Tim St. John ’26
Guest Writer
“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is a musical by Stephen Sondheim. The musical follows the story of the demon barber, Sweeney Todd (Jimmy Duffy), who seeks revenge on Judge Turpin (Daniel Rentel) for the wrongful imprisonment that separated him from his wife, Lucy (Lilly Percival). Todd sets up his barber shop above Mrs. Lovett’s (Bridget Campbell) meat pie shop. After Mrs. Lovett suggests using human bodies for meat in the pies, Sweeny kills his customers looking for a shave and Mrs. Lovett begins baking the bodies into her pies. I have seen my fair share of productions at Holy Cross and have been in three myself, starting rehearsal for the fourth this week. After seeing “Sweeney Todd,” I must say that this is my favorite production I have seen on campus. Director Meaghan Deiter has led this cast through three months of rehearsal and it has certainly paid off. I was very excited to see my roommate, Frank Amuso, and one of my best friends, Emily Fox, on stage in this production, so I made sure to purchase my tickets for opening night. After opening night, I was floored. Going into the show, I knew the general plot. I knew a solid number of twists and turns that the show would take, but even still I was shocked by so much. I ended up seeing the show three more times after opening night. I hyped up the show so much to my friends from home that I convinced them to come home for the weekend to see the show with me. Watching their reactions was priceless, as none of them knew much about the show going into it either. After the first weekend of shows wrapped, I found myself itching to be back in that theater, listening to Bridget eat up her performance of “The Worst Pies in London,” Zara Wilson and Michael Sheehan devour their performance of “Kiss Me,” Jimmy Duffy kill it (pun intended) singing “Epiphany,” and Matt Hollatz take the stage for “Not While I’m Around.” The ensemble brought the show together for me as well. They all sounded absolutely wonderful and I can tell how much work they put into the show to really bring it all together, which can also attest to the amazing members of the crew. I was so grateful to get to see all of my friends in this show, and could not be prouder of the work and time they have put into it. The number of times I have made the joke, “me when I attend the tale,” made a horrible pun about the show, or sang a song from it in the past week in a half is probably extremely annoying, and I admit that, but it’s only because everyone in the show is so unbelievably talented.
Copy Edited by Lily Wasmund ’28
Featured image courtesy of College of the Holy Cross
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