Quad City Music Guild's “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" at the Prospect Park Auditorium -- November 10 through 19.
Friday, November 10, through Sunday, November 19
Prospect Park Auditorium, 1584 34th Avenue, Moline IL
A deliciously macabre musical masterpiece that has won 12 Tony Awards between its 1979 Broadway debut and numerous revivals, composer Stephen Sondheim's and Hugh Wheeler's bloody-good Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street closes Quad City Music Guild's 2023 season, its November 10 through 19 run sure to demonstrate why the show is widely considered one of the finest American musicals of the last 50 years.
Certainly among the darkest musicals ever written, Sweeney Todd tells the infamous tale of an unjustly exiled barber who returns to 19th-century London intent on seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett’s luck sharply shifts, however, when Todd’s thirst for blood inspires the integration of an ingredient into her meat pies that has the people of London lining up ... and the carnage has only just begun. Boasting what is perhaps Sondheim's most perfectly executed score, Sweeney Todd has been an international phenomenon for close to a half-century, recently winning Tonys for its 2023 Broadway revival and inspiring an Academy Award-winning film in director Tim Burton's and star Johnny Depp's 2007 release.
Directing and choregraphing Sweeney Todd's new area staging is Luke Vermeire, a Music Guild talent who also helmed Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn in 2021 and has served as set designer for productions including Mamma Mia!, Something Rotten!, and Jekyll & Hyde. Fellow Music Guild veteran Mike Turczynski acts as Vermeire's assistant director, with addition members of the creative team including: music director Michelle Carter; assistant music director Jonathan Turner; stage manager (and Reader reviewer) Roger Pavey Jr.; set designer Robert Crist; costume designer Lee Mclain; lighting designer Brittney Crist; sound designer Kayla Lee; props designer Izzy Holmes; makeup designer Nikki Murray; and producer Ryan Mantle.
An audience favorite from such Music Guild roles as Beauty & the Beast's Gaston, Les Misérables Enjolras, and Little Shop of Horrors' Orin Scrivello DDS, Rob Keech portrays the murderous title character, with Music Guild's similarly adored Shana Kulhavy (Disaster!, 9 to 5: The Musical, A Christmas Story: The Musical) serving up meat pies as Mrs. Lovett. Additional members of Sweeney Todd's featured cast include: David Edwards; Will Emerle; Hillary Erb; Colleen Houlihan; Jordyn Mitchell; Caleb Swinney; and Michael Van Belle. And with two dozen area performers completing the production's cast, the treble ensemble is composed of Crista Ashcraft, Pam Cantrell, Jennifer Cook Gregory, Madison Duling, Adrienne Evans, Emmalee Hilburn, Paulla Houston, Kathryn Jecklyn, Abigail Krug, Stephanie Moeller, Valeree Pieper, and Emily Schwartz, while the bass ensemble features Rishem Bhogal, Drew DeKeyrel, Tim Dominicus, Michael Dunn, Evan Gagliardo, Benjamin Graham, Mark Holmes, Benjamin LaFayette, Phoenix Mahannah, Joe Urbaitis, Makis Witt, and Adrick Woodruff.
Quad City Music Guild's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street runs in Moline's Prospect Park Auditorium from November 10 through 19, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Admission to the R-rated show is $15-20, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)762-6610 and visiting QCMusicGuild.com.
