THANK YOU'S
Principal Gough for letting us do this show in the first place.
Awesome 1st and 5th period Stage Crew students. Thank you for experiementing with buckets of blood with me.
Our awesome library staff and Main Office (for making programs, tickets and selling tickets).
All of the awesome MDT students-- I hope this show has been fun for you.
Last, but not least, Jackie, Millie and Ellis (shh... I won't tell anyone that Ellis is seeing this at age 11... also, if you have nightmares, wake your mom).
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
I first listened to Sweeney Todd in high school and became obsessed with the genius of Stephen Sondheim. I watched the orginal Broadway production with Angela Lansbury and was amazed at the physical size of that production. This show has always been on my bucket list of shows to do- but I never thought I would be able to do it at a high school.
In 2006, I was privileged to see the Broadway Revival of Sweeney Todd with Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone. This was a very scaled back production with the actors also performing the music as musicians. What I loved about that production is that it all took place in the same location- a mental asylum.
The production was small, itimate not particularily bloody... but was very creepy... which is what we're going for here.
For those of you familiar with the story of Sweeney Todd (the Tim Burton movie or the live musical), this version will be different from what you're used to.
In the original production, only Tobias, Johanna and Anthony survive Sweeney's murderous rampage. In our production, we assume all of the events in Sweeney Todd have happened, but that Tobias has been committed to an asylum and is compelled to re-enact what he witnessed over and over again with his fellow inmates. Our version takes place from Tobias's point of view with everyone trapped to do this sotry over and over again. With our stripped down version, I hope we do justice to Sondheim's genius music and lyrics and that you can focus on what happens when someone decides to live their life dicatated by revenge. --Mr. Clin Eaton
