Sink your teeth into “Sweeney Todd” at Basile Westfield Playhouse
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is ready to stalk the stage in Westfield.
Main Street Productions (MSP) will present Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street from Sept. 21, to Oct. 1 at Basile Westfield Playhouse, 220 N. Union St. The Reporter sat down with MSP Director Andrea Odle to talk about bringing a meaty London tale to Westfield.
Odle’s road to Fleet Street was a long one. Getting the rights to perform Sweeney Todd took a fair bit of time. It is also a popular show that can require juggling calendars to be sure no one else is also staging it within a reasonable distance for audiences. And then there was the pandemic.
“A lot of us directors are still being caught up from COVID on all the shows that we wanted to put on in 2020 to 2022,” Odle told The Reporter.
After those delays were dealt with, Odle had her time set on the calendar and had to find her cast, which she called “unbelievably talented.”
“We had almost 70 people at auditions,” Odle said. “I had a plethora of talent to pick from, which was amazing. Our Sweeney Todd, one of his dream roles. And then I know Lovett, she would say the same. It’s a dream role for her. So I got very lucky.”
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Cutting a field of 70 down to just over 20 actors made for a long night after the first auditions.
“I think we were here until two o’clock in the morning,” Odle said. “Afterward, just kind of going through all the possibilities and then once we had it, the second night of callbacks – no, first night after callbacks – we kind of knew.”
Odle said she fell in love with the Johnny Depp movie version of Sweeney Todd, “only because there were so many things that I want to do differently. I looked at it and compared it to Angela Lansbury and I loved her. Her version is my all-time favorite. But I loved the movie because there’s certain things in the movie that I picked out of it that I liked, but almost everything I want do differently. So that’s kind of why it was a challenge to bring it back to Angela Lansbury’s version versus Johnny Depp’s version.”
While the story itself is a very dark tale, Odle said she’d taken steps to emphasize some of the lighter moments. She’s also staging the show with no blood effects. Given that, rather than age-restricting the show, she said she is leaving it up to the discretion of parents to decide if they want their older children to see the show or not.
“There is some adult content,” Odle said. “It’s done lightheartedly, but it’s about eating people, so you have to be very careful. But also, there is a lighthearted nature to some of the scenes. And then we are not doing any blood effects whatsoever. Good and bad parts, but I think taking away the blood aspect of it opens up the audience for a younger audience a little bit, too.”
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street stages Sept. 21 through Oct. 1 at Basile Westfield Playhouse, 220 N. Union St. Go to WestfieldPlayhouse.org/showstickets or call (317) 402-3341 for tickets.
