Book: Hugh Wheeler; Score: Stephen Sondheim. At: Porchlight Music Theatre at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont Ave. Tickets: 773-327-5252 or www.porchlightmusictheatre.org; $39-$45. Runs through Nov. 9
Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's 1979 musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has proven itself to be a masterpiece that can hold any size stage. When cast and designed well, Sweeney Todd can command both the grandest of opera houses and the tiniest of storefront theaters.
Porchlight Music Theatre's current revival of Sweeney Todd certainly makes the strongest of cases for intimate productionsespecially since it is so impeccably cast and designed. And if you happened to catch Porchlight's previous Jeff Award-winning production in the same Stage 773 space a decade ago, rest assured that director Michael Weber and music director Doug Peck have thoroughly reimagined the piece with plenty of new surprises this time around.
Take, for instance, the casting holdover of Rebecca Finnegan as the meat pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett. Finnegan has certainly rethought and grown into the role of the comic relief accomplice to the murderous title barber, performed with such forceful and vocally assured brooding by the hulking David Girolmo. Finnegan's prepared interjections during the competition with rival barber Pirelli ( a flashy Kevin Webb ) are a comic hoot, as are her many off-center approaches to the well-known dialogue.
Weber also defies expectations with his new approach to the mechanical barber chair, with victims being treated more like slabs of meat than in other productions. He also structures the piece via thrilling flashback that includes a trip to the morgue.
There is also an all-enveloping environmental flavor in Jeffrey D. Kmiec's Victorian set design, which has audiences entering into the creepy theater space via Mrs. Lovett's massive meat pie oven. Sound designer Jenna Moran also deserves plenty of kudos for providing the right sound balance to hear all of Sondheim's tricky lyrics within this theater space that hasn't been the friendliest to musical theater. Of course, it also helps that Weber has cast such a vocally assured ensemble from main characters like Brian Acker as the dashing and upstanding sailor Anthony and Edward J. MacLennan as the extremely tall and menacing Judge Turpin, right down to each hard-working chorus member.
If there are complaints to be had, it's noticeable that some ensemble members' first-night nerves had them miss some obvious vocal entrances and flub some lyrics. Also, Sondheim purists might bemoan Weber's decision not to include the optional cuts like the Judge's flagellation song and Pirelli's tooth-pulling competition.
But when it comes to providing genuine musical chills, Porchlight's revival of Sweeney Todd certainly delivers a powerful wallop in a gloriously intimate production. It's a must for both newcomers to Sweeney Todd and those fanatics ( like myself ) who know every lyric backward and forward.