Trinity Rep's 'Sweeney Todd' goes beyond everything audiences love about the show: Review

When "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" made its debut on a Broadway stage, the set was a 19^th-century iron foundry.

The foundry came from Rhode Island, moved piece by piece to New York City, under the direction of the late Eugene Lee, who died in February. Newsweek critic Jack Kroll famously called the set “part cathedral, part factory, part prison, that dwarfed and degraded the swarming denizens of the lower orders.”

It was one of the three sets that won Lee, one of the giants of theater set design as well as the set designer for "Saturday Night Live," a Tony Award.

It’s a set that arguably helped to bridge a gap between what Stephen Sondheim thought the musical was about – obsession, revenge, the dark path it can lead anyone down – and what the musical’s first director in 1979 Hal Prince thought it was about – how the industrial age corrupted society and made us cogs in a machine.

The set brought Prince’s metaphor to life while creating a background that centered on Sweeney’s obsession.

I’ll admit, this is a lot of historical background to start a review of Trinity Repertory Company’s new production of "Sweeney Todd" which opened on May 31, but I’d argue that it’s the primer needed to understand what makes this production special.

This is Lee’s last set.

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Designed by Lee with his longtime collaborator at Trinity Rep Patrick Lynch, he transformed the stage of "Sweeney Todd" and in doing so, set the stage for another director, Curt Columbus, to layer in a third idea of what "Sweeney Todd" is about — justice or rather injustice.

For this production, Trinity Rep assembled a group of people who love "Sweeney Todd," one of the most well-known shows in theater. It’s a show Curt Columbus has wanted to put on for years, considering it one of the greatest American musicals ever written. The show was the spark for Erick Pinnick, who plays Sweeney Todd, wanting to be an actor.

The love and respect for the original source material are abundant. The music soars with a cast that is up to the vocal work the show demands. Rachael Warren as Mrs. Lovett brings the zaniness the show requires to make the darkness of the plot palatable. Pinnick brings intensity to his performance as Todd which is captivating to watch. Everything that has caused people to fall in love with the show is there.

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But doing a classic show well isn’t the bar here, and I don’t think it’s the bar Trinity Rep would set for itself. The bar is mastery, that moment where you know something so well you can change it just a little bit to breathe something new into it.

That’s where it becomes special.

And as I said at the top, this production is special — a "Sweeney Todd" you should see even if you’ve seen "Sweeney Todd" before. Even if you think you know "Sweeney Todd."

Lee and Lynch didn’t repeat the set that won Lee a Tony Award. Gone is the beehive curtain that was a metaphor for Victorian society that drew so much attention. Instead, the opening look at the set is reminiscent of an American prison, and Pinnick, a Black man, is sitting in it for an exaggerated crime.

And while there is costuming that makes a nod to the Victorian setting, there’s also Pinnick in an orange jumpsuit and moments during narration when Beadle Bamford, played with great range by Sophie Zmorrod, is dressed to look an awful lot like an American policeman or prison guard.

Or there’s the moment that I expect is the one I’ll be thinking about weeks from now. It’s a small moment when the young sailor, Anthony Hope (Taavon Gamble), has found his love, Johanna (Rebecca-Anne Whittaker), inside the asylum her ward, Judge Turpin (Stephen Thorne), hid her away in without real cause, just blind anger.

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Hope is outraged by the injustice of it. And he says so to Beadle Bamford, who tells him essentially it’s impossible it be unjust if she and the judge say otherwise. She sends a cop, dressed in a modern-looking uniform, chasing after him. She yells after the cop to catch him and smash Hope’s head in if he has to.

Adding poignancy, Hope is played by a Black man.

It’s a "Sweeney Todd" that forces a confrontation with today’s society, rather than Victorian society, without ever losing sight of what audiences have loved for over 40 years.

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," will be on stage at Trinity Rep, 201 Washington St., Providence, through June 25. Tickets are $26-$92. For more information, go to trinityrep.com or call (401) 351-4242. 

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 'Sweeney Todd' is a beloved musical. Trinity Rep made it something more.