Terry Morgan
Sweeney Todd is my favorite musical. I’ve seen it onstage several times, watched the film, enjoyed a cast recording (Cerveris/LuPone), and loved the Angela Lansbury/George Hearn version blessedly preserved on video. This breadth of comparisons, however, can make me picky about the show. Can the performers do justice to the songs and characters? Is it funny and tragic and a bit scary? Thankfully, the new revival at La Mirada Theatre is very strong under Jason Alexander’s inspired direction, and Lesli Margherita’s portrayal of Mrs. Lovett is one of the greatest musical comedy performances I’ve ever seen.
Sweeney Todd (Will Swenson) has returned home to London after many years away, having been wrongfully “transported” to an Australian penal colony. He seeks vengeance on the man who put him there, Judge Turpin (Norman Large) and his cohort, Beadle Bamford (Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper). Upon meeting pie shop proprietor Mrs. Lovett (Margherita), he teams up with her in an infernal enterprise to hopefully secure his revenge. His young sailor friend, Anthony (Chris Hunter), discovers and instantly falls in love with Sweeney’s daughter, Johanna (Allison Sheppard), which sets the stage for horror and tragedy to commence.
Swenson’s performance has just the right balance of misery and menace for the butcherous barber. He’s delightful in his duet with Margherita on “A Little Priest” (one of the best comedic songs ever written), and his rendition of the chilling “My Friends” is powerful. Margherita is astonishingly good as Mrs. Lovett (introduced with an avaricious shriek – “A customer?!”), her performance completely in tune with every nuance of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s creation – the cruelty, wicked humor and hopeless reignited love. Her ability to find every laugh in the script and then probably add some more on her own is deeply impressive and wildly enjoyable. She’s amazing throughout, but her performance of “By the Sea” is dazzling, a comedic tour de force.
Large is good as Judge Turpin, but his portrayal seems a bit too mild for the villainous role. Mongiardo-Cooper fares better as the cheerfully corrupt Beadle Bamford, and his almost sadistic singing of repetitive tunes to irk Mrs. Lovett in “Parlor Songs” is very funny. Hunter’s performance of the morally forthright hero, Anthony, is perfectly done, and his voice is strong in numbers such as “No Place Like London” and “Kiss Me.” Sheppard doesn’t completely register as Johanna (and I’m not sure why), but her singing voice on “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” is lovely. Austyn Myers is outstanding as Tobias, and his rendition of “Not While I’m Around” is expert and quite moving. Andrew Polec’s performance as rival barber Pirelli is hilarious, and Meghan Andrews imbues her role as the Beggar Woman with surprising depth and emotion.
Jason Alexander’s direction is skillful and creative, adding many original touches to the show, most of which are successful. His staging ideas are especially effective, from the Judge being lowered by the ensemble to hover above Johanna or asylum patients peeking out from behind curtains to witness Sweeney’s reunion with his razors. Even little moments register, such as when Sweeney sings the line “you’ll soon drip precious rubies,” he is running the razor directly in front of Mrs. Lovett’s throat in a prophetic gesture of oncoming doom. He nails bigger moments as well, from the chaos of flashing lights (Jared A. Sayeg’s lighting design is superb) and a spinning set when Sweeney misses out on killing the Judge to a huge drop of red petals onto the stage when he finally slits the man’s throat. Not every new idea works – the concept of the play being performed in Fogg’s Asylum doesn’t seem to add much to the show – but even that produces something amusing: a dumpster wheeled on and offstage for Sweeney to amusingly dispose of his victims’ corpses.
This is the best production I’ve seen of Sweeney Todd locally, and I highly recommend any fans of great theatre to purchase tickets before it sells out. It might be a bit of a drive to La Mirada, but trust me, it’s worth it.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is presented by and at La Mirada Theatre and plays through February 22, 2026. Tickets are available here.
Pauline Adamek