It Wasn't No Match For Such Craft
Sweeney Todd - Stadttheater Hildesheim, 27th April 2013
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After the so far disappointing 2012/13 season at the TfN I was off at the end of April to see another premiere - Sweeney Todd.
I need to say it straight away before anything about the show is the following: When you have seen the most perfect production of a show you can imagine, any other production just can hardly compete.
I adore Sweeney Todd, the score, yes am a Sondheim fanatic anyway, but Sweeney Todd is most special, anyone calling themselves musical interested not getting him has IMHO no taste (especially when you like shitty Wildhorn on the other hand), and the Chichester production which was also on in London last year starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton was just truly outstanding for me as written >>here : just everything was right from the cast to the staging, the direction, choreography, the orchestration.
So seeing another production just could not compete with it I have to say from the beginning, so anyone who did not see that production or any other good one before might nitpick less than I did/do - or actually reading reviews on various websites the production is not well received by other visitors.
Cast:
Tom Zahner - Sweeney Todd
Karoline Goebel - Mrs Lovett
Jonas Hein - Anthony Hope
Jens Krause - Judge Turpin
Caroline Zins - Johanna Barker
Alexander Prosek - Beadle Bamford
Katja Buhl - Beggar Woman
Jens Plewinski - Pirelli
Magdalene Orzol - Tobias
Tim Müller - Mr Fogg/ Bird Seller
Other roles: TfN choir and extras
It all started straight away at the beginning, from the first moment the lights in the auditorium went dark, the overture started, we were allowed the first look on the stage and hit nearly straight away with its design - all I could think was WHAT THE F***?
Opening like a film with the title appearing on a gauze net at the front of the stage with the title starting to "bleed" behind it as can seen on photo to the left with overture being played and the ensemble behind the curtain telling "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd". Okay.... could live with the gauze but then whoosh an absolute overload of video projections from when Anthony and Sweeney Todd appear onstage.
Certainly looking good and expensive (had they money left they hadn't spent on the other productions so they could blow budget on this??) they were not just wrong for this piece looking more like some "Games of Thrones" fantasy style clips and not adding much to the show - sometimes actually totally out of place IMO and there way too many of them.
I could kinda accept that there was a video of e.g. a tube station, an arriving tube Anthony and Sweeny are to take as productions not placed in its original period (see below) but there were videos which were just most pathetic as in one Johanna is wearing red heels reminding me of some female anime character and in the next moment judge Turpin is licking these red heels - OUCH.
What also massively annoyed me was that videos were used while action took place so when it was on the actual stage was rather dark so that you missed out - not that the lighting in general was much better - at least where I sat.
It seems lighting was either spotlights far too bright with the audience being blinded as when searching for the next victim or the lighting was way too little and totally mispositioned so that I could see everything but the protagonists then on-stage (some actually wrote lighting was good/great - I am seriously wondering whether they saw the same show) several times, especially in act 1.
The set was not much better consisting largely of six cubicles in which the pie shop, the barber shop etc were set in - three in a row and two levels (as can seen on the picture above - the top level is closed with the shop logo projected on it - in NEON??? WHY??? - and each equipped with a roller blind.
These were constantly opened and closed during scene changes, but not only then but also during a scene when action moved from one room to the other with the protagonist(s) usually opening/closing these, often standing then behind a separating wall to do so but continuing to sing, perform etc - the second time I asked myself "why?", the third time I wondered whether it will ever stop, from the fourth time I just cringed or laughed in despair.
Some props were also used where I thought why they could not find a better solution.
I hadn't known that ladders could fly for example. When Anthony discovers Johanna on a what seems to be a balcony (and there is a swing on the balcony - and a red gas filled balloon which was never explained why it was there... ) he wants to get up there, so Jonas Hein playing Anthony goes to the side of the stage and suddenly a metal ladder "flies in" from the wing which he catches - gasp!
Or that delivery guy appearing onstage - dressed in the outfit of Germany's main postal service company. In LONDON!!!???!!!
Shall I continue? Better not, I would not be able to finish by next spring if I wanted to list all ridiculous ideas.
Talking about ridiculous ideas - further direction. The director Uwe Schwarz said in an interview prior to the premiere that this production is an "abstract" one and not placed in an actual century or decade etc.
