In its production, director Kasey RT Graham and designers Donna Coughlin (scenic) and Aaron Kubacak (costume) transport the play to the 21st century. Still, Sweeney is not eccentric enough for TexARTS Theater. So much so that Austin Opera will stage its own production in 2023. And, with its blatant disregard for anything resembling choreography and 85% of its melodramatic story being sung, the musical is damn near an opera. Its songs are often void of melody and lack that hummable quality found desirable in conventional show tunes. Most characters are similarly impervious to goodness and redemption. The show's eccentricities don't stop with a homicidal hero or the tendency to gravitate toward the macabre. Todd lies in wait until the judge that set this madness in motion, now lecherous guardian of Todd's daughter, Johanna, walks through his door to receive the closest shave he's ever had. Living in seedy 19th century London, Todd whittles away at his clientele with a straight-edge razor as the fruits of his labor are processed into meat pies and sold in the shop below by Todd's delightfully demented landlady, Mrs. In it, a despondent barber is out to avenge his wrongful imprisonment and the senseless destruction of his fledgling family. Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's angry, savage, and deeply cynical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a brilliant and most unconventional musical.

Lovett (Photo by April Paine Photography) Matt Wade as Sweeney Todd and Sarah Fleming Walker as Mrs.

Sweeney todd musical age appropriate