After a successful run of their fall play “Twelfth Night” and various wins at Hart District Theatre Festival in February, Canyon Drama is back to changing audience’s lives, but this time with the remarkable show “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
The play is about Sweeney Todd, a former barber, returning back to London after being wrongfully exiled due to false allegations from a lustful judge.
Many years later, Todd returns to London with the sailor Anthony seeking vengeance against Judge Turpin and his assistant Beadle Bamford.
Todd finds that the lower level of his former home is now occupied by the dedicated and witty Mrs. Lovett who runs a struggling meat pie business. Despite her rather barren shop, she rushes for the opportunity to serve Todd a meal—or, in her words, “the worst pies in London.”
Conversation quickly sparks between the duo after briefly meeting. Lovett offers Todd his old room upstairs to continue his previous barber business—or for him, an opportunity to begin his revenge.
Meanwhile, Anthony comes across a young woman named Johanna, daughter of Todd himself, who has been held captive by Judge Turpin her whole life. He becomes determined to save the gorgeous woman from her captivity and marry her.
Lovett and Todd’s newfound friendship sparks a relationship to quickly blossom; however, that friendship also leads to chaos in London.
In Canyon Drama’s production of “Sweeney Todd,” drama director Art Miller decided to set it during World War II rather than setting the show during the Victorian era.
Miller explained that setting the show during the Blitz of London fit the impact that the citizens in “Sweeney Todd” experience. Another reason for changing the time period of the show was because “it also gives a chance to update costumes, to look at different palettes of color, and to give a new life to a piece that is traditionally done in one type of setting.”
I also recently spoke to Evie Greene, Canyon Drama’s remarkable Mrs. Lovett, about what she is going to miss the most not only from this show, but from Canyon Drama in general, since this is their last mainstream musical.
Greene kindly spoke about her cast members, including Emily Sproule who plays Tobias and Josh Ighodaro who plays the infamous Sweeney Todd. She stated: “Josh and I have been this kind of duo for a lot of projects, and this being my last close role with him is gonna break my heart for sure. As for working with Emily, we have been doing shows together since junior high, and my familial relationship with her in this show really hits hard for me.”
Canyon Drama invites everyone to attend the tale of Sweeney Todd from March 26 to 28 in Canyon’s Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. each night! Canyon’s shows are always something new and fresh, regardless of how popular a show is. These students are always bringing new life to every production; you do not want to miss this show.
