Sweeney Todd at The Churchill Theatre

A select number from the theatre group attended the matinee on Saturday 15 November of West Wickham Operatic Society’s ambitious production of Sweeney Todd. Directed by Kevin Gauntlet there were strong performances from the leads with Jamie Fillery as Sweeney Todd, Jane Werry as Mrs Lovett and Sam Webber as Tobias.

This Stephen Sondheim musical is one of the darkest ever written and is operatic and full of soaring beauty and pitch-black comedy.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the unsettling tale of a Victorian-era barber who returns home to London after fifteen years of exile to take revenge on the corrupt judge who ruined his life. When revenge eludes him, Sweeney swears vengeance on humanity, murdering as many people as he can, while his business associate Mrs. Lovett bakes the bodies into meat pies and sells them to the unsuspecting public.

It’s seen as one of the signal achievements of the American musical theatre of the last fifty years, and it’s the high-water mark of Sondheim’s six collaborations with director Harold Prince. The show received 8 Tony Awards, including best musical, 9 Drama Desk Awards, and the Olivier Award for best musical. Well done WWOS for such an excellent production which was very well received by the audiences. Quite an achievement yet again.

Contributed by Mary Garside