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Broadway seemed to have a little murder on its mind in the late 1970s, first with Chicago's "merry murderesses" making headlines in 1975 and then four years later, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street had his star turn in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. The latter ran a little over a year on Broadway, but garnered eight Tony awards, including Best Musical.
Sondheim's musical horror-thriller about the bloodthirsty barber opened last week at Foothill Music Theatre in Los Altos.
Whether or not Sweeney Todd was a real criminal or just a bogeyman of legend remains up for debate, but his dastardly deeds are well known, regardless. The 18thcentury barber is infamous for dispatching well-heeled customers with a straight razor as they sat in his barber chair. The gruesome punchline to the tale is the "economical" method in which Mrs. Lovett, Todd's downstairs neighbor and partner in crime--a baker by trade--helped him dispose of his victims' remains.
The legend of Sweeney Todd may have had its origins in "The String of Pearls," a story featured in a Victorian horror novel, called a penny dreadful, written by Thomas Prest in the mid 19th-century. Prest's tale inspired a 1973 play by Christopher Bond, upon which Sondheim and collaborator Hugh Wheeler, based on the musical.
The musical Sweeney Todd embellishes the story with, of all things, romance, in the tale of a man who is thrown into murderous madness in a quest for revenge upon the corrupt judge who unjustly exiled him from England. The man makes his way back to England, takes the alias Sweeney Todd and opens a barbershop, where he hires a young apprentice who ends up falling for the fetching adopted daughter of the corrupt judge.
Bay Area favorite James Monroe Iglehart portrays the Demon Barber; Foothill Music Theatre audiences may remember him from his performance last year in Ragtime. Another well-recognized local performer, Diana Torres Koss, stars as Todd's rather resourceful neighbor, Mrs. Lovett.
Foothill Music Theatre presents Sweeney Todd thru March 13 at the Foothill College Playhouse, 12345 El Monte Rd., Los Altos Hills. Tickets are $10$24. 650.949.7360 or www.foothill.edu/fa/
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