Sweeney Todd

“Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street” Review By Laura Harding I got the pleasure of spending an evening at the Devonport Choral Society’s production “Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street” on the 29th of May 2009 at the Devonport Entertainment and Convention Centre. I went there expecting to see a decent and professionally neat show by the Devonport Choral Society and was pleasantly surprised to experience watching something much more than that. Visually the production was very clever, humorous, and artistic. The lighting was clever and appropriate for each scene. The costumes through-out the entire show were incredibly striking and suited each character and scene perfectly! In particular, Mrs Lovett’s costume and hair were brilliant and really brought the vibrancy of her character out visually. The set was very cleverly made, with the two levels of Mrs Lovett’s pie shop with the trap door at the top where the victims fall down. It was painted very effectively and looked quite realistic, yet humorous. The stairs used to get to the top level are the same stairs that were used in almost every scene, but not only as a simple staircase as they created the opportunity for the audience to imagine them as something else. For example, when Johanna was singing from her bedroom she was standing on the staircase, yet it was obvious to the audience that she wasn’t actually on a staircase in the story. This imaginative theme continued through-out the production in with many of the props being over exaggerated in a funny way. The limbs were clearly made of foam, yet it suited in with the whole atmosphere of the show. It was made even funnier with Mrs Lovett just carelessly chucking them into the oven. The oven was another stand-out piece of set. It looked incredibly effective with the coloured lights and the smoke coming from it. Effects such as that really helped the whole show step-up another level. The only effect that was not quite fitting was a loud