Meet Austin's Mela Dailey, the woman behind the pies in operatic 'Sweeney Todd'

The worst pies in London

Even that's polite: the worst pies in London

If you doubt it, take a bite

Is that just disgusting?

You have to concede it

It's nothing but crusting

Here, drink this, you'll need it

The worst pies in London

During a short preview of Austin Opera's upcoming "Sweeney Todd" earlier this month at KMFA's Draylon Mason Studio, Mela Sarajane Dailey played Mrs. Lovett with undisguised relish.

Her 19th-century London meat-pie maker can't afford meat, which is why she calls them "just disgusting." Later in this Stephen Sondheim show, Mrs. Lovett teams up with the title character, the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street," to supply flesh for the pies — the human kind.

Singing "The Worst Pies in London," Dailey, who is familiar to Austin audiences as a singer, actor and producer, kept Sondheim's rhythms rippling and his lyrics crackling. In the published score, each line is accompanied by a big gesture — slicing dough, pounding it, rolling it out, serving beer.

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To punctuate these actions, Dailey stomped her feet on the resonant floor, which, even in the small confines of the studio, signaled the dread to come.

In short, it's a lot of words, music and movement compressed into one song. And on this day, Dailey was just the right performer to deliver it.

"Getting this role into my body and into my mouth is almost an athletic feat," Dailey says. "If I were being paid by the word, I'd be a millionaire."

'Sweeney Todd': Opera or Broadway musical?

This well-attended preview was provocatively titled "Sondheim: Operatic Genius?" Austin Opera's principal conductor and artistic advisor, Timothy Myers, led the talk. He was soon joined by the show's stage director, Doug Scholz-Carlson.

The topic was timely: Sondheim, who died last year, transformed the Broadway stage. Theater folks are busing proving the point: A 2021 revival of his "Company" won the Tony Award for best revival of a musical and recently closed on Broadway; meanwhile a national tour is planned. A hit staging of "Merrily We Roll Along" just closed off-Broadway and is headed to Broadway. A major revival of "Sweeney Todd" is waiting in the wings, slated to open on Broadway in February.

Yet opera companies love "Todd" almost as much. I've seen it successfully staged by two different opera companies. In fact, since its 1979 opening on Broadway, I've never seen a bad "Sweeney Todd," no matter the size or proficiency of the company. It's that durable and exciting.

Myers kicked off the chat that evening by observing the obvious differences between opera and Broadway musicals. For instance, the first genre is usually sung through, while the songs in the second are most often woven together by spoken dialogue.

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He and Scholz-Carlson plunged much deeper into the types of singers and actors who might be cast in opera and theater, and how they approach the music and the rehearsals.

Myers reminded the audience of a quarrelsome interview with Sondheim in which he stated the main difference could be found not onstage, but in the audience. A operatic audience seeing "Sweeney Todd" in an opera house expects one thing; a Broadway audience expects another. Even of the same material.

A pretty persuasive argument when you think about it.

Two more songs complemented the talk: Kevin Burdette sang of sweet vengeance as the title character, and Raven McMillon spun out the sad day dreams of the imprisoned Joanna in "Green Finch and Linnet Bird."

Myers closed by recounting a story about the Broadway opening of "Sweeney Todd." An opera leader told a critic that he had always wanted the show for his opera house, and dubbed it among the best American operas ever written.

Figuring out how to do it all on her terms

Luckily, Austin opera hired Austin's multitalented Dailey for the role of Mrs. Lovett. She not only sings opera and Broadway, she's equally at home with country, pop, classical and jazz.

As a stand-out singer with Conspirare, the city's Grammy Award-winning choir, she has flown all those musical flags season after season.

Given that she spent the first 15 or so years of her life in small Jacksonville, Texas, it's not startling to discover that she first conquered country. After winning a singing contest, she was accepted at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. Her family moved there so that she could take advantage of the training. She chose jazz vocals as her major; Norah Jones — yes, that Norah Jones — was her pianist.

Soon she earned a spot as a backup singer for the touring country act headlined by Nelda Cain, the third of financier T. Boone Pickens' five wives.

"We played what seemed like every state fair in the country," Dailey says.

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That's around the time she heard her real first name, "Mela," for the first time. Up until then, everyone called her "Sarajane," her middle name.

"My parents divorced when I was 8 months old," Dailey says. "My dad liked Mela. My mom liked Sarajane. When someone called out 'Mela,' reading from my Social Security card, I heard my real first name for the first time."

