A Victorian melodrama in a Victorian music hall. Perfect. But this was no ordinary melodrama, this was Sweeney Todd, or, to give this play its original title, The String Of Pearls, writes Michael Holland.
But there were other factors that made this production extraordinary: Opera Bella Luna had carried out very deep research to seek out original music from that time, music by Michael Balfe, Julius Benedict and Henry Bishop, who had all worked at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Covent Garden Opera House, men steeped in the traditions of opera.
The company had sought information on the very first performance of The String Of Pearls, in the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, just a mile or so north of Wilton’s Music Hall where it would soon begin its short run, and they had discovered the real meaning of the word ‘melodrama’ and found it to be a way that theatres could get around stupid bylaws to put on shows. And, basically, it was by adding music. Hence the ten-piece orchestra with Toby Purser conducting.
The String Of Pearls was adapted from a ‘Penny Dreadful’ novel but soon became the talk of the theatre world. It was a simple story of how a demon barber came by a pearl necklace, with the main parts being the barber’s apprentice and the lady who the pearls were for. But with Sweeney Todd playing a fiendish barber cutting his customers’ throats from ear to ear with a relish rarely seen in those times, the character soon became the mainstay of the work.
The programme notes spoke of legendary theatre owner Tod Slaughter putting the play in his ‘blood and thunder’ theatre in the Elephant and Castle in the 1920s, gaining it more notoriety to add to the infamy bestowed upon it by the broadsheets who were aghast, calling it ‘too horribly repulsive to invite criticism’..
And here we are now, 2023 in a space that is ideal for such productions, with the cast playing it just as they would have done almost 200 years ago with the orchestra providing a soundtrack that conveyed fear, danger, love and happiness. The only difference is that today’s audiences are not so easily shocked, and that type of histrionic acting which needed over-the-top facial expressions and exaggerated movement to get the message up to those in the gods seems quite hilarious now. Todd himself was all glaring eyes, jutting chin and evil eyebrows.
But this is what we came to see and we bought right into it. It wasn’t long into the performance before we were booing and hissing every entrance of the Fiend of Fleet Street, only for him to castigate us in return. I’m sure I saw one of the pretty damsels in distress actually put the back of her hand to her forehead before going into a partial swoon, and somebody did cry out, ‘He’s behind you!’ just before some poor soul was about to be butchered.… Delicious stuff that we lapped up with gusto.
The cast of seven, playing twenty characters, was faultless. They even made jokes about it, wondering where Colonel Jeffries was when the actor was already on stage as the lecherous Reverend Lupin. And the names! Bully Gregson, Sneaking Joe, Tom Cutaway… What unadulterated joy.
Jarvis Williams, who had fallen on hard times, was offered the pie-making vacancy (after the last pieman ended up in the oven…) with all the pies he could eat as wages, plus lodgings. He was so happy he sang about the ‘Lovely Pies’ while not being too bothered about the fingernails he found in them!
And more fun was to be had with the sound effects of doors creaking and slamming, and keys turning in locks, all courtesy of the orchestra to great comic effect. The violinist had to stifle his giggles each time he produced an eerily creaking door.
I cannot praise this production enough. Everything about it is flawless.
Wilton’s Music Hall, Graces Alley, London E1 8JB until 29th April. Tues-Sat 7.30pm; Saturday matinees 2.30 pm. Admission: £17 – £32.
Booking: http://www.wiltons.org.uk/
