Well, it must be Stephen Sondheim season in Eugene. On Friday night, Eugene Opera kicks off its second production of the year with Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street — and, across town, Very Little Theatre opens its production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Let’s look first at the opera. First off, is Sweeney Todd really an opera? Or is it a musical? Or does it even matter?
I posed the question to Mark Beudert, general director of Eugene Opera, over coffee this morning at Perugino.
He, like me, doesn’t really care whether it is or it isn’t properly an opera, so long as it’s good both musically and theatrically. “The first rule of theater is that it has to be interesting,” he said. “That’s the same with opera. You have to engage the audience on a visceral level, and emotional level. The purpose of opera is not to be boring.”
Sweeney Todd, which opened on Broadway as a musical in 1979, taking the Tony for best musical that year, does all that, and then some. “I went to see it within a month of its opening on Broadway,” Beudert said. “I came out of there and said, ‘What happened?'”
What did happen, he said, is a serious musical story that touches on some of the darkness of its decade: Graffiti in subway cars. Soylent Green. The Exorcist. Son of Sam.
“Then Sweeney Todd comes out, and it’s a summation of all that. At a time when the number one shows, dollarwise, were Annie and Grease.”
Sweeney Todd is based on a 1973 play of the same name which, itself, is based on a fictional character from a Victorian pennydreadful. In the tale, Todd is unjustly convicted of a crime, transported to the penal colony of Australia, and then returns home to exact his bloody vengeance not only on the judge but on others.
Sondheim’s musical version was first performed by a major opera company — Houston Grand Opera — in 1984. It’s since been done by New York City Opera and other large companies in the US and abroad.
It’s difficult to say exactly how any of these versions of Sweeney Todd is an opera rather than a musical. The opera world, of course, embraces Gilbert and Sullivan – operetta, as those bright comedies are called — and such serious musicals as West Side Story have been produced by opera companies.
Sondheim himself has called Sweeney Todd a “black operetta.”
The best answer Beudert could come up with, when asked what the differences between opera company production and theatrical production of the show, was this: “You may have more string presence in the orchestra that you would on Broadway.”
The Eugene Opera production, which runs Friday night and Sunday afternoon, will focus on making the story accessible by making the spoken text listenable. Much as has been done with Gilbert and Sullivan in the past, singers will be miked for spoken parts but not for singing.
“The story is substantial,” Beudert said. “It’s very easy to see the influence the text had over composition of the music. But I want it sung, and I want it sung beautifully.”
Conducting will be guest conductor Adam Turner, who recently did Sweeney Todd for Virginia Opera.
Principals include Christopher Burchett as Sweeney Todd; Anne Allgood as Mrs. Lovett; Jake Gardner as Judge Turpin; Stephen Lancaster as the young sailor and lover, Anthony Hope; Emma Grimsley as Todd’s daughter, Johanna Barker; and John Coons as Todd’s competitor Adolfo Pirelli.
Meanwhile, opening at practically the same time on Friday is Sondheim’s earlier play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, at VLT. The show opened on Broadway in 1962, taking Tony awards for best musical and best author.
Michael P. Watkins directs a cast that includes Tom Wilson as Pseudolus, Bruce McCarthy as Senex, Sharon Sless as Domina, Cash McAllister as Hero, Cody Mendonca as Hysterium, Gene Chin as Lycus, Hailey Henderson as Philia, Gerald Walters as Erronius, and Will Vanderbilt as Milos Gloriosus.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Eugene Opera
7:30 p.m. Friday March 13 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday March 15
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Very Little Theatre
Friday March 13 through April 4.