The stage’s creepiest barber is plying his trade for audiences at the Milton Theatre this week.
Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is a staple of the musical theatre repertoire, with multiple Tony wins. Jessica Bostock, the theatre’s Associate Artistic Director and the choreographer for this show, says the story is about more than just horror, and that explains the musical’s popularity.
“There's something about those themes and the humanity of it that is very intriguing,” she says. “And then the score, the music, is extremely powerful in and of itself.”
That score will be performed by a small orchestra of nine musicians, who will be on stage with the actors, she adds.
“The live music really helps the singers, but the dancers specifically, inhabit the music - when you can feel it in that way,” Bostock says. “When it's coming from a live pit it's quite incredible.”
Working with Sondheim’s score presented some interesting challenges for Bostock in her role as choreographer.
“This is not your classic kick line type of choreography,” she says. “We're embodying an insane asylum at one point.”
The Milton Theatre is a smaller space, and Bostock says that leads to a more intimate experience, with audiences able to get closer to the action.
“The fog comes out and drifts through the audience, the lighting spills onto the audience, our actors come down into the audience a lot,” Bostock says. “And so there's a very strong experiential thing that happens at the Milton.”
The Milton Theatre’s performances of “Sweeney Todd” continue this week, wrapping up on Sunday afternoon.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
