Actor Danny Rothman doesn’t believe Sweeney Todd in Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical is psychotic or a sociopath in this Victorian Age tale of revenge.
“I would describe Sweeney Todd as a man with an enormous heart who was wronged by people who were in positions of power and authority who were supposed to be righteous and just and abused that power and took everything he had without any consequence to those people,” says the actor who will play the title character in the upcoming production by Theatre Under the Stars.
Todd moves to London seeking revenge after a judge lusting after his wife, wrongly sentences him to life imprisonment, destroying his family. He believes his wife is dead and his daughter lost to him. He resumes work in his barbershop and meets Mrs. Lovett, a pie shop owner who is short of the ingredients.
Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, is the Tony Award-winning story of how Todd teams up with Mrs. Lovett, providing human meat for her pies. As disgusting as that sounds, the musical has been a consistent world wide audience favorite since it premiered in 1979. Hugh Wheeler wrote the book for this tale of revenge.
Explaining the appeal of something so grisly, Rothman says: “I do think people like to be frightened I think that’s fun, when there’s no consequences. I think we can step away from it and say ‘That was fun.’ I think the music is beautiful and very intelligently written. I don’t think we give ourselves kind of the permission to feel some of the darker things that Sweeney is going through. It’s a little cathartic to watch somebody else go on that journey and ultimately see just that it ends tragically. Kind of reminds us that might not be the best route to take.”
At the start of the play, when Todd arrives in London, “He is a man who has very little hope remaining in finding any kind of happiness or any kind of justice for himself. The world has turned its back on him,” Rothman says of his character. “He is a victim of circumstances. Which is why the audiences in a can root for him a little bit. He’s not a totally despicable person.
“I think every human being has been wronged and has felt a feeling of wanting revenge and Sweeny takes that about as far as someone can go without getting caught right away,” Rothman adds. “It’s a very fine line of we can believe his but it’s also a little crazy enough that we know it’s not true.”
And then there’s comic bits in between. It’s definitely a quintessential dark comedy/ musical.”
Rothman doesn’t have quite the same regard for Mrs. Lovett. “I think Mrs. Lovett is somebody who lives inside the same circumstance that Sweeney does and knows his story completely yet stays more in the present moment about it and seeks out her little piece of happiness, is not as obsessed with revenge.
“I think she’s in love with Sweeney so therefore she’s going to do what she can to help him but also at the same time to try to steer him over to her vision for the future. And yes participates in this unbelievably horrible thing. But I do believe she is narrowly focused and also more light and comedic, a charming murderer.
Sweeney Todd has rules, Rothman says, He doesn’t kill women and children. But of the people he does kill: “Sweeney tries to make it clear that by killing these people they are relieving them of the awfulness of the earth and this life. I think both of these people would go to jail for the rest of their lives for sure, but in terms of a fictional show that’s a little larger than life . where we can kind of have fun with these things, I think that someone could love Mrs. Lovett and enjoy her knowing that it’s fiction,” Rothman says.
TUTS Artistic Director, Dan Knechtges, is directing the production which includes cast members .Sally Wilfert as “Mrs. Lovett,” Sam Gravitte as “Anthony Hope,” Leslie Jackson as “Johanna,” August Emerson as “Tobias Ragg,” Brian Mathis as “Judge Turpin,” Mark Ivy as “Beadle Bamford,” Courtney Markowitz as “Beggar Woman,” Benjamin Robert Lurye as “Adolfo Pirelli” and Alec Michael Ryan as “Jonas Fogg”.
Rothman had been part of the back-up team on Broadway playing different characters and welcomed the chance to play the Sweeney Todd role full time. “In those instances I’m usually kind of fitting into somebody’s else ‘s blocking and things that they’ve discovered and doing it now and creating it more from scratch I have the opportunity to discover things and find things and do what feels most right to me.”
And then there’s the music (“The Worst Pies in London,” “Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir,” “There’s No Place Like London.”)
“The music definitely helps influence the show’s overall mood which is grandiose and scary and haunting. It is epic in scope. We have a 23 piece orchestra and it’s dissonant and it’s written by one of the greatest composers of musical theater ever.”
Performances are scheduled for October 17-29 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-558-8887 or visit tuts.com. $40-$139.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
