“No matter how many times you see it, and no matter how many different ways there are to play ‘The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ and his personal chef, Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd always feels like a discovery,” writes David Wiegand in Wednesday’s (9/24) San Francisco Chronicle. “The show has proved sufficiently strong to work in various formats, from fully staged productions, to scaled-down versions with musicians doubling as the actors, to semi-staged productions such as the one opening the 40th season of ‘Live From Lincoln Center’ on Friday on PBS. Lonny Price, who semi-staged Sweeney for the New York Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony 14 years ago, works his magic again with this Lincoln Center production … [Bryn] Terfel returns to the role here, portraying Todd as a mountain of seething rage … Emma Thompson, a very good singing actress, brings a certain appealing, clown-like daffiness to the role. She mugs, she intentionally overacts, she does a lot of physical business, bouncing around while Terfel thunders and glowers.” New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert conducted the production, to be telecast nationally on “Live From Lincoln Center” on PBS stations on Sept. 26.
Posted September 25, 2014
