Off-Broadway ‘Sweeney Todd’ features Muse Machine alumna
Former Centerville resident portrays Johanna Barker.
If you’re heading to New York City, take time to attend the tale of “Sweeney Todd” off-Broadway thanks to Muse Machine alumna Alex Finke’s luminous portrayal of the innocent, sheltered and emotionally rattled Johanna Barker.
The Alter High School and University of Michigan graduate who grew up in Centerville beautifully accents one of the most astoundingly intimate and immersive revivals of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s dark 1979 Tony Award-winning masterpiece. Set in 19th century London in the neighborhood of Fleet Street, the musically glorious show concerns a sadistic, unjustly convicted barber seeking revenge on society. With help from kooky restauranteur Mrs. Nellie Lovett, he murders his customers whose bodies become meat pies.
Direct from London’s West End, the critically acclaimed production is housed inside Greenwich Village’s snug Barrow Street Theatre, which has been ingeniously transformed into a pie shop befitting the story. As seen at its outstanding Sunday, March 5 matinee, the show is filled with riveting immediacy and shock value. The versatile eight-member cast regularly leaves the stage to perform on four dining tables placed in the audience, interacting with glee and menace. In fact, the entire experience, simultaneously compelling and jolting, gives refreshing meaning to the lyric “isn’t that Sweeney there beside you?”
“To be part of this ‘Sweeney’ revival with such a refreshing and different take on the material has been thrilling to say the very least,” said Finke who memorably portrayed the title roles in Muse Machine’s productions of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Peter Pan.” “The musical is so beloved, especially by the New York crowd, and it has been exciting to have people who are huge fans of the show come to our production and say they have found a new appreciation for the piece. They are hearing and seeing things they never have before and I think that is largely due to the staging and design. Mr. Sondheim was inspired by the film score of ‘Hangover Square’ when he approached ‘Sweeney Todd ‘and even says himself in his book ‘Finishing the Hat’ that ‘Sweeney Todd’ is a movie for the stage. There is something incredibly filmic about putting the material in such an intimate setting with the immersive approach. There is no separation between the actors on stage and the audience in the dark. Everyone is part of the gritty, suspenseful story.”
In Act 1, Finke skillfully interprets “Green Finch and Linnet Bird,” a tender ballad express-