Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel star in LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert with the New York Philharmonic”
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“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” the 1979 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, got a fabulous stripped-down staging directed by Lonny Price in the New York Philharmonic’s acclaimed production, airing on PBS’ “Live From Lincoln Center,” 9-11:30 p.m. Sept. 26 on RMPBS.
Attend the tale of : the iconic musical thriller which Sondheim called his “dark operetta,” staged in March 2014 to a sold-out crowd at Avery Fisher Hall, is the story of revenge on the part of a barber who was unjustly exiled by a lecherous judge in 19th century London. The judge sent the barber away on trumped up charges and ravaged his young wife.
Now the barber, with his romantically inclined landlady, Mrs. Lovett the piemaker, seeks bloody vengeance from his barber chair, upstairs of her pie shop. Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel is frighteningly good in the title role. In her Philharmonic debut Academy Award-winning actress Emma Thompson is hilarious as Mrs. Lovett, throwing in more physical shtick than expected. Christian Borle, Audra McDonald and others round out the cast.
