Based on the macabre, true tale of a barber who murdered at least 160 people and delivered their bodies to a meat pie maker, this Stephen Sondheim masterpiece is a unique smorgasbord of creepily fun humor one moment and terrible tragedy the next, filled with haunting music and brilliant lyrics. Director Brian Wells has brought in an equally brilliant, Grade A cast that is remarkable for its talent and depth, portraying their characters perfectly and with sensational voices to bring to life the mesmerizing music.

Leading the way is television and stage star Norman Large whose intense, dramatic presence pervades most every scene as the formerly mild-mannered Benjamin Barker, now transformed into the crazed Sweeney Todd giving local Londoners a shave from ear to ear. It wasn’t the fifteen years imprisoned on Australia that pushed him over the razor’s edge. It was returning to be told that his beautiful wife had poisoned herself, and that Judge Turpin, who had sent him to Australia and raped his wife, was now raising Sweeney’s teenage daughter (and preparing to marry the young girl against her wishes). Insane with rage and a thirst for vengeance, Sweeney vows to give the good judge the closest shave he’s ever had…

Joining him for the perfect match made in hell is the devilishly delightful Melinda Gilb as Mrs. Lovett, the meat pie maker who always had a crush on Sweeney and helps him get back into the barber business in his old shop above her establishment. She also promises to help in his bloody revenge. After Turpin gets away in a close shave with death, making Sweeney even more insane than before and killing most everyone who comes his way, Mrs. Lovett has an inspired idea – instead of using pie filling culled from stray cats and dogs, she could start using a more tasty kind of meat, giving new meaning to “Shepherd’s Pie.” Norman and Melinda are a treat to watch throughout, especially as she reveals her plan for “a respectable business” to Sweeney in A Little Priest to end the first act, and her hilarious solo as she giddily describes the new life she hopes to someday share By the Sea while Sweeney is distant, unable to focus on anything but his bloodlust.

But everyone in this extraordinary group is a cut above, including an amazing performance by Julie Jacobs as the mysterious and amusing old Beggar Woman/Would-Be Prostitute with a great knack for comedy, nuance, and a soaring voice. Robert Townsend (Sweeney’s young acquaintance) and Amy Gillette (Sweeney’s daughter Johanna) are the attractive, young, somewhat naïve couple whose love-at-first-sight encounter offers Sweeney another shot at the judge, if they don’t first get themselves caught in their whimsical tryst on the judge’s couch in Kiss Me. They combine with Sweeney and the Beggar Woman for the gorgeous Johanna medley. Doug Carfrae creates an unscrupulously evil Judge Turpin without overdoing it, and Paul James Kruse is magnificent as his sadistically nasty assistant – The Beadle. The charismatic Carey Curtis Smith is a hoot as Signor Pirelli, the purveyor of magic tonics and a barber with an artistic flair who duels it out with Sweeney. Matthew Rocheleau, as Pirelli’s mentally slow assistant, becomes devoted to Mrs. Lovett as evidenced by his beautifully sung Not While I’m Around.

Anthony Hope: