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32 LIVEMAGS.NET JANUARY>>10 dElICIOuS blOOdY HEll musical theatre West brings Sweeney TOdd, the demon barber oF Fleet street to atherton street. T WRITER>>Tova Morrison The most shadowy musical ever to come out of Broadway and devour its audiences with adrenaline rushes of bloody thrills is coming to town. Musical Theatre West brings Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street to the fabulous Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center beginning with a preview show on January 29, 2010. The production runs through Sunday February 14 for a total of 14 shows. The musical follows Benjamin Barker as he returns to London in the late 1800s. He comes back to the city that had disgorged him to an Australian exile, where he spent fifteen years serving a sentence for a crime he was not guilty of. Shaken by the news from his former neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, that the prosecuting judge defiled his beautiful wife Lucy Barker before she killed herself, he plans his revenge. He assumes the name Sweeney Todd, sharpens his shave-and-a-hair-cut razor blade and partners up with Mrs. Lovett by providing the meat for her sketchy pie restaurant. Obsessed with exacting retribution to the hoity-toity wealth of London, and specifically the unobtainable Judge Turpin, Todd gets into a habitual pattern of slitting throats and dumping his customers, by way of a swinging barber chair contraption, into the grinders of Mrs. Lovett's kitchen. Her pies, of course, grow in popularity because of the fresh supply of gourmet animal protein. This story is not all guts and lilting musical drama; funny comedic bursts are peppered into the play's musical fray. Legend has it, Sweeney Todd has been an archetype serial killer figure in British folklore since the 1700s. He would cut the throats of his male customers either before or after sending them down a trapdoor chute to his private hell beneath the London street. He may have been a real person, or a conglomeration of homicidal criminals and barbers, combined into one personality for early literary thrillers. This 1979 Stephen Sondheim masterpiece is based on the 1973 play of the same name, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, written by Christopher Bond. And Bond's play was adapted from a series of stories written for England's young workers about the suspicious barber Todd, titled "A String of Pearls." Norman Large embodies the lead role of Sweeney Todd. Large is familiar to Musical Theatre West and Long Beach audiences from the production of The Pirates of Penzance portraying Major General Stanley, and in La Cage aux Folles playing George. Both of these performances were nominated for Ovation Awards. On Broadway, Large performed in productions of Les Miserables, A Doll's Life and The Woman in White. He is also an active television actor, appearing in episodes of "Seinfeld," "NYPD Blue," and "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Harnessing his brilliant deep-timbre voice, Large is a sought after concert singer (you can hear why). Debbie Prutsman, who headlines as Mrs. Lovett, performs exclusively in Southern California to be near her home and family in Redlands, CA. No stranger to musical theater, she is in the middle of touring with the Cabaret Pops Orchestra as guest vocalist in their show: "The Hot New Musicals: 'Mama Mia' to 'Thoroughly Modern Milly,' 'Wicked' to 'Les Miz.' Calvin Remsberg directs this sweet Sweeney ensemble in Long Beach, as he did for the 20th Anniversary production of Sweeney Todd at the Ahmanson Theater with an all-star cast featuring Kelsey Grammer, Christine Baranski and Neil Patrick Harris. An accomplished director, Remsberg's credits include Hermosa Beach Playhouse's Educating Rita and Dracula and for the Cabrillo Music Theater The Sound of Music. He directed Urinetown for Interact and for West Coast Ensemble Sunday in the Park with George, both of which received nominations for Best Musical from the Ovation Awards. Musical director John Glaudini returns to Musical Theatre West after directing The Andrews Brothers production. The backbone of this production is producer and executive director Paul Garman. Sondheim's Sweeney Todd premiered at the Uris Theatre in March of 1979 and was directed by the renowned Harold Prince, starring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou. Immediately popular with spectators and critics, the musical thriller swept the Tony Awards that year by winning eight out of its nine nominations, including the Tony for Best Musical of 1979. Sweeney Todd's Broadway run lasted for over 550 performances. INFO Musical Theatre West Box Office 4350 East 7th Street, Long Beach (562) 856-1999 | www.musical.org t i c k e t s o n s a l e n o W ! ! Jan 29 - FEb 14, 2010 TiCkeTS $30 TO $80