The most ambitious undertaking in the Creede Repertory Theatre’s 41-year history happens to be one almost no other theater company will touch. Because very few others can.
Stephen Sondheim’s landmark “Sweeney Todd” requires such vocal skill, it has of late become almost the exclusive domain of opera companies.
It has been 33 years since Sondheim took on the tale of the vengeful British barber who sliced 160 unfortunate customers before being hanged in 1801. But it has only been attempted by a handful of Colorado companies, most notably the Bonfils in 1983.
“We try not to distinguish between shows within our repertory season, but yes, this one is special,” said artistic director Maurice LaMee. “I just feel very lucky that we have this amazing stable of actors and designers, or we wouldn’t be trying it, either.”
It’s one thing for a Broadway house to sink its teeth – and its multimillion-dollar resources – into Mrs. Lovett’s human meat pies. One is doing so, to great success, right now in New York. But what made LaMee and director Frank Kuhn think they could pull it off in Creede, a remote summer company of great repute but limited means nestled in a remote mining town 250 miles southwest of Denver? One that has not one but six productions to mount nearly simultaneously?
And not just any shows. They include the massive tap spectacle “Crazy for You,” the Tony-nominated “Enchanted April,” the crazy comedy “Snake in the Grass” and the world premiere of Denverite Steven Cole Hughes’ “cowboyily.” LaMee is bringing up Denver Center stalwarts Anthony Powell and Jamie Horton to direct the latter two.
Given that this is a rep company that shares its casts, how could they possibly assemble enough properly trained singers, an opera-caliber musical director, the musicians and the financial resources a proper “Sweeney Todd” would require? Not to mention a scenic designer who could create the expansive, lurid world of Fleet Street, one that must be taken apart after every show?
“I honestly wondered about all that myself,” Kuhn said moments after his first full run-through, held seven days before tonight’s opening. “The only thing that made me think we could do it is I know this company’s commitment to quality, and I knew they would do everything they can to tell the story well.
“But I just told the cast that after today, it really looks like we can do this show. They were astounding, and it was only a rehearsal. It’s exciting, and it’s thrilling. I got a little choked up.”
If they are pulling it off now, it’s because two months ago, Kuhn and LaMee pulled off luring Broadway veteran Patrick Ryan Sullivan to spend his summer slicing skin in Creede.
Turns out, that was easy.
“I told Frank, I would walk a country mile to play that role,” said Sullivan, who has known Kuhn for seven years. It was also fortuitous they had a Broadway-caliber singer to play Mrs. Lovett already among the company members. Like many New York actors before and since, Peggy Pharr Wilson (co-creator of the cult hit “Six Women with Brain Death”) fell in love with Creede 12 years before and never left.
And when they snagged Josh Landay of the Denver Center’s National Theatre Conservatory to play the hero Anthony Hope, and found stunning University of Kansas master’s candidate Candice Bondank to play the ingenue Johanna, the major players were in place. The remaining cast, many longtime Creede performers and others found in auditions held in four states, resulted in a blend of faces both fresh and familiar. That was crucial to LaMee, out of respect for his long-term core audience.
For Kuhn, the return of “Sweeney Todd” from opera to the theater means a return to theatricality, where the emphasis is on story and acting as much as voice. He has re-imagined Joseph Papp’s original concept of an industrial revolution, instead framing it within the context of a wax museum.
“This is a story that’s been told and retold, and that’s what led me to the idea that you can only really scare people when you tell a story like that when you bring it to life,” said Kuhn.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
| “Sweeney Todd”
MUSICAL|Creede Repertory Theatre, 124 N. Main St., Creede|Written by Stephen Sondheim and High Wheeler|THROUGH SEPT. 2|8 p.m. today and Saturday, times then vary|$18-$25|719-658-2540, 866-658-2540, or creederep.org
