ON STAGE
COURTESY ARMY COMMUNITY THEATRE
Mrs. Lovett, a baker of questionable meat pies, is nefarious barber Sweeney Todd's partner in crime, in the darkly comic "Sweeney Todd," an Army Community Theatre production. Stefanie Smart and Laurence Paxton, above, star as the duo.
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Mayhem set to music proves mesmerizing
Vengeance and rage -- that's Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd."
Plus the eating of human flesh.
'Sweeney Todd'
Presented by Army Community Theatre
Place: Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter
Time: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Sept. 23
Call: 438-4480 or visit squareone.org/ACT
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What a romp, presented in all its campiness by director Stephanie Conching and her large and spirited Army Community Theatre cast.
The play is a big ol' dark musical with an operatic scope that can be hard to pull off. It centers on the former Benjamin Barker, wronged 15 years ago by the evil Judge Turpin and his smarmy yes-man the Beadle. The injustice robbed him of his virtuous wife, baby daughter and freedom.
But he's back, reborn as Sweeney Todd, mind set on revenge. He takes as his accomplice Mrs. Lovett, proud maker of the "the worst meat pies in London," and marches on to madness.
The principals -- Laurence Paxton as Sweeney and Stefanie Smart as Mrs. Lovett -- are in fine voice, and well-matched in their duets, especially "Epiphany," which closes Act I with their sudden realization of what can be done with a plump human body.
Smart creates a deliciously amoral Mrs. Lovett, although perhaps delicious is a bad word for someone so la-di-da about baking bodies into pies. Whatever -- she vamps though the story, obviously having a good time.
Paxton is a powerhouse in song, but his best moments are his lighter, comic ones, particularly when he starts slitting throats, assembly-line fashion and they slide downhill from his chair into the bakeshop. When he begins to rage, though, his performance often tips over the top.
The true revelation here is young Justin Hashimoto as the scruffy orphan Tobias, Mrs. Lovett's go-fer. He brings such energetic abandon to the role that he comes to own the stage. Lorna Mount as a crazy beggar woman is also a scene-stealer, babbling to perfection, but with a crystal-clear singing voice. Both smaller roles are critical to the plot, and both performers deliver.
Mention must also be made of Dennis L. Hassan's fabulous set, a looming Dickensian structure with rolling parts that make the scene changes into part of the story.
The production is not without its tepid moments, and they're unfortunately front-loaded at the start. There's Sweeney's love song to his razor -- "my clever friend," he sings (later he'll reprise the song in an ode to his barber's chair, "I have another friend"). And there's Judge Turpin's (John Mount) self-flagellation over the improper feelings he's developing toward his ward (actually Sweeney's daughter, all grown up). Both moments are creepy -- deliberately so, perhaps, but too much so. They create drag.
By Act II, though, the story has taken off and the cast is on a tear toward the murderous finish, accompanied all the way by Lina Jeong Doo's tight and finely balanced little orchestra. It pays to concentrate here (or read the synopsis in the program), so none of the plot twists pass you by.