The Best Show On Broadway Right Now Is Playing At The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

                          When Harold Prince and Stephen Sondheim first presented "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway, in early 1979, at the then Uris Theatre, they set the standard for the magnificence of the production.  Set in a meat foundry, with factory whistles, and a grotesque prologue involving a ghoulish looking white-faced undertaker and organist playing the Prologue dirge before the start of the show, the audience was instantly immersed in the world this story was about to tell.

                           Now, Thomas Kail is not Harold Prince.  But remarkably, he and his production team have managed to restore "Sweeney Todd" to the magnificent grandeur it should have whenever performed, but seldom does.  Starting with a full orchestra playing Jonhathan Tunick's orchestrations, this is the finest production since the original.  I feel privileged to have seen both in my lifetime, and I doubt the like of this will not be seen for some time to come.

                             Where to start?  With whom I have been raving about prior to this--Josh Groban and Ruthie Ann Miles.  Groban's voice is beautifully controlled and perfectly enunciated.  He gives such a deep emotionality to the songs, no matter the mood his character is in.  His "Epiphany" is heartbreaking, as is the final scene, played both by Josh and Ruthie.  As for Ruthie Ann Miles, she is currently giving the most heartbreaking performance on Broadway, as the Beggar Woman, since another Ruthie--Ruthie Henshall--sang Fantine in "The 1997 Tenth Anniversary Concert Of 'Les Misérables.' "  Some have played the role comically, but Ruthie is the first to tragically humanize her, so that when the big reveal arrives, it is even more devastating.  Steven Hoggett's choreography is more movement than dance, and it works well, especially in Act Two when actors and set merge to become Fogg's Asylum, where Johanna is then being kept.  When Josh and Ruthie are on stage, the show is at its best, and they simply walk off with it.

                                As for the rest, well there are a few axes to grind.  The silhouetted staging of "Poor Thing" does less for that number than it should, and many first timers may not understand what is going on.   As for Annaleigh Ashford, and Mrs. Lovett, well she dares not copy Angela Lansbury, nor could she, and while she makes the role her own, at times she garbles her words, especially in the final scene, where, if this score was not in my bloodstream, I might not have understood what was being sung.  Also, Maria Bilbao is a fine Johanna, but that is not good enough to do justice to a song like "Green Finch And Linnet Bird."  When her voice should soar, it becomes shrill, but, when she sings with Daniel Yearwood, as Anthony, their voices blend beautifully.  Back in 1979, when the brilliant Sarah Rice perfectly realized this role, I said that, had the show been done in the 1950's, Barbara Cook undoubtedly would have been Johanna.  That is the vocal quality needed for the role and while Miss Bilbao is good, she is not good enough.  Oh, and I wish Jamie Jackson had been more sinister as Judge Turpin.  He is no match for Edmund Lyndeck.  But John Rapson, as Beadle Bamford, demonstrates there are still some good countertenors out there.

                                Back to Mr. Groban.  His is one of the finest male performances I have seen on the musical stage, equaling Len Cariou in the original.  Groban plays a more sympathetic, broken-hearted Todd, and when he delivers the Act Two line that always restores me to my mother's death--"If only angels could prevail, we'd be the way we were."--it was as though he understood exactly how I felt.  And vice versa.  This is a killer role, sure to place demands on any actor, but Groban is more than up to it, as long as he takes good care of himself.  To give the performance I saw, he must be.

                                  Audiences will not see a 'Sweeney' this good till most of us are gone.  I urge those now, especially who have not seen it, to go witness this production, which is as definitive for 2023, as the 1979 staging was for its time.   And hosannas for Josh and Ruthie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                    "Sweeney wishes the world away, Sweeney wishes for yesterday," goes a lyric in a refrain.  Audiences who see this will have theatrical wishes come true.  Those who don't will, indeed, wish for yesterday.

                                       I cannot anticipate a production I will come to praise more highly!!!!!!!!!!!!