Cutting-edge Theater
August 21st, 2012
With all the creative facial hair around Portland — from handlebar mustaches to free-styling full beards — you’d think this would be a dangerous place for Portland Center Stage’s Sweeney Todd. But the soup strainers of Stumptown are courageous in their own right, so expect plenty of morbid interest in the demon barber of Fleet Street.
Running Sept. 18 to Oct. 21, this masterful musical hits all the highs and lows of the maniacal lead character as it follows his quest for vengeance upon his return from 15 years in prison. Both devilishly funny and delightfully dramatic, the 1979 Steven Sondheim production almost swept the Tony Awards after its release. And since then, the savage stylist and his barbarous baker friend, Mrs. Lovett, have cut it up on screens and stages across the globe, most notably in the 2007 motion picture starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton. Directed by Chris Coleman — whose nearly 10-year stint with the theater company has established the Gerding Theater as one of the nation’s most inspired, youthful stages — the play promises to be good, clean, murderous fun.
Tags: performing arts, portland center st, Theater
