A new production of the Tony-award winning musical Sweeney Todd is heading to West Palm Beach just in time for the spooky season.
The small, local production is bringing to light the dark underbelly of unchecked revenge and trauma, said show director Carlo Sabusap.
“Revenge can blind you when you're so hell bent,” Sabusap tells WLRN. “And that's what happens to a lot of the characters in the story.”
Since its Broadway debut, Sweeney Todd has achieved worldwide success, garnering eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
The 1979 musical, with music and lyrics by the late Stephen Sondheim and book by the late Hugh Wheeler, follows an exiled barber, Sweeney Todd, who returns to London to seek vengeance against a corrupt judge who framed him and targeted his family.
He teams up with Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful business owner of a struggling pie store, where he opens a new barber shop. Todd's thirst for revenge results in an unexpected ingredient for her meat pies, which revitalizes her business and draws in eager customers.
The local play, a dark cautionary tale about the complex morality surrounding redemption and justice, is a collaboration between production company Entr’Acte Theatrix and the Theatre of Collaborative Arts in West Palm Beach.
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Longtime actor and singer James Cichewicz, a South Florida native, is a tenor portraying the baritone role of Sweeney Todd, the titular character caught between anger and grief.
Cichewicz said the show is as much about a narrow-minded human being who isn’t making the “right choices” in life, despite “being reminded of the love that’s out there.”
“Some people get so singularly focused on something that they forget about the other things that are actually in the other people that are actually trying to influence them for good,” Cichewicz said.
"He misses it completely because he gets so consumed.”
Cichewicz gave insight on the character Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd’s close confidant who has a “bad influence” on his trajectory in the story.
Mrs. Lovett is played by actress Zoe Kanter, who Cichewicz refers to as talented and very “meticulous.”
Most musicals have a large cast, often between 20 to 30 people. But like their previous production, Beauty and the Beast, Sabusap said their small cast of 15 people is punching above their weight and “gives the actors in the production opportunities to to play multiple roles.”
Sweeney Todd casts includes Greg Halmos as Tobias Ragg, David Taylor as Judge Turpin, Aaron Fantacone as Beadle Bamford, Heidi Salonia as The Beggar Woman, Austin Gladstone as Anthony Hope, Aurora Jenkins as Johanna, Craig Sherman as Adolfo Pirelli. Ensemble cast includes David Afkham, Melissa Gómez, Carl Van Dyke, Charles Ponthokkan, Ariel Hodgetts, and Uzel-Ann Arellano-Macapagal.
Aaliyah Hirt serves as the music director for Sweeney Todd, Sarah Kenny is choreographer, Elizabeth Southwell is both technical Director and lighting designer, sound design is by Ryan Kivett and Costumes are by Rosseroni Parris. And Jason Fisher is the production stage manager.
IF YOU GO:
WHAT: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
WHEN: Oct. 17 - 27, 7 p.m. on weekdays; 2:30 p.m. on weekends
WHERE: William G Skaff Center, 500 Spencer Drive, in West Palm Beach For more information, Palm Beach Theater
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