Sweeney Todd

CHOP TALK Cerveris cuts a rug with LuPone.

Photo: Paul Kolnik

John Doyle's gorgeously stylish reduction of Sweeney Todd is like a beef bouillon cube: small, but it packs a wallop. The English director's treatment of the 1979 Stephen Sondheim masterpiece also includes some exotic spices, principally ten immensely talented actor-singer-musicians led by a demonic Michael Cerveris and that louche, tuba-toting temptress Patti LuPone. The result is the most addictively delicious dish on Broadway in years. To quote the ravenous Londoners who stuff themselves on Mrs. Lovett's meat pies: "God, that's good!"

In Doyle's minimalist conceit, the actors double as musicians (some handle three instruments), playing a scaled-down version of the score while acting and moving set pieces around. In truth, the visual production mixes metaphors (one minute it's a madhouse, the next a Victorian junk shop), and the design isn't so much a piercing interpretation of the material as a brilliant way to isolate the music and lyrics and pare the storytelling to its bilious core. This version is most rewarding to those familiar with the story, but for newcomers, it's one of musical theater's most electrifying works presented in conceptual concert form. Doyle and his sublime ensemble—including Alexander Gemignani (Beadle), Donna Lynne Champlin (Pirelli) and Manoel Felciano (Tobias)—prove that you can cut Sweeney to the bone, but he remains as ferociously vital as ever.—David Cote