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Backstage at Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,  Pierce is naked, William is smoking a fake cigarette, Chris tries on a corset, and Eliza checks Facebook on her computer.

I’m sitting in the women’s dressing room and it’s about 500 degrees in here.  The doors are open, but the humid Baltimore air isn’t making it any cooler.  There are costumes and props strewn everywhere.  I notice a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin hiding behind a makeshift bomb that was used in the last Johns Hopkins University Theatre (JHUT) production, John Guare’s House of Blue Leaves.  As much as I complain, I don’t mind the heat.

This is my fifth JHUT production, and has entailed, by far, the most physicality.  The play is Sweeney Todd by C.G. Bond.  Teenage girls and women all over the world are shrieking “Johnny Depp” right now, but this my friends is the play upon which Sondheim based his musical masterpiece (which inspired Tim Burton’s film).

You would have to be insane to do the non-musical version of Sweeney Todd.  Though Bond is credited in Sondheim’s musical, his play is never performed in the U.S.  Our director had to order copies of the script from an overseas publishing company for this production.

The Merrick Barn houses a small black-box theatre, which is just not practical for a musical.  Where would you put the orchestra?  The physical limitations of the theatre, combined with the fact that Bond’s play is so infrequently produced, made the non-musical version an ideal choice for JHUT.  And the result was better than expected – with the play taking dark turns at certain moments and managing to maintain humor at others.

In America, we prefer a play once it is turned into a Broadway show.  For example, Frank Wedekind’s 1891 expressionistic play Spring Awakening gained popularity amongst American audiences after it was adapted into a musical that won numerous Tony Awards in 2007.  Similarly, we prefer Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett when they are murdering people and turning them into meatpies, all while singing a musical number.

I’m not so sure the play version is more successful in communicating the darkness of the story.  The lines were acted with complete seriousness (behaving truthfully in the given circumstances of the play), yet funny moments occurred organically, as in the musical version.  The audience consistently cracked up at Alfredo Pirelli’s murder (Sweeney strangles him and shoves him into a box), Johanna and Anthony’s kiss, and commentary on action occurring offstage (such as Tobias seeing a guy with his head half sawed off).  What’s more, the murders of the Beadle, Beggar Woman, and Judge Turpin were simultaneously horrific and hilarious each night.  It’s not a reflection on the audience – it’s just a trend I’ve noticed that we seem to have a hard time taking melodrama seriously.

Sweeney Todd is technically a melodrama, but the characters are more complex than the stereotypical villain and hero (picture a damsel in distress tied to the train tracks).  In some versions of the play, Todd kills for money.  In the Bond play, he kills for revenge and to avenge his wife and daughter.

For me, the most interesting part of this production was the physicality.  As the Beggar Woman, I was pushed off the barber chair (which is quite high up off the ground, especially when you’re 5 feet), fell through the trap door, and was dragged across stage towards the oven.  The important part is that I was in control of everything, so no one got hurt (well, except for some bruising).  Although it has been a challenge to do all of this in a long skirt and heels.

For the actor playing Sweeney Todd, this play provides the perfect opportunity to vent all of his frustrations, considering he gets to kill most of the cast.  Maybe this is why we’re so enthralled by Mr. Todd and his meat pies.  While we can’t take our anger out on people in real life, at least someone can do it, if only on the stage.

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