"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" / LJWorld.com

Details

Categories: Theater
Event posted: Aug. 30, 2008
Last updated: Feb. 19, 2009

Event details

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Drive, KU campus, Lawrence
Cost: $25 - $49
Age limit: All ages

The Lied Center of Kansas and SUA (Student Union Activities) present Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a high-conceptinterpretation of Stephen Sondheim's classic Broadway musical.This innovative new production features a multitalented ten-member ensemble. Without an orchestra, the actors themselves play the score.Sweeney Todd is based on the 19th century legend of a London barber driven to a life of crime after a malevolent judge has taken his wife and child from him. Sweeney spends 15 years in the penal colonies of Australia planning his retribution. Upon his return to London, Sweeney conspires with Mrs. Lovett-an enterprising pie maker-in a cutthroat partnership to slice through London's upper crust. Soon Todd's clients are disappearing and somehow becoming the filling for an entirely different kind of pie.Sweeney Todd features original direction and design by Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards-winner John Doyle. Doyle's production opened on Broadway in 2005 to universal critical acclaim where it won the Drama League, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Revival of a Musical, and was awarded a Special Citation by the New York Drama Critics Circle. The show arrived on Broadway from a highly successful London engagement, ran for 349 performances and received two Tony Awards. The national tour of Doyle's Sweeney Todd began in 2007 and played triumphantly in 20 cities across North America.This contemporary production of Sweeney Todd is a revival of the 1979 musical by Tony and Academy Award-winner Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story, Gypsy) and Hugh Wheeler, based on Christopher Bond's 1973 play and an 1846 story, String of Pearls: A Romance, likely written by Thomas Prest. Sondheim's original Broadway show starred Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. The original show was nominated for nine Tony Awards and won eight.Tickets are on sale at the Lied Center Ticket Office (785-864-2787 voice or 785-864-2777/TDD), the University Theatre Ticket OfficeMurphy Hall (785-864-3982), SUA OfficeKansas Union (785-864-SHOW), and online atwww.lied.ku.edu. All seats are reserved. Ticket prices are: adult $49; KU, Haskell students/children (child: 0-18 years of age) $25. Other discounts may apply: please contact the ticket office for details.