Sondheim's incredible musical was given a great treatment by the members of Duke's "Hoof & Horn" troupe. The set was really well done, the musicians navigated the tricky score admirably, and the cast was very good. For me, the hardest part was not singing along! The kid who played Anthony had great stage presence and a winning voice. Joanna was the weakest of the leads. Scott Cruikshank gave Sweeney the right amount of menace and insanity, and his diction was extraordinarily good, considering the vast thicket of words he has to get out. Mrs. Lovett's songs were all taken a tad too fast, which compromised her ability to enunciate, plus her vocal "break" seemed to lie right in the middle of some of her big songs, which was too bad. But her acting was tops and she got more laughs than anyone else. Thank goodness that people are still doing productions of "Sweeney" and have not been put off by the Johnny Depp movie debacle, which sacrificed musical integrity for gore on the box office altar.
Quite an enjoyable way to spend a part of the Halloween weekend. Here's a link to a review of the production, which appeared in The Independent:
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A267951
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