Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd
By Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Directors: Adam Fisher and Bethany Levy. The Roo Theatre Company, Shellharbour (NSW). November 12 - 27, 2010

Sitting in the back rows of the old Her Majesty Theatre I remember Geraldine Turner as Nellie Lovett in the first Sydney production of Sweeny Todd, and that was about all. Ever since I have been adverse to its swanky Gothic tale - but in the front row of the Roo's production, the show all fell into place. Nothing but the complex delight of Sondheim compositions could have redeemed the perverse story of criminal revenge and cannibalism. Dickensian macabre becomes a platform and rationale for an almost vaudevillian plethora of melodrama, emotion, sentimentality and romance.

The Roo production of this sophisticated yet engaging piece was entirely up to its artistic challenge, in terms of set, costume, direction and above all, the prodigious and disciplined talent of its leads and ensemble. The show proved honest, capable, tight and exciting, a true jewel for Illawarra theatre. Daniel Kenyon brought substantial experience and high accomplishment in Sydney musical companies to the harmonies and complexities of the demanding role of Sweeny, while Evan Kerr proved a true jack in the box younger talent in the versatile role of Tobias Ragg. Anne-Marie Fanning made the whole enterprise of recycling human flesh plausible, stepping between singing and acting effortlessly. Brett Johnson and Kiara Vinton didn't miss a beat as the hapless lovestruck couple, and Ainsley Oates was a delight in Mid Victorian prostituted subterfuge as Lucy Barker. Josif Jovanovski brought a rich vocal range, and with the Parlor Songs revealed what this show is really about. For Sondheim, and the Roo, it was a showcase for musical virtuosity and talent, almost art for art's sake. The ensemble was entirely adequate, and the company numbers, especially the Ballad, City on Fire, Elixir and the rambunctiously indigestible God, That's Good, were an assembled delight.

The staging was fully visualised, including the unstairs/downstairs mobile deus ex machina of execution. The large Roo space was a constant plane of moving lights, cast, steps, notices and fog - Dicken's London set for modern appetites. The stage did seem to empty to bare white in the first half of Act One - spots were used for solos in the Second, and could have been throughout. Yet lighting on the whole was complex, fast and colourful. The show is a license for old fashioned theatricality and emotional intensities, and Roo rose to this occasion.

Ending 2010, with over 20 years in the game, the Roo Company scrubs up impressively indeed. The directors, Adam Fisher and Rachae Hannae, ensured a complex, baroque piece, of 30 songs and as many scene changes, ran like a well made and tuned machine. Under the warm late November salt scented skies on the Illawarra South Coast the night proved to be a fulfilling community occasion, and charming artistic delight.

Geoffrey Sykes

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