Bloody Good!

I never thought I’d say this, but I don’t quite mind Patti LuPone.

I usually hate her rotten, fucking, muddy-diction-spouting and grand-scream-singing guts so much I dream of killing her, slowly and painfully.

But right now…sigh…I don’t mind her…

In Sweeney Todd, that is. I got the new recording, where the ten cast members not only play all the roles; they also play all the instruments. It’s been called “Marat/Todd” in respectful deference to Peter Brock’s legendary direction of Marat/Sade. In the latter, the inmates of an asylum act out the gruesome death of the famously sadistic Marquis de Sade. In both shows, the inmates have literally taken over the asylum.

Now, I should love everything about Stephen Sondheim’s Grand Guignol show, but I don’t. Oh, sure, this story of a revenge-seeking barber with a lust for blood and a handy straight-edge razor has phenomenal, witty and catchy tunes. It is also dark and gory in a way that appeals to my wicked sense of gothic schadenfreude. However, I never quite got emotionally involved in the show – it didn’t scare me, I didn’t frankly care for the wronged Sweeney - or actually any of the characters, and the whole show didn’t say anything to me personally.

Now, when I imagine these half-crazed “inmates” playing music for each other and acting out all the characters, this show starts to touch a bit of claustrophobic dread in me. Finally, this Victorian London really feels like the dirty, stinking, rotting pit that Sweeney describes with such anger, disgust and venom.

There is something in this new Sweeney Todd that reminds me of the experiments that amoral scientists used to do with rats – putting too many in a small box with limited food and water and watching the rodents tear each other to bloody bits. Anyone who has read even a bit on human behavior will tell you that even the most civilized people will do this if their situation gets too dire. Remember Lord of the Flies? Ever watch an episode of Survivor?

This new Sweeney Todd reminds me that we each are not too far from that world of savagery.

And each and every one of the cast is so good – at singing and acting! Michael Cerveris (who also did a wonderful turn in Sondheim’s Assassins as John Wilkes Booth) seems to be on a train to become a legend Sondheim interpreter. And it even seems that Patti LuPone has curbed her shitty vocalese for something that is mostly more coherent and character-driven. Mostly. So much so, I don’t quite feel the urge to rip her limb from limb, as I normally do.