I still remember the discussions about the Chichester production which was placed in the 1930s which worked for me but this "abstract" concept just doesn't do the job for me. There are just too many historical references in the piece that you just cannot move the show to current days or any days or to an "abstract" period when the final outcome looks not abstract but a seemingly random selection of sources from various periods - that is not my understanding of "abstract".
The mishmash of costumes from various periods (most actually totally absurd) also showed that unbalance trying way too hard to create something "different" whatever it is but miserably failing.
And whoever designed some of the wigs should be flogged. Especially Jonas Hein's Anthony and Magdalene Orzol's Tobias' wigs (both of Tobias', one worse than the other) looked like a four year old girl cut their doll's hair for the first time. Oh and Mrs Lovett wig - am sure somewhere in it a bird could have built its nest.
Neither Uwe Schwarz managed to make the piece captivating.
One scene follows another but it totally lacks coherence which are partly to the abstract concept. Yes there were massive changes in Sweeney Todd's life prior to this chapter presented to us onstage but that shall be no excuse for the lacking a red line here - after all Sweeney Todd's motif for his actions does not change throughout most of the show - he is from the moment he learns what happened to his wife and daughter seeking revenge and that is what keeps him alive - and what the story is about.
BTW. the love story some people complained about being not outlined enough is only a side story, partly a trigger for some things to happen and at least Anthony is just used by Sweeney Todd, the piece is called Sweeney Todd and is about him and not about Johanna and Anthony - I actually am okay there is not much more elaboration of the love story as it would be taking the focus away from the actual key story of Sweeney Todd.
For the first time ever watching Sweeney Todd felt lengthy to me - this masterpiece, this gem so overloaded with ideas not making sense and especially so UNNEEDED.
At least the cast can leave largely a positive impression for the first time this season. As said before, I just saw the most perfect cast in London in 2012, so I still had to force myself to cut back some of my expectations knowing what the true potential of this piece is.
When you have seen Imelda Staunton who won the Olivier award for her just truly OUTSTANDING performance another Mrs Lovett just cannot win.
Saying that Karoline Goebel did deliver a solid performance (despite looking too young considering the history she is telling) with convincing singing though especially at the end she lacked frenzy and wackiness and the absence of the comic timic especially so needed for "By The Sea" was rather disappointing.
Why was once again Michaela Linck not cast for such a part being the most ideal of the female ensemble for me for the role of Mrs Lovett - she is actually not part at all of this show's cast. I just do not get it. First I thought she might leave the ensemble so as it was already decided to also show this production next year with her not available then but she is listed in the 2013/14 programme.
Caroline Zins continues to bug me, well her Austrian accent when she speaks. The part of Johanna is one of a sweet young girl but while having the right looks neither her singing nor (especially) the speaking were of sweet clarity for me. Why some people say she has a clear soprano I do not understand - listen to the cast recording from the London production - now THAT is clear and sweet for me.
At least Jonas Hein at her side as the young and a bit naive Anthony Hope was once again doing a great job with his Anthony being so lively and bracing and his "Johanna" was just heart-rending (even if he had to deal with this ladder and do not get me started on the video projection on during that song - ouch, ouch, ouch).
Jens Krause as judge Turpin was my personal highlight. Ah, his judge was so wonderfully and passionately mean that it was a delight and his "Johanna - Mea Culpa" was fascinating and about the only number that staging wise worked for me.
Magdalene Orzol as Tobias is a pleasant surprise. Normally not too keen on casting young women with clear sopranos as boys, and her singing is occasionally a bit too squeaky for me, her actual interpretation of Tobias is though enjoyably geeky and nerdy and the lunatic bit when Tobias is locked in the kitchen learning the truth and then later killing Sweeney Todd and going nuts is played convincingly.
Why Jens Plewinski's Pirelli has to look like a copycat of (IMO ridiculous) German fashion designer Harald Glööckler is beyond my understanding but in his Pirelli moments he presents the right exaggerated charm and demeanour needed to bring his character to life even if his singing sounds a bit stretched once in a while. I just would like to see more "badness" (too bad an Irish accent as in the English version would not work here to make him already by the accent bad) especially in his voice when he visits Sweeney Todd and tries to blackmail him.
Alexander Prosek as Beadle Bamford is totally miscast. I am not a fan of his play anyway, it is always a bit too much for me, always a bit too forced, he is not only as a baritone totally wrong for the tenor part but also either the director or the actor or both have not understood the essence of that part, a man so greasy, abusive and sick and who would do everything for judge Turpin being despite his position the judge's footman. Alexander Prosek's Beadle is more a wuss than anything else.
