By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The seasons are changing Halloween looms. Two local theater troupes are stepping up to mark the season, though in very different ways.
In a nod to Halloween horror, Perrysburg Musical Theatre is staging Stephen Sondheim’s thriller “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” Shows are Friday, Oct. 28, and Saturday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. and Sunday Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. in the Juliet Beck Auditorium inside the Commodore Building, 140 E. Indiana Ave., Perrysburg. Tickets are $17 www.perrysburgmusicaltheatre.org.
The Waterville Playshop has turned its thoughts beyond the impending holiday, and is staging “She Loves Me,” with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, the team behind, “Fiddler on the Roof.” The musical is based on the play by the Mikos Laslos play, “Parfuemerie” that has been adapted into “The Good Old Summertime,” “The Little Shop Around the Corner,” and “You’ve Got Mail.” The adaptable plot follows the staff of the gift shop from summer when they just want to loaf until the bustle of Christmastime – they are in retail after all. Along the way they negotiate romantic and work difficulties. Autumn gets a nod.
Performances of “She Loves Me,” directed by Jennifer Jackson, are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 28 and 29, at 8 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 30 at 2:30 p.m., at the Maumee Indoor Theatre. Tickets, $18 or $20, are on sale at www.watervilleplayshop.org and at the door.
PMT’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ packs a punch
“Sweeney Todd,” directed by Marshall Kupresanin, is a fitting Halloween show for obvious reasons. It’s the tale of a wrongly convicted London barber who is transported to Australia where he languishes for 17 years. He was wronged by a corrupt judge who lusts for his wife.
Benjamin Barker, now known as Sweeney Todd (Steven Sloan), arrives back in London to be told his wife is dead – she poisoned herself after being raped by the judge. Todd learns his daughter, Johanna (Alexandria Hanhold) is still in the clutches of Judge Turpin (Chuck Kiskaddon).
He gets this information from Mrs. Lovett (Chelsie Cree), the purveyor of the self-described “Worst Pies in London.” Her shop is downstairs from Todd’s former shop. She has saved his razor and other tools and presents them to him. He raises his razor high. This is his friend, and his accomplice.
Mrs. Lovett has romantic designs on Todd, thoughts she’s harbored since before he left.
Arriving with Todd is a young sailor Anthony (Kurt Elfering), wide-eyed and exuberant to be returning.
He sees it as a place of wonder, and the most wondrous of all he discovers is Johanna.
Todd sees London as the epitome of human wretchedness and depravity.
Being accosted by a demented beggar woman (Elicia Kinder), who claims he looks familiar, only heightens his disgust.
What plays out is a tale of Todd’s quest for revenge against those who wronged him and humanity in general, and Mrs. Lovett’s opportunistic use of the detritus of his crimes.
But “Sweeney Todd” is also appropriate for the season because its full of tricks.
Throughout the show the chorus and its individual members are called on to deliver dispassionate reporting of the tale of the demon barber, while other times expressing horror in tightly harmonized shrieks. They are whipped into a ravenous frenzy for Mrs. Lovett’s pies. And at the very end, the chorus delivers the final punch with the word “street” hitting it forcefully and precisely after tense silence that seems to last a 1/16th note or so too long.
Sondheim makes it difficult with the tricky rhythms, odd shifting time signatures, and modulation from sweet harmonies to dissonance. It’s all essential to the dramatic and emotional purpose.
The cast and orchestra, directed by Nicole Spadafore and Logan Maccariella, nail the score.
When Tobias (Clayton Snyder) sings “Not While I’m Around,” the harmonies are sweet. The youngster has attached himself to Mrs. Lovett after his mountebank employer Pirelli (Wesley Grudzien) suddenly “disappears” after visiting Todd’s tonsurium. However, as Mrs. Lovett realizes that Toby is catching on to the evil doings above the bakery, she mollifies him by reprising his song, and the strings turn slightly off, in tune with the malicious turns of her mind.
Cree makes for a wonderful Mrs. Lovett. Cheerfully manipulative, without scruples, and all the more entertaining for it. Her interplay with Sloan on “A Little Priest” is delightful. She almost manages to crack through Todd’s bitterness.
Sloan brings charisma to his role, just the slightest charm to soften his single-minded purpose. Most important Sloan brings a sonorous voice that contains and carries all the rage of his character. He seems as determined to deliver an unforgettable performance as his character is to slit the throat of Judge Turpin.
Playshop cashes in with ‘She Loves Me’
The Waterville Playshop also benefits from a lustrous voice in the lead. Jennifer Braun plays Amalia Balash, the love-struck clerk at Maraczek’s shop, the “she” in “She Loves Me.”
Braun plays a woman in love with a man she’s never seen, only corresponded with, having met him in a lonely-hearts club. Though uncertain in love, she exudes confidence when she arrives at Maraczek’s looking for a job.
Amalia earns with by improvising a clever sales pitch. But she can’t sell the manager of the shop Georg Nowak (Andrew Austin) on her worth, and they instantly fall into a simmering animosity that persists as the year rolls on.
George is also engaging lonely-hearts letters with an unseen beau, unbeknownst to both of them, Amalia.
That’s the plot.
They are surrounded by a colorful cast of characters, each with their own back stories. There’s Maraczek (Kevin Korn) whose mood grows sourer as the weeks pass. There’s Arpad Laszlo (Grace Schlueter) the carefree delivery person. There’s Ladislav Sipos (Durrell Johnson) a middle-age clerk concerned about losing his position and being unable to support his family.
The cashier Ilona (Courtney Austin) is involved, off-and-on, with fellow clerk the romantic cad Steven Kodaly.
This being community theater Matt Zwyer who plays Kodaly was absent. He’s a teacher and had parent-teacher conferences the night of the dress rehearsal I attended.
It was amusing to witness how the cast and crew refused to let his absence throw them off the mark. The conductor sang Kodaly’s tunes, and a crew member read his lines off stage, and Courtney Austin carried on like there was a live body in front of her. At one point Andrew Austin emerged from the wings to be her dance partner in lieu of Zwyer.
It showed the kind of upbeat spirit that informs the production, an esprit to corps which they bring to their characters.
When Andrew Austin delivers an athletic performance of the title number, we are well on our way to resolution, and Christmas Eve.
The shop closed and the workers free to pursue their lives, happy for the moment.
The audience has already received their present.
(CORRECTION: Because of a technical error, the name of the actor playing Sweeney Todd was misidentified.)
