Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim. Directed by Steve Forrester. The Belleville Theatre Guild at the Pinnacle Playhouse 256 Pinnacle Street, Belleville

BELLEVILLE, ON - The Pinnacle Playhouse was full Wednesday night as the Belleville Theatre Guild opened its production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. (Book by Hugh Wheeler)

Sweeney Todd (aka Benjamin Barker) returns to London after spending 15 years for “wrongful imprisonment” and through time re-establishes himself as the finest barber in the city. As he learns that the man who convicted him was the same man who raped his wife, revenge sets in, murders take place and the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is born. Coincidently, at the same time his neighbour Mrs. Lovett sees sky rocketing sales with her meat pie business.

Indeed, I believe it is quite a challenging script for the amateur group to adapt and the musical score is known to be Sondheim’s most complex to date (most known for “Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, “A Little Night Music” and the lyrics for “West Side Story”) The original production opened on Broadway in 1979 and won 8 Tony’s that year including Best Musical. The script to me seemed quite shallow but the situation provides the actors with some playful black comedy to immerse themselves in.

The problem with having your story’s hero being a mass murderer is we are never actually on his side. The young couple provide the audience with young love to root for but that’s as far as we actually care about the characters.

With this complexity, I can only imagine the challenges the Belleville Theatre Guild came to face. Not only was it difficult for the actors to find their comfort zones but the general flow of the musical did seem quite “choppy” (mind the pun) right from the beginning causing a dramatic lag with timing and a 3 hour long show. Considering it was opening night I expect the cast will tighten it up.

Generally a great effort by the group. The chorus was great and an honourable mention must go out to Kim Dafoe for her portrayal as the Beggar Woman. Not only was she immensely entertaining but consistent on spot or not, even in crowded scenes where our attention should have been on the main characters, I still felt myself watching her and the fantastic reactions she was giving throughout.

The show runs until the 3rd of June.

Geri Cummings