Tim Müller is in for the laughs when he plays various customers one after another being murdered by Sweeney Todd and acrobatically falls down a tube from the top floor to the kitchen on the ground floor. Well it fun the first time, but already the second time is so unneeded.
Katja Buhl as the beggar woman lacks madness though the amount of despair she puts in the play slightly evens that out and I am glad that I saw her and not the one actually cast for that part as at least the singing bits sound while a bit rough fitting and being for the part most suitable.
The ensemble parts were covered by the TfN choir and extras were largely adequate, they do not have much to do but standing around and walking around from left to the right of from the right to the left of the stage, but that is already in the book that way (okay with that, I do not need any pre-story played out during the overture as in the movie - just listen to the lyrics people!), again there was the issue of sound and accent and dialect issues as so common for German repertoire theatre.
Yes, you may not have enough people trained but please spare me singers whom you just simply cannot understand or are just simply wrong for the parts (and upgrade your sound system with the rather unbalanced sound sometimes).
So have I forgotten someone, oh yeah, the actual lead.
Well, Tom Zahner has been massively criticised by some others who watched the show as he apparently could not be understood because of an accent and wooden play.
Well I cannot understand this criticism. Yes, he cannot compete with Michael Ball (but then some people massively criticised Mr Ball who i thought was just as brilliant as Imelda Staunton and so deserved the Olivier award) I actually never had any issue despite some poor articulation to understand him and I actually thought this simple play was just matching what Sweeney Todd's character is about in this musical - simple revenge, not more, not less, so it works for me. His singing was not always to the point (though I was already glad that he was cast, as I had dreaded already at the beginning of the season that overrated Alexander Prosek would take over that most challenging part), but it often suited as well as the play the character. For me there are other much worse issues in this production as outlined above.
The orchestra conducted by Leif Klinkhardt did a decent job, the complexity of the score somehow got lost by the sound but sometimes when I would just close my eyes during a song as having enough of the stage/set design and would just focus on the music and the singing and it usually worked for me, even if the singing was not always that what it could have been.
Well overall a rather disappointing production of a most brilliant musical masterwork which is largely due to the poor direction following a concept that is just predestined to fail and a cast that is due to this very limited in its play. Please turn in it into a concert as the 25th Les Miserables anniversary concert - it could haved save a lot of money to be spent on accent and articulation training and and works a lot more efficiently!
Trailer found on website:
I need to say it straight away before anything about the show is the following: When you have seen the most perfect production of a show you can imagine, any other production just can hardly compete.
I adore Sweeney Todd, the score, yes am a Sondheim fanatic anyway, but Sweeney Todd is most special, anyone calling themselves musical interested not getting him has IMHO no taste (especially when you like shitty Wildhorn on the other hand), and the Chichester production which was also on in London last year starring Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton was just truly outstanding for me as written >>here : just everything was right from the cast to the staging, the direction, choreography, the orchestration.
So seeing another production just could not compete with it I have to say from the beginning, so anyone who did not see that production or any other good one before might nitpick less than I did/do - or actually reading reviews on various websites the production is not well received by other visitors.
Cast:
Tom Zahner - Sweeney Todd
Karoline Goebel - Mrs Lovett
Jonas Hein - Anthony Hope
Jens Krause - Judge Turpin
Caroline Zins - Johanna Barker
Alexander Prosek - Beadle Bamford
Katja Buhl - Beggar Woman
Jens Plewinski - Pirelli
Magdalene Orzol - Tobias
Tim Müller - Mr Fogg/ Bird Seller
Other roles: TfN choir and extras
It all started straight away at the beginning, from the first moment the lights in the auditorium went dark, the overture started, we were allowed the first look on the stage and hit nearly straight away with its design - all I could think was WHAT THE F***?Opening like a film with the title appearing on a gauze net at the front of the stage with the title starting to "bleed" behind it as can seen on photo to the left with overture being played and the ensemble behind the curtain telling "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd". Okay.... could live with the gauze but then whoosh an absolute overload of video projections from when Anthony and Sweeney Todd appear onstage.
Certainly looking good and expensive (had they money left they hadn't spent on the other productions so they could blow budget on this??) they were not just wrong for this piece looking more like some "Games of Thrones" fantasy style clips and not adding much to the show - sometimes actually totally out of place IMO and there way too many of them.
