If you are looking for a bloody good musical then Sweeney Todd tops the bill.
There’s blood, there’s more blood and then it gets bloodier.
The Hammond School’s production is set in London in the Second World War, a time when there was definitely not enough meat to feed families, let alone fill pies.
And so Mrs Lovett, who runs Lovett’s Pie Shop, comes up with an ingenious alternative for the traditional beef, pork and lamb with her new found beau Sweeney Todd.
For those of you unfamiliar with Christopher Bond’s play of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street - based on the urban legend of the deadly dresser of hair - customers basically don’t get round to leaving a tip.
Students at the Hoole Bank performing arts school are so great in number that they were split into two casts. I saw the Baker cast with the mean and menacing Matthew Newman in the eponymous role, with a stature and demeanour (and sharp blade) that you certainly wouldn’t mess with.
But it is Megan-Hollie Robertson as Mrs Lovett who stole the show for me. The youngster had the maturity of a woman twice her age and portrayed the scheming but lovable pie maker cum butcher with insightful character. Whilst chopping off limbs and feeding them to the oven, she dreams of a retirement by the sea with her heart-throb, whose heart is alas elsewhere.
William Lukeman is delightfully simple as Tobias Rag, assistant to the pie maker, and evoked much pathos when he suddenly discovers his employers’ misdemeanours and is out of his depth.
I last saw Dexter Southern, who gave a commanding performance as Judge Turpin, in the King’s School production of Oh What a Lovely War. Here at the Hammond he was ably assisted by the creepy, obsequious Charlie Kemp as Beadle Bamford.
The ensemble work is outstanding, whether as crowds on the streets of London, an audience to a street performer or the swaying masses in the wards of Bedlam. Each and every actor brings character to their role, from the pregnant bystander to the patient playing with her hair. I recognised Joanna Mitton, who I last saw as Susan in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at the school, playing a very minor role but she gave as much to it as if she were the lead.
I always like to spot a rising star at The Hammond, and I would definitely buy a budgerigar from Rowan Armitt-Brewster.
As I said earlier, a bloody good show!
