O.C. THEATER REVIEW : Saddleback’s ‘Sweeney’ Is a Slashing Success

MISSION VIEJO —  In a word, wow!

The Summer Stock ’93 production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” which opened over the weekend at Saddleback College’s McKinney Theatre, is a killer of a show.

Led by Jeff Paul as Sweeney and Beth Hansen as Mrs. Lovett, who are both ideally cast in the starring roles, nearly two dozen players have conspired to deliver this difficult Broadway classic with stunning panache.

Although not perfect, the production rivals Orange County’s last big professional mounting of a Stephen Sondheim musical (“Sunday in the Park With George” four years ago at South Coast Repertory) for mood, passion, wit and talent.

The remarkable lead performances alone set a benchmark of excellence.

Even while his acting humanizes Sweeney in unexpected ways, Paul’s deep, gravelly baritone lends necessary steel to the characterization of an embittered killer who wants to wreak vengeance on all living creatures.

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If anything, Paul makes us feel that the terrible injustice visited upon Sweeney in the past, which is at the root of his unquenchable fury, somehow equates with the macabre, throat-slashing murders he now commits.

Thus, Paul manages to embody the cold misanthropic cynicism of Sweeney’s thematic refrain (“There’s a hole in the world / like a great black pit / and the vermin of the world / inhabit it”) without demonizing him or turning him into a zombie.

Hansen’s rendering of Mrs. Lovett, who makes meat pies of Sweeney’s victims, is simply astonishing. She gives an adroit performance, both in comic details and musical flourishes, that may safely be said to equal Angela Lansbury’s original creation of the role.

Somewhat plumper than Lansbury but looking uncannily like her in a red wig, Hansen conveys the role’s black humor with wry insight. Her Mrs. Lovett is as loony as they come, yet she gives a wide berth to the easy choice of out-and-out crackpot.

Hansen never loses sight of the character’s essential calculation. Mrs. Lovett is, after all, a cunningly motivated combination of materialistic self-interest and lovesick devotion to Sweeney.

Notwithstanding all that, Hansen’s portrayal is as ticklish as a feather. She is a buoyantly funny actress.

But it is the hugely entertaining production as a whole--directed with absolute aplomb by George Quick--that satisfies most. It offers a rare demonstration of just how much skill it takes to negotiate the dangerous curves of “Sweeney Todd.”

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Sondheim’s near-operatic score is one of Broadway’s supreme tests of musicality. The neatly calibrated melodrama of Hugh Wheeler’s book is not easy to put over, either.

Even when the original 1979 version of the show swept eight Tony Awards out of the nine categories for which it was nominated, it divided critical and popular opinion into camps that hated or loved it.

At the McKinney, Wally Huntoon’s clever scenic design establishes the grim Dickensian tone of 19th-Century London, where Sweeney has just arrived after 15 years of imprisonment for a crime he did not commit.

The sets, wheeled in from the wings or flown in from the loft, seem like nothing less than three-dimensional cartoons of wacky Victoriana ripped from the panels of an underground comic book.

They are abetted by Charles M. Castagno’s rich period costumes and by a passionately played orchestration of the score, beautifully scaled down for two pianos, synthesizer and percussion.

Only the lighting fails to match the other production values, probably because of the McKinney’s equipment limitations rather than anything else.

Meanwhile, the large cast of outstanding players has a field day in supporting roles with performances that capitalize on the freedom, imagination and confidence that Quick’s resourceful staging appears to have offered them.

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Doug Carfrae is rock-solid as Judge Turpin, the chief target of Sweeney’s revenge, a nasty magistrate who once had designs on Sweeney’s wife and therefore incarcerated Sweeney.

Soprano Patti Diamond’s soaring clarity in the role of the pristine Johanna, Sweeney’s daughter--now the judge’s ward and the object of his leering attentions--provides intense vocal strength throughout.

John Bisom is affecting as Johanna’s suitor, Anthony Hope, despite a certain weakness in pitch early on during Friday’s performance. More affecting perhaps is Tom Guthrie’s urchin, Tobias Ragg. And Chris D. Thomas shines in a brilliant comic sendup of the foppish Italian barber Pirelli.

Two others who also do fine work and should not go unmentioned are Kathi Cook as the Beggar Woman and Steve Grabe as the Beadle.

* “Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” McKinney Theatre, Saddleback College, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Wednesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 3 and 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 22. $14 to $16. (714) 582-4656. Running time: 3 hours.

Jeff Paul: Sweeney Todd

Beth Hansen: Mrs. Lovett

John Bisom: Anthony Hope

Doug Carfrae: Judge Turpin

Kathi Cook: Beggar Woman

Patti Diamond: Johanna

Steve Grabe: The Beadle

Tom Guthrie: Tobias Ragg

Chris D. Thomas: Pirelli

A Saddleback Community College Summer Stock ’93 production. Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by Hugh Wheeler. Based on Christopher Bond’s 1973 play, “Sweeney Todd.” Directed by George Quick. Scenic design: Wally Huntoon. Costume design: Charles M. Castagno. Lighting design: Kevin Cook. Sound design: David Edwards. Musical direction: Quick. Conductor: Joe Mulroy. Additional orchestrations: Terence Alaric. Stage Manager: Nancy Staiger.