Saturday November 10th @ 8pm
Princess of Wales Theatre
Sweeney Todd*****
I haven't been able to stop thinking about this show since I saw it. Based solely on impeccable musicianship, staging and production, I absolutely recommend this show to anyone. Unfortunately, the gruesome tale upon which it is based and the complexity of the Sondheim score will narrow that recommendation about 75%... as proven by the stupid chatty bitches behind me who clearly didn't get it, but chose to stay and bless us all with their commentary right up until intermission. Shut the f*** up!
We noticed they weren't the only people to leave, by the way. And for goodness' sake, if you do go, don't bring your kids. I was very much reminded of Doc watching us watch King Lear in OAC English... even though it's "just" a representation of something bloody and gruesome (in KL when Gloucester's eyes are plucked out), what is manifested in each of us to look, or to look away?
To be honest, nobody's singing blew me away... but I don't even care. The actual production is so genius that it doesn't matter. Confined to a wooden platform, the 10 actors sing, play the entire score on various instruments, do the set and costume changes, and bring Brechtian theatre onto a whole new plane (thank you Professor Wickens, FACS 1900). Also, I had entirely forgotten that "Johanna", one of my favourite melodies of all time, is from this show... I like it better out of context, but it was still a nice surprise... even if David did mock my tiny little gasp during the reprise. :-P to him!
You have to love art that gets people talking... as long as they're not right behind you. Some extra reviews... Mr. Ouzounian, Globe & Mail (totally agree about the diction and inconsistent accents), Variety (disagree about Tobias, I thought he was good), and John Coulbourn (no sightline problems for us with our sweet seats in the first row of the mezz!). And just for the record, I wrote the rest of my blog before I read their comments...
*not being offensive, it's a number from the show...
No comments:
Post a Comment