[NEohioPAL] OnlineReview of S.Todd: Keith Joseph/Scene Magazine

[Martin Friedman]

Review of Lakeland's Sweeney Todd by Keith Joseph of Scene Magazine
(on line only).
Volume 15, Issue 93 Arts

Published March 3rd, 2009 
A Sweeney With Heart
Lakeland Civic Theatre Serves Up Bloody Good Sondheim
By Keith A. Joseph
Black History Month is in full swing, which means our theaters are filled with thundering gospel. But it wouldn't hurt the name of diversity to acknowledge a less well-known but equally significant celebration: Oy Vey Shanah. For civilians, this is a secular festivity honoring Jewish aggravation, a time for performers to dance to Woody Allen's neuroses, chant Groucho Marx insults, don Barbra Streisand false noses and indulge in all things Sondheim.
This year's award goes to Martin Friedman, artistic director of Lakeland Civic Theatre, who has been prone to Sondheim mania ever since his parents took him to the original Broadway production of A Little Night Music. His seventh offering at the altar of Stephen is Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which was waylaid by the director's heart surgery last year.
In the oven since then, the production reveals how much thought, love and care Friedman has poured into the ingredients that can make Sweeney such a savory experience. In the three decades since its premiere, the work has established itself in legitimate theaters and opera houses, not to mention musical mavens' psyches. Friedman has found a creative way to scale down this massive piece to fit Lakeland's intimate theater. Picking up on the show's motif of a legal system gone awry, the director cunningly sets the production in a netherworld trial being re-enacted for an onstage jury. Each principal character swears in on a Bible.
The concept is extremely theatrical, focusing the action and enhancing the metaphor of justice undone and avenged. Effectively expressionistic in a Brechtian manner, the production's characters seem to have been drained of blood even before the show starts. It's leanly and tellingly staged, especially with a Sweeney who projects a hollow-eyed, Rasputin-like megalomania and a Mrs. Lovett who flaunts her rampant sexuality.
In these roles, two performers who have specialized in subversive naughtiness for years reach the pinnacle of their mischievous art. Never has Dan Folino shown such presence, physically or vocally. His Sweeney bores into the audience's soul with sinister intensity. Folino sings the role with a generous baritone bravado that Johnny Depp couldn't achieve in the splendid movie version.
Alison Garrigan's deliciously buxom, auburn-haired Mrs. Lovett is a force of nature with a permanently sensuous pout. She eschews the character's usual maternal instincts for something far more tantalizing and nefarious. One doesn't expect to find a cast of such stellar abilities buried in a far eastern suburb. Even the demanding Sondheim likely would find this ensemble up to musical snuff. Among the take-home souvenirs, Lindsey Sandham's translucent delicacy as Johanna stands out. Somehow, the director has managed to unearth surprising tenderness among all the grand guignol horror, including several after-death reconciliations. A year after he came face to face with his own mortality, Friedman has given new life to one of Broadway's darkest thrills.
MEANWHILE, the Cleveland Play House has concocted a Martin Luther King variation on a theatrical ponzi scheme: Mahalia, a so-called bio-musical on the life of the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. The show features an automaton heroine, NaTasha Yvette Williams, who vocally out-Mahalias the real thing. There's a method to the mediocrity: Each performance utilizes a different local gospel choir. It's more a celebration of choirs than it is musical theater, but just think of all those holy bucks rolling in. Sweeney Todd Through February 22 Lakeland Civic Theatre 7700 Clocktower Dr., Kirtland Tickets: $13. 440.525.7526
Mahalia Through February 22 Cleveland Play House 8500 Euclid Ave. Tickets: $42-$64 216.795.7000
arts at clevescene.com 
 





PLEASE  NOTE THE NEW CURTAIN TIME: 7:30 PM 
 
 
Lakeland Theatre 
presents 
a 
 production of  
  
     SWEENEY TODD: 
      The Demon Barber of Fleet Street 
  
The Complete Version 
  
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim 
  
 Book by Hugh Wheeler 
  
 Directed by Martin Friedman  
 Musical Direction by Larry Goodpaster 
 Scene and Lights Design by Trad A. Burns 
 Costumes Designed by Craig Tucker  
 Sound Design by Eric Simna 
 Production Stage Manager  Lauren Calevich 
Wigs and Hair Design by Winn Douglas 
 Choreography by Amory Sivertson 
  
With an extraordinary cast:  
Sweeney Todd: Dan Folino* (AEA) 
Anthony Hope:  Connor O'Brien 
Beggar Woman: Nicole Groah 
Mrs. Lovett: Alison Garrigan 
Judge Turpin: Douglas Collier 
Beadle Bamford: Thomas E. Love 
Johanna: Lindsey Sandham 
Tobias Ragg: Brian Altman 
Pirelli: Josh Theilan 
The COMPANY: 
Bill Depetro     Aubrey-Kristen Fisher    Elizabeth Blakeslee  
Tim Allen   Clayton Sandham   Aaron Elersich   
Tina  Burgett-Krause    Larry Solomon    Mark Snyder    Kate Buddenhagen     Erin R. diLauro    Caitlin Sandham   Megan Depetro 
Christina Dennis 
  
Production Dates: 
Sweeney Todd will open on Friday, February 6 and run through February 22, 2009. 
Friday, February 13 @ 7:30 pm 
Saturday, February14 @ 7:30pm 
Sunday, February 15 @ 2pm 
Friday, February 20 @ 7:30 pm 
Saturday, February 21 @  7:30 pm 
Sunday, February 22@ 2pm 
  
TICKET PRICES: 
All tickets are $13 for adults and $11 for seniors and $5 for students. Group rates are available.    
  
For more information please feel free to either email me, Martin Friedman, at martinfriedman98 at yahoo.com or call 440.525.7526.


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