Sweeney Todd was so important for me when I started looking at these scenes,” says Rachel E. Flynn ’09, who plays the piemaker. “The romantic aspect was something that I really liked to grab on to.”

The set attempts to add to the production’s more three-dimensional feel. Constructed to reflect Todd’s entrapment, it features a somber prison, with bars surrounding the characters on all sides, and a foul pit, with the set looming menacingly above on both sides.

“We’re working with this idea that Sweeney and his fellow London workers are trapped in this cage of industry and they’re being put down,” set designer Grace C. Laubacher ’09 says. “It’s supposed to feel oppressive at times.”

The complexity of “Sweeney Todd” makes any production a challenge. “It’s so many different things at the same time and it all works,” Lazarcheck says. “It’s a black comedy, it’s a revenge tragedy, and it’s an operatic musical all at the same time, and somehow those ideals don’t seem to clash.”

Sondheim’s score is particularly challenging to coordinate. “Just trying to get a whole group of people on the same page musically is very difficult, especially music like this, in which there are songs where five or six people are singing totally different things at the same time,” music director Jesse A. Wiener ’08 says.

In the end, “Sweeney Todd” seeks to be funny and entertaining despite its dark and depressing material. As Flynn describes the show’s appeal, “It’s cannibalism, but it’s happy cannibalism.”