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SWEENEY TODD at the Twickenham Theatre adds 5 extra performances

After universal critical acclaim and selling out every one of its planned 26 performances, David Adkin and Twickenham Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is adding 5 extra performances due to extraordinary and overwhelming public demand. 

The extra shows are: Tuesday 7 October at 7.45pm, Wednesday 8 October at 7.45pm, Thursday 9 October at 7.45pm, Friday 10 October at 7.45 and Sunday 12 October at 3.00pm. 

Tickets will go on sale from 3.00pm today from www.twickenhamtheatre.com

Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel in SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

Lonny Price will direct Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson in Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, A Musical Thriller, the first production in a major new long term partnership between English National Opera (ENO) and the GradeLinnit Company. 

The strictly limited run of 13 performances at ENO’s London Coliseum begins on 30 March 2015 with press night on 31 March and final performance on 12 April 2015. The ENO orchestra, conducted by David Charles Abell, will appear on stage alongside the cast in this semi-staged production which was originally produced by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center earlier this year, with orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick.  Further casting will be announced shortly.  

INTERVIEW: David Bedella & Sarah Ingram, soon to be starring in Sweeney Todd at the Twickenham Theatre

David Bedella is a triple award winner, named Best Actor in a Musical at the 2004 Olivier Awards, the Evening Standard Awards, and The Critics Circle Awards, for creating the role of the warm-up man Jonathan Weiruss/Satan in Jerry Springer The Opera. On television David most notably played Dr Carlos Fashola in Holby City. His other West End starring roles include Frank n Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Billy Flynn in Chicago, and Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. In the past year he played Man 1 in the acclaimed production of Sondheim’s Putting It Together at St.James Theatre and Kevin in Into The Heights at Southwark Playhouse.

Sarah Ingram's extensive credits include Josie in TABOO (Brixton Club House), Miss Hannigan in Annie (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Roadshow (Menier Chocolate Factory), Hannah Owens in Flashdance (Shaftesbury Theatre), Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls (Kilworth Theatre, Leicester), Mrs Blair in Inherit the Wind (Old Vic), Ursula & u/s Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (Open Air Theatre), Sarah/Naomi in Imgine This (New London Theatre & Theatre Royal, Plymouth), Lina Lamont in Singin’ in the Rain (Courtyard Theatre), Mrs O’Brien in Showboat  (Royal Albert Hall), Ado Annie in Oklahoma (Royal National Theatre & Lyceum Theatre) & Laurey in Oklahoma (UK Tour).

They will be playing Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd when it starts performances at the Twickenham Theatre

Sweeney Todd at the Twickenham Theatre | First photo released!

Olivier Award winner David Bedella will play razor-wielding madman Sweeney Todd and Sarah Ingram his pie-making partner in crime, Mrs Lovett, in an intimate new production of the Tony Award and Olivier Award-winning musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. 

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler, will kick-off the autumn season at Twickenham Theatre in West London. It will start previews on Wednesday 10 September and runs to Saturday 4 October.

David Bedella was a triple award winner, named Best Actor in a Musical at the 2004 Olivier Awards, the Evening Standard Awards, and The Critics Circle Awards, for creating the role of the warm-up man Jonathan Weiruss/Satan in Jerry Springer The Opera. He appeared in the role at the National Theatre, in the West End, the Sydney Opera House and in New York in a concert version at Carnegie Hall. On television David most notably played Dr Carlos Fashola in Holby City and more recently guest starred in By Any Means and Inside No. 9, all for BBC, and his film credits include Alexander and Batman Begins. His other West End starring roles include Frank n Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, Billy Flynn in Chicago, and Hedwig inHedwig and the Angry Inch. He starred as Arnold in Torch Song Trilogy and Wilson Mizner in Sondheim’s Road Show, both at the Menier Chocolate Factory. In the past year he played Man 1 in the acclaimed production of Sondheim’s Putting It Together at St.James Theatre and Kevin in Into The Heights at Southwark Playhouse. 

SWEENEY TODD at the Twickenham Theatre announces cast, David Bedella & Sarah Ingram star

Olivier Award winner David Bedella will play razor-wielding madman Sweeney Todd and Sarah Ingram his pie-making partner in crime, Mrs Lovett, in an intimate new production of the Tony Award and Olivier Award-winning musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler, will kick-off the autumn season at Twickenham Theatre in West London. It will start previews on Wednesday 10 September and runs to Saturday 4 October.

Press night is Tuesday 16 September at 7.45pm.

The new venue’s first in-house show is a co-production with West End producer David Adkin.

Olivier Awards: Full Short List of nominations

BEST ACTOR

James McAvoy for Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios
Luke Treadaway for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the NT Cottesloe & the Apollo
Mark Rylance for Twelfth Night at Shakespeare's Globe & the Apollo
Rafe Spall for Constellations at the Royal Court & the Duke of York's
Rupert Everett for The Judas Kiss at Hampstead & the Duke of York's

BEST ACTRESS
Billie Piper for The Effect at the NT Cottesloe
Hattie Morahan for A Doll’s House at the Young Vic
Helen Mirren for The Audience at the Gielgud
Kristin Scott Thomas for Old Times at the Harold Pinter

Sweeney Todd the Musical: Theatre Review

The classic musical Sweeney Todd which was recently turned into a Hollywood movie starring Johnny Deep and Helena Bonham Carter in 2007 was first staged on Broadway in 1979 and closed the following year earning itself Nine Tony Award nominations, winning eight of them including Best Musical. The show transferred to London in 1980 closing later that year; despite the mixed reviews the show won Best Musical at the Olivier Awards. The show has since then had multiple revivals on Broadway in 1989 and 2005 and in London in 1993, 2004 and the most recent Chichester Production which transferred to the West End in March 2012.

The show recieved positive reviews from critics and was labelled a must see by everyone who saw it, so it was only right that the production made its way over to London so West End audiences could experience it. The score by Stephen Sondheim is intelligent and interesting, his lyrics are very powerful and every song was a moving moment for all characters. However I can't help but feel a few of the songs were a bit much to take in a at times, I zoned out in a few of them and was thinking about what I was going to have for dinner the next day. But they were delivered brilliantly by the cast and were modernised greatly in this production while still keeping the original essence that Sondheim intended to have.