It became her stage name. Which can come in handy: If someone calls her "Mela," it's about work, if "Sarajane," it's not.

After high school, she won an audition to New York University's prestigious Broadway intern program, but decided against betting her family's modest means — she was raised by a single mom, whose cancer recurred during this time — on such an expensive program.

Instead, she attended what was then called Southwest Texas State in San Marcos.

"I somehow thought it was by the sea," she jokes. "What I got in San Marcos was great training."

In the theater department, she appeared in one musical, "Carnival," before she was recruited away to become a music major.

"That's where I did my first opera, 'The Merry Widow,'" she recalls. "I fell in love with it. Funny that, after country, jazz and pop — classical music was last for me."

She was recruited once again, this time in 2001 for the masters' program in opera at the University of Texas, working with the indomitable Martha Deatherage. Meanwhile, she was commuting back and forth to New York on gigs.

"I took every singing job I could get, working ridiculous hours" she says. "I felt very much behind. Unlike other singers, I never had private lessons. It gave me the edge to say 'I'm going to work harder.' You see, I had had no financial backup, nobody to fix it, from age 15."

What Dailey did not quite understand were the demands of an operatic lifestyle. If you are good, you might be hired by any opera company for three weeks to rehearse and perform a role, then it's on to the next gig. Her calls for "Sweeney Todd," for instance, go from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

At age 25, she talked with opera superstar Renee Fleming while at a private house concert in Austin.

"She was the one we held up as the ideal," Dailey says. "Yet the way she described her life — three weeks here, three weeks there, never at home — sounded terrible. I had a panic attack."

Eventually, Dailey walked away from regular opera work and took up concerts instead, often singing what she calls "greatest hit arias."

"You get to wear beautiful gowns," she says. "You work Wednesday through Sunday, and you're paid the same as somebody doing three weeks of opera."

Life had other plans, too, as Dailey met her future husband, Austin Symphony conductor Peter Bay, at a record shop on the Drag.

"I knew I wanted to be a mom," she says. "I wanted a house and a community and time to see some of my husband's shows."

The couple has one son, a budding athlete.

Dailey also took full control of her career by producing herself.

"You can control who you work for and avoid the power imbalances in the industry," she says. "You are no longer just a commodity."

Her most impressive achievement to date as a producer was a full staging of Leonard Bernstein's massive and rarely revived "Mass." Conducted by Bay, it combined music, dance and theater at the Long Center. A host of other performing arts groups collaborated. Critics and audiences went crazy for it.

Playing Mrs. Lovett: 'Here's a woman who has survived what others couldn't'

Each Mrs. Lovett is distinct. Yes, they all speak in a Cockney accent, at least the ones I've heard. And generally, they are cast age appropriately.

Aside from that, they have come in all shapes and sizes. Some sound street rough and rowdy. Others mostly sweet or savvy. One of the funniest turns came from comedian Randy Rainbow, who sang Mrs. Lovett's "By the Sea" with a knowing wink to the unseen audience for the Sondheim 90th birthday tribute streaming video.

"I've seen her played as dumb," Dailey says. "I've seen her played as unattractive. I completely disagree with those choices."

Every Mrs. Lovett since 1979 has assiduously avoided comparisons to the late Angela Lansbury, who originated the role on Broadway. (Smart move. Only Lansbury could do Lansbury.)

"I love her," Dailey says of Mrs. Lovett. "I feel connected to her. I'm protective of her. I relate to having to struggle, that sense of desperation. Here's a woman who has survived what others couldn't."

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Her Mrs. Lovett always wanted a family and she lived near Todd and his beautiful wife and daughter. She witnessed Todd's descent into madness after the corrupt Judge Turpin exiles the barber to gain access to the women in his family.

"She pined for him," Dailey says. "Think about this: Even with almost nothing to eat, she held onto his very expensive razors for 15 years."

Yet doesn't she become an accessory to serial murder and the direct purveyor of cannibalism?

"Things happen incrementally," Dailey says of Lovett's moral evolution. "And it's a prime example of an imbalanced power structure. One person (Turpin and his crew) is saying who is human and who isn't. I can say: 'I can demote you, too!' It's what you do when you have nothing.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures. It's amazing what you do when you're backed into a corner."

If you go: 'Sweeney Todd' at Austin Opera

When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 and Feb. 2, and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 5.

Where: The Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive.

Cost: $39 to $239.

Information: austinopera.org

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin Opera Sweeney Todd: Mela Dailey plays humanity of Mrs. Lovett