I could kinda accept that there was a video of e.g. a tube station, an arriving tube Anthony and Sweeny are to take as productions not placed in its original period (see below) but there were videos which were just most pathetic as in one Johanna is wearing red heels reminding me of some female anime character and in the next moment judge Turpin is licking these red heels - OUCH.What also massively annoyed me was that videos were used while action took place so when it was on the actual stage was rather dark so that you missed out - not that the lighting in general was much better - at least where I sat.
It seems lighting was either spotlights far too bright with the audience being blinded as when searching for the next victim or the lighting was way too little and totally mispositioned so that I could see everything but the protagonists then on-stage (some actually wrote lighting was good/great - I am seriously wondering whether they saw the same show) several times, especially in act 1.
The set was not much better consisting largely of six cubicles in which the pie shop, the barber shop etc were set in - three in a row and two levels (as can seen on the picture above - the top level is closed with the shop logo projected on it - in NEON??? WHY??? - and each equipped with a roller blind.These were constantly opened and closed during scene changes, but not only then but also during a scene when action moved from one room to the other with the protagonist(s) usually opening/closing these, often standing then behind a separating wall to do so but continuing to sing, perform etc - the second time I asked myself "why?", the third time I wondered whether it will ever stop, from the fourth time I just cringed or laughed in despair.
Some props were also used where I thought why they could not find a better solution.
I hadn't known that ladders could fly for example. When Anthony discovers Johanna on a what seems to be a balcony (and there is a swing on the balcony - and a red gas filled balloon which was never explained why it was there... ) he wants to get up there, so Jonas Hein playing Anthony goes to the side of the stage and suddenly a metal ladder "flies in" from the wing which he catches - gasp!
Or that delivery guy appearing onstage - dressed in the outfit of Germany's main postal service company. In LONDON!!!???!!!
Shall I continue? Better not, I would not be able to finish by next spring if I wanted to list all ridiculous ideas.
Talking about ridiculous ideas - further direction. The director Uwe Schwarz said in an interview prior to the premiere that this production is an "abstract" one and not placed in an actual century or decade etc.I still remember the discussions about the Chichester production which was placed in the 1930s which worked for me but this "abstract" concept just doesn't do the job for me. There are just too many historical references in the piece that you just cannot move the show to current days or any days or to an "abstract" period when the final outcome looks not abstract but a seemingly random selection of sources from various periods - that is not my understanding of "abstract".
The mishmash of costumes from various periods (most actually totally absurd) also showed that unbalance trying way too hard to create something "different" whatever it is but miserably failing.
And whoever designed some of the wigs should be flogged. Especially Jonas Hein's Anthony and Magdalene Orzol's Tobias' wigs (both of Tobias', one worse than the other) looked like a four year old girl cut their doll's hair for the first time. Oh and Mrs Lovett wig - am sure somewhere in it a bird could have built its nest.
Neither Uwe Schwarz managed to make the piece captivating.One scene follows another but it totally lacks coherence which are partly to the abstract concept. Yes there were massive changes in Sweeney Todd's life prior to this chapter presented to us onstage but that shall be no excuse for the lacking a red line here - after all Sweeney Todd's motif for his actions does not change throughout most of the show - he is from the moment he learns what happened to his wife and daughter seeking revenge and that is what keeps him alive - and what the story is about.
BTW. the love story some people complained about being not outlined enough is only a side story, partly a trigger for some things to happen and at least Anthony is just used by Sweeney Todd, the piece is called Sweeney Todd and is about him and not about Johanna and Anthony - I actually am okay there is not much more elaboration of the love story as it would be taking the focus away from the actual key story of Sweeney Todd.
For the first time ever watching Sweeney Todd felt lengthy to me - this masterpiece, this gem so overloaded with ideas not making sense and especially so UNNEEDED.
At least the cast can leave largely a positive impression for the first time this season. As said before, I just saw the most perfect cast in London in 2012, so I still had to force myself to cut back some of my expectations knowing what the true potential of this piece is.
When you have seen Imelda Staunton who won the Olivier award for her just truly OUTSTANDING performance another Mrs Lovett just cannot win.Saying that Karoline Goebel did deliver a solid performance (despite looking too young considering the history she is telling) with convincing singing though especially at the end she lacked frenzy and wackiness and the absence of the comic timic especially so needed for "By The Sea" was rather disappointing.
