raise your blade up high, Sweeney...

The first time I ever saw this musical was at least thirty years ago.

The Savannah Community Theatre was putting on "Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", at their playhouse on Broughton Street.

I actually convinced my husband to go, being that several of the folks at his weekly trivia game at Sam Fink's Deli were part of the show.

That included the Soucy siblings, JinHi and Chris, with the latter having helped to create the huge structure that recreated Mrs. Lovett's Pie shop on one side and Sweeney Todd's barber salon on the other.

Talk about love gone wrong, that play was full of it!

Just like that other musical I am so enamored of: "The Phantom Of The Opera".

And, so, every time I hear that someone is staging one of these, I must go.

Seriously.

This time, it's the Savannah Children's Theatre, and, incredibly, I made it there five minutes before the curtains rose.

Right place, right time!

I must have had an angel steering me there from Hinesville!

Here's Ben Templeton, 

as Sweeney, 

post-play, 

with his white shirt gone crimson.

Notice that dark,

and grim,

makeup on his face,

signs of a heart

gone cold

and life 

gone bitter.

Wow!

 

And here is his lost lady,

his Lucy,

gone mad,

who had been

so beautiful

before the Judge

took her,

and the daughter, Joanna,

mistreating the mother

and essentially imprisoning

the baby,

after banishing the barber.

 

Here is one of the townspeople,

made up dark and grim,

just as Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett are,

yet another who has lost hope

and lost their dreams

in this dreary place.

The whole town could have been

part of a zombie apocalypse,

save two:

the sweet virgin, Johanna,

and the bright-eyed sailor

who loves her.

Their faces are clean of grime,

the visages are hopeful for a future.

 

Wow.

 

I sure hope I can see this once more...

but am so grateful to have seen it this one time!