Sweeney Todd...

This weekend Claude and I went to the Lexington Opera House for the 1st time since moving to Kentucky. This is a beautiful 122 year old building. It is one of only 14 theaters built before 1900 in the United States that is still operating. They have teamed with Broadway Live to bring performances during the year to Lexington. We decided to go see Sweeney Todd for our first venture to the Lexington Opera House. We heard a little about this man on a History Channel story and some when the movie came out with Johnny Depp (a Kentucky born actor). Sweeney Todd is a real character who was a barber and murdered many people on Fleet Street in London. Needless to say, this was the darkest play we have ever seen. Stephen Sondheim wrote the original music and lyrics. It was an epic-sized spectacle with cranes, descending catwalks, an organizest, a 27-piece symphonic orchestra, a 30-member cast sining the score. Huge extravaganza. In 2005 John Doyle, a British director pared down Sondheim's production to a 10-member cast who also perform all the music. These were talented young people that performs. They music at times reminded me of 'Into the Woods' another Sondheim play I really like. It was like watching a choreographed dance number to see them move the props on the stage to create a new scene when actually it was one stage setting that just had items moved to make you think you were at a different scene. Claude and both came away wishing Jake could have been there to critique this one. Even though it was well done, we wouldn't recommend to anyone who hasn't had some really fun musical theater performances under their belt. But one of the corporate sponsors was the 'Kentucky Blood Center'. They chose their performance to back well since this was a gory story. As we left the theater, each attendee was given a handout. It is actually a letter opener and not really sharp. But it was a really cute idea and gave everyone in the theater a chuckle.