We've gotten used to seeing deconstructed productions of "Sweeney Todd." Two Broadway revivals, in 1989 and 2005, trimmed down the Sondheim-scored musical, as did the Off Broadway pie-shop staging in 2017. So maybe we're ready for a reconstructed "Sweeney"? |
Well, that's what we're getting this spring. With Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford leading a cast of 25 actors and an orchestra of 26 players, "This is 'Sweeney' as it hasn't been seen or heard in New York for 43 years," Rob Weinert-Kendt said in his richly written piece about the new Broadway revival, which is now in previews at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. He puts it all in perspective, with insights about productions past and present. (You'll notice that several members of the creative and producing team also brought us "Hamilton." Not a bad track record!) As the show's director, Thomas Kail, put it: This is a production trying to embody the story's levels and hierarchies and aiming to "find beauty in the underbelly and in the grotesque." |
While everyone has been buzzing about the leading Oscar contender "Everything Everywhere All at Once," the studio behind that movie, A24, recently made headlines for its unexpected move into live performance. With its purchase of the Cherry Lane Theater in the West Village, Michael Paulson reported, the studio "plans to present plays as well as other forms of live entertainment there, in addition to the occasional film screening." Angelina Fiordellisi, who has owned the theater since 1996, said she was happy with the sale to A24. "They love to develop and produce the work of emerging writers, and a lot of their writers are playwrights," she told Michael. |
Farther uptown, at the Park Avenue Armory, Alexander Zeldin's "Love," a play set in a temporary housing facility, resonates with its specific and personal "expressions of systemic despair," Jesse Green wrote in his review. Beautifully staged, he continued, it has "the kind of excitement that retunes your attention to tiny heartbreaks instead of just huge ones." |
And in La Jolla, Calif., Alexis Soloski recently reviewed the debut of the stage musical adaptation of "The Outsiders," directed by Danya Taymor from a book by Adam Rapp. The show, she wrote, has "gorgeous, mournful music and lyrics," but is "awkward, yearning, fast on its feet" and "is still trying on various identities." Though, she added, "I'm sentimental enough to hope that there will soon be other versions." |
Still thinking of "Sweeney"? Here's a taste: A 2013 "Great Performances" clip of Groban singing "Not While I'm Around," a duet sung in the musical by Mrs. Lovett and her young bakery assistant. |
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