Shave and a haircut — if you dare.
The Kansas Wesleyan Theatre Arts Program and Theatre Salina are co-producing “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” Performances will be Fridays to Sundays on April 4-19, plus Thursday, April 17, at Theatre Salina in downtown Salina.
The story of the barber who seeks vengeance and justice by cutting his customers’ throats and the landlady who makes grisly meat pies from his victims has grown in importance since its premiere in 1979, with music by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler.
“I would call it the great American opera,” said David Corman, the production’s music director and KWU director of vocal music. “As musicals go, it truly goes into the operatic world, as far as the complexity of music. It’s an important piece in American music history. From the 1980s, it is entering the opera houses of the world.”
Corman likens it to “Shakespearean in its tragedy.”
“It reminds me a lot of the darkness of Macbeth,” he said.
Vickee Spicer, of Theatre Salina, is directing “Sweeney Todd,” and Kansas Wesleyan students and faculty will have much to do in the collaborative production. Fifteen current KWU students have taken parts from the leads to the ensemble in the collaborative production.
“The ensemble is super important,” Corman said, with several of the members having solos.
KWU students are playing in the orchestra, which will be conducted by Tyler Breneman, KWU pianist, and Dr. Leonardo Rosario, director of the KWU strings program. Breneman and Dr. Gustavo do Carmo, KWU assistant professor of music, each will play the piano and Rosario will play the violin for the performances.
Corman has introduced understudies for this collaboration, with some students covering two other roles in addition to learning their own parts. Corman called understudying “the hardest job in theatre.”
It’s important that KWU students have a wide range of experiences, said Michelle Dolan, executive director of music at Kansas Wesleyan — types of music, performance venues and directors.
This semester alone, KWU students have participated or will in “A Night at the Opera,” a fundraiser for the Temple, in March; the “Sweeney Todd” collaboration in April; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Salina Symphony in May.
For tickets to “Sweeney Todd,” call Theatre Salina or go online to salinatheatre.com/tickets/.
Story by Jean Kozubowski
