THE 2011 Chichester Festival ended not with a whimper but with a bang with its superb production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.

Whilst one expects a high standard of production from this theatre, in this instance, in my opinion, they have surpassed their previous record.

Jonathan Kent’s raw, gritty but mobile production gives full exposure to Sondheim’s stark and violent tale of a serial murderer. It is a production which measures up to the standard of Harold Prince’s phenomenal original staging and which subsequent productions have failed to achieve.

As in that production the vast Chichester open stage has been surrounded by designer Anthony Ward with angular steel structures and walkways that set off the action below and allows the director free rein for his interpretation of Hugh Wheeler’ sombre scenario.

But inevitably the success or otherwise of his vision must depend on the Sweeney Todd who dominates the action and drives the story along and in Michael Ball he has found the ultimate protagonist for the role.

Ball gives the performance of his life as the distraught, mentally tortured man driven to desperate deeds to assuage his inner torments.

His black greasy hair with a forelock, which he uses for dramatic emphasis, the stolid artisan frame and muscular movements vividly portray the mental dilemmas of the character and his singing has the same powerful expression, giving full value to the lyrics and underlining them with the mental tortures of the dammed man.

I have never seen a Sweeney who delineated the character with such force, power and sincerity. Gone is the chubby bear Ball and in its place is a singer-actor of extraordinary power and perspicacity; an actor who dominates the stage with his presence and a singer who meets all the vocal challenges of the role with ease and gives Sondheim’s dramatic music full value.

This is a characterization of the role that any future Sweeney will find hard to follow or match.

Perhaps it goes too far to say this is the perfect performance of the role, but I am prepared to gamble that time will prove it to have been so.

They say behind every great man is a woman and the same goes for Sweeney, in his case it is Mrs. Lovett, the pie seller, who is the real villainess of the piece (although this is not always acknowledged).

She knows that Benjamin Barker’s (Sweeney’s real name) wife is not dead but for her own purposes tells him that she is (it is hinted that she has always been in love with him as she keeps his razors after he is transported for a crime he did not commit) and thereafter pushes him into his murderous career to further her own ends.

Her manipulation of him is venal and more evil in a way than his killing sprees which are motivated by her lies.

Imelda Staunton as Mrs Lovett plays the role as a cuddly, friendly woman and only occasionally does she let the mask slip to show the evil beneath. Again, this is a beautifully played role and a good foil to Ball’s supreme Sweeney.

I would, however, have liked a little more of her villainy displayed but this does not detract from the fact that overall she makes a very good Mrs Lovett and one which fits well into the scheme of Kent’s direction.

With two such powerful leading roles you would think that the rest of the cast would fall behind but far from it. Each character is well delineated and fits neatly into the action.

The lovers Johanna and Anthony (Lucy May Barker and Luke Brady) sing well and act as a welcome relief from the mayhem elsewhere.

The villainous Judge Turpin is depicted by John Bowe as a “city gent” type, suave and well dressed which made the flagellation scene all the more effective and unpleasant.

His Beadle Bamford, is impeccably played by Peter Polycarpou as an oily sycophant and makes a convincing co-conspirator in his master’s misdeeds.

Todd’s first victim, the itinerant barber and purveyor of bogus medicaments, gives Robert Burt some effective moments, which he seizes with both hands so one is quite sorry in a way when he is laid to rest in Todd’s trunk.

Pirelli’s apprentice Tobias, whom Mrs Lovett takes under her wing after his master’s death, was acted by a young man (James McConville) who made him creditably wide eyed and naïve and his final descent into a nervous shock on discovering what his betters were up to was touchingly convincing.

Kent decorated the stage with the denizens of Fleet Street who acted as the vox populi in commenting on both the excellence of Mrs Lovett’s pies and the horrors of the plot, making a human background of squalor and poverty; a fitting setting for the drama.

This production deserves a transfer to the West and I hope Edna Turnblad does not seduce Michael Ball into leaving the cast and thereby depriving a wider audience of appreciating his incredible performance.

It is just as well this production comes at the end of the season as I suspect it would make any show that followed it look pretty tawdry; another triumph for Chichester and a production definitely not to be missed.

Sweeney Todd
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Lyrics & Music – Stephen Sondheim
Director – Jonathan Kent
Designer – Anthony Ward
Movement Director – Denni Sayers
Lighting – Mark Henderson
Sound – Paul Groothuis
Musical Director – Nicholas Skilbeck

CAST: Michael Ball – Imelda Staunton – Luke Brady – Gillian Fitzpatrick – Lucy May Barker – John Bowe – Peter Polycarpou – James McConville – Robert Burt – Simeon Truby – Valda Aviks – Will Barratt – Josie Benson – Emily Bull – John Coates – Daniel Graham – Robin Landi – Brian McCann – Tim Morgan – Aoife Nally – Adam Pearce – Vincent Pirillo – Wendy Somerville – Anton Stephans – Kerry Washington – Annabelle Williams

Chichester Festival Theatre
Oaklands Park, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6AP
September 24 – November 5, 2011
Evenings 7.30pm/Matinees Wed . & Sat. 2.15pm
Box Office: 01234 781312

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