Sweeny Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Starring JUDY KAYE and DAVID HESS
Slices Its Way into Dallas
By Madelyn Miller, the TravelLady The national tour of John Doyle's recent Tony Award®-winning Broadway production
of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's SWEENEY TODD, The Demon Barber of Fleet
Street, will play The Majestic Theatre in Dallas January 15-20, 2008. The
touring production of Doyle's revolutionary re-imagining of the musical –
considered to be Sondheim's masterpiece – will star Judy Kaye (The Phantom of
the Opera, Mamma Mia!) as Mrs. Lovett and David Hess as the demon barber
himself, Sweeney Todd. SWEENEY TODD is part of the Dallas Summer Musicals'
Broadway Contemporary Series, presented by Comerica.
Single tickets for SWEENEY TODD, priced from $17-$62, are on sale now at The Box
Office, 542 Preston Royal Shopping Center, and all Ticketmaster outlets
including The Majestic Theatre. Tickets are also available by calling
214-631-ARTS (2787) or online at www.ticketmaster.com . For groups of 20 or
more, please call 214-426-GROUP.
This exciting and innovative new production features a multi-talented ensemble
of ten talented actors/musicians, five from the 2006 Tony®-Award winning
Broadway company. The Wall Street Journal says, "The greatest musical of the
past half-century has returned in a staging of the utmost force and
originality!" and Time Out New York calls Doyle's revival "The most addictively
delicious dish on Broadway in years!"
SWEENEY TODD is based on the 19th century legend of a London barber driven to a
life of crime after a malevolent judge takes his wife and child from him.
Sweeney's plan for revenge includes a cutthroat partnership with Mrs. Lovett –
an enterprising businesswoman – who is soon producing the tastiest meat pies in
London.
Directed and designed by Doyle, who won the 2006 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer
Critics Circle Awards for this production, SWEENEY TODD features music and
lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by
Christopher Bond, and music supervision and orchestrations by Sarah Travis, who
won a 2006 Tony® Award for SWEENEY TODD. The creative team includes lighting
designer Richard Jones, and sound designer Dan Moses Schreier.
Doyle's production of SWEENEY TODD opened on Broadway in 2005 to universal
critical acclaim where it won the Drama League, Drama Desk and Outer Critics
Circle Awards for Best Revival of a Musical, and was awarded a Special Citation
by the New York Drama Critics Circle. It arrived on Broadway from a highly
successful London engagement originally staged by the Watermill Theatre, which
transferred first to the Trafalgar Studios in London's West End in July 2004 to
wide critical acclaim, then to the New Ambassadors Theatre where it ran for a
limited engagement that closed on February 5, 2005.
JUDY KAYE appeared in Sweeney Todd on Broadway last summer as Mrs. Lovett. Her
other Broadway credits include The Phantom of the Opera (Tony® Award, Drama Desk
nomination); Mamma Mia! (Tony® and Drama Desk nominations); On the Twentieth
Century (Theatre World Award, Drama Desk nomination); Ragtime (Theatre LA
Ovation Award); and Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins
(Tony® nomination). She recently finished an acclaimed performance in Zorba for
the Reprise Series in Los Angeles. Ms. Kaye has appeared with symphony
orchestras around the world, and has sung at the White House twice.
DAVID HESS's Broadway credits include Sweeney Todd and Annie Get Your Gun. He
has appeared Off-Broadway in Lincoln Center's Dessa Rose, Prodigal, and Love in
a Thirsty Land, and has been seen around the country in the first national tour
of Ragtime. His regional theater credits include Jane Eyre (San Francisco Bay
Area Critics Award, Goodman Choice Award), Grand Hotel (Barrymore nominee),
Sweet Charity (Ben Payne nominee), and Shenandoah. Mr. Hess has been seen on TV
on "Dynasty," "Dallas," "One Life to Live," "General Hospital," "The Young and
the Restless," and "The Guiding Light."
The original production of SWEENEY TODD opened on Broadway at the Uris Theatre
(now the Gershwin) on March 1, 1979 in a production directed by Harold Prince.
The musical won eight 1979 Tony® Awards including Best Musical of the year.
A Dreamworks Pictures version of SWEENEY TODD , directed by Tim Burton and
starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, opened in Dallas in December.
The tour is being produced by Thomas Viertel , Steven Baruch, Marc Routh,
Richard Frankel, Ambassador Theatre Group, Adam Kenwright, Tulchin/Bartner/Bagert
and Live Nation .
Season sponsors for Dallas Summer Musicals, presented by Comerica Bank, are The
Dallas Morning News, WFAA TV Channel 8, and American Airlines.
Now celebrating its 68th season, Dallas Summer Musicals, Inc. (DSM) is the
largest producer of live theatrical entertainment in the Southwest, the second
oldest summer theater organization in the United States, and the sixth largest
non-profit theater company. DSM has been entertaining North Texas audiences with
the finest in live, musical theatre entertainment since 1941.
In addition to presenting national Broadway tours, DSM also produces shows on
Broadway, presents and tours local productions, and is involved in developing
new works. Dallas Summer Musicals' affiliates include DSM Management Group, Inc.
(DSMMGI), which manages the Music Hall at Fair Park and the historical Majestic
Theatre. In addition, DSM has its own school of musical theatre, which provides
quality education and outreach to the youth of Dallas. For more information
about Dallas Summer Musicals, visit their website at
www.dallassummermusicals.org or call 214-421-5678.
Madelyn
Miller is a travel and food writer who contributes to
www.travellady.com,
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