Review: Sweeney Todd at The Rep, Birmingham

★★★★★

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a new production, staged at the Birmingham Rep, marking the first major UK revival of the show since 2012, and since Sondheim’s death in 2021. With book by Hugh Wheeler, and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, this musical tells the thrilling and darkly comedic story of Benjamin Barker, who after being wrongly imprisoned for 15 years, returns to Victorian London as the mysterious barber, Sweeney Todd. When he discovers everything he ever loved is now lost, he swears revenge, and what ensues is a chilling saga of murder.

Ramin Karimloo (Phantom of The Opera, Les Misérables, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Addams Family) stars in the titular role of Sweeney Todd. While award-winning singing sensation, Meow Meow (Emma Rice’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Guys and Dolls) joins as Mrs. Lovett.

They are accompanied by three-time Olivier Award-winning actor, David Bedella (& Juliet, In the Heights, Jerry Springer: The Opera) as Judge Turpin, Shem Omari James as Anthony Hope, Jo Stephenson as Johanna, Julius D’Silva as Beadle, Jack Gibson as Tobias Ragg, Florence Andrews as Beggar Woman, and Silas Wyatt-Barke as Adolfo Pirelli. The cast also features an ensemble (Emily Ivana Hawkins, Hadrian Delacey) whose hauntingly beautiful choral harmonies shift the audience from scene to scene with storytelling tunes.

This 12-time Tony Award-winning masterpiece from Sondheim is considered to be one of the greatest musicals ever written, and Rep Artistic Director, Joe Murphy's revival of the gruesome and gritty tale proves why. Suspense teeters on a knife’s edge in this story of obsession and psychological depths, that explores the fine line between victim and perpetrator.

Beneath the blood and violence, Sweeney Todd is also a musical that is deeply human, offering commentary on the corruption of those in charge, men’s violence against women, and exploring the repercussions of a society that fails people.

Reflecting the Victorian penny dreadful, designer Elin Steele’s set is impressive and imposing from the start, making great use of the Rep’s large stage, and utilising risers, trap doors, smoke and shadows to create the perfect creeping backdrop to the story of Sweeney Todd. This production is particularly successful in its ability to build tension and suspense through lighting, sound, and movement. In keeping with the plot, it is of course gory and bloody, but it never feels overdone.

Ramin Karimloo and Meow Meow are fantastically cast in the central roles of this production, playing as a great duo. Their vocals are a keen-edged match to Sondheim’s score, and their comedic timing is piercing and perfectly punctuated. In this musical full of twisted, cutting comedy and razor-sharp lines, Karminloo and Meow Meow walk a well-rehearsed tightrope between menacing and humorous.

The bloody and brilliant Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street plays at The Rep, Birmingham until Saturday 15^th August.  And, if that’s not enough Sweeney Todd for you, in September, cabaret collective Send in the Clowns present a drag celebration of the music of Stephen Sondheim in ‘Queeny Todd’.

This review was written following a press invite to the production.