Why was once again Michaela Linck not cast for such a part being the most ideal of the female ensemble for me for the role of Mrs Lovett - she is actually not part at all of this show's cast. I just do not get it. First I thought she might leave the ensemble so as it was already decided to also show this production next year with her not available then but she is listed in the 2013/14 programme.
Caroline Zins continues to bug me, well her Austrian accent when she speaks. The part of Johanna is one of a sweet young girl but while having the right looks neither her singing nor (especially) the speaking were of sweet clarity for me. Why some people say she has a clear soprano I do not understand - listen to the cast recording from the London production - now THAT is clear and sweet for me.
Jens Krause as judge Turpin was my personal highlight. Ah, his judge was so wonderfully and passionately mean that it was a delight and his "Johanna - Mea Culpa" was fascinating and about the only number that staging wise worked for me.Magdalene Orzol as Tobias is a pleasant surprise. Normally not too keen on casting young women with clear sopranos as boys, and her singing is occasionally a bit too squeaky for me, her actual interpretation of Tobias is though enjoyably geeky and nerdy and the lunatic bit when Tobias is locked in the kitchen learning the truth and then later killing Sweeney Todd and going nuts is played convincingly.
Why Jens Plewinski's Pirelli has to look like a copycat of (IMO ridiculous) German fashion designer Harald Glööckler is beyond my understanding but in his Pirelli moments he presents the right exaggerated charm and demeanour needed to bring his character to life even if his singing sounds a bit stretched once in a while. I just would like to see more "badness" (too bad an Irish accent as in the English version would not work here to make him already by the accent bad) especially in his voice when he visits Sweeney Todd and tries to blackmail him.
Alexander Prosek as Beadle Bamford is totally miscast. I am not a fan of his play anyway, it is always a bit too much for me, always a bit too forced, he is not only as a baritone totally wrong for the tenor part but also either the director or the actor or both have not understood the essence of that part, a man so greasy, abusive and sick and who would do everything for judge Turpin being despite his position the judge's footman. Alexander Prosek's Beadle is more a wuss than anything else.Tim Müller is in for the laughs when he plays various customers one after another being murdered by Sweeney Todd and acrobatically falls down a tube from the top floor to the kitchen on the ground floor. Well it fun the first time, but already the second time is so unneeded.
The ensemble parts were covered by the TfN choir and extras were largely adequate, they do not have much to do but standing around and walking around from left to the right of from the right to the left of the stage, but that is already in the book that way (okay with that, I do not need any pre-story played out during the overture as in the movie - just listen to the lyrics people!), again there was the issue of sound and accent and dialect issues as so common for German repertoire theatre.
Yes, you may not have enough people trained but please spare me singers whom you just simply cannot understand or are just simply wrong for the parts (and upgrade your sound system with the rather unbalanced sound sometimes).
So have I forgotten someone, oh yeah, the actual lead.Well, Tom Zahner has been massively criticised by some others who watched the show as he apparently could not be understood because of an accent and wooden play.
Well I cannot understand this criticism. Yes, he cannot compete with Michael Ball (but then some people massively criticised Mr Ball who i thought was just as brilliant as Imelda Staunton and so deserved the Olivier award) I actually never had any issue despite some poor articulation to understand him and I actually thought this simple play was just matching what Sweeney Todd's character is about in this musical - simple revenge, not more, not less, so it works for me. His singing was not always to the point (though I was already glad that he was cast, as I had dreaded already at the beginning of the season that overrated Alexander Prosek would take over that most challenging part), but it often suited as well as the play the character. For me there are other much worse issues in this production as outlined above.
The orchestra conducted by Leif Klinkhardt did a decent job, the complexity of the score somehow got lost by the sound but sometimes when I would just close my eyes during a song as having enough of the stage/set design and would just focus on the music and the singing and it usually worked for me, even if the singing was not always that what it could have been.Well overall a rather disappointing production of a most brilliant musical masterwork which is largely due to the poor direction following a concept that is just predestined to fail and a cast that is due to this very limited in its play. Please turn in it into a concert as the 25th Les Miserables anniversary concert - it could haved save a lot of money to be spent on accent and articulation training and and works a lot more efficiently!
Trailer found on website:
SWEENEY TODD - Stephen Sondheim from Theater-TV on Vimeo
