Rebecca Finnegan and David Girolmo in Porchlight’s “Sweeney Todd”

Sweeney and I go way back. It was the first musical where I found myself blown away by not just the music, but also the plot. I still recall my 15 year-old self sitting in my grandparents living room giving the original Broadway cast album a spin on my trusty Sony Walkman. The album, gloriously produced by Thomas Z. Shepard, felt more like a radio play than any cast album I’d heard before. And when the final moments were revealed, I pulled off my orange foam headphones and yelled, “No way!”

The Sondheim masterwork about a revengeful barber righting the wrongs of his past by slitting the throats of the upper class has stuck with me since.

Porchlight’s more than fine production certainly scratched my Sweeney itch. It’s been at least a few years since I’ve seen a live production (The last being Drury Lane’s), and this period of late fall presents the ideal time for a close shave with the demon barber of Fleet Street.

Directed by Porchlight Artistic Director Micheal Weber, this production dazzles on many occasions, but at times seems to suffer from a bit of an identity crisis. It’s a small-scale production with big time ambitions, often pushing Stage 773’s black-box stage to the extremes — almost to the breaking point. Which isn’t a bad thing — I like to be delighted and surprised by bold thinking and innovative staging. However, sometimes less is indeed more, and having, say, Joanna (the pure-voiced Stephanie Stockstill) being rolled around atop a tall staircase during “Green Finch and Linnet Bird” with her blonde curls nearly entangled with the lighting rig may feel more like a distraction than a representation of her entrapment. Read the full review on The Huffington Post >>