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Health & Fitness

Phoenix Stage Company Will Present 'Sweeney Todd'

A peek behind the scenes at the rehearsals at the PSC

The Phoenix Stage Company is hard at work rehearsing the iconic Stephen Sondheim horror musical of Sweeney Todd. I was able to attend a recent rehearsal at Naugatuck's only community theater.

The notoriously difficult music doesn't exactly roll off the tongue so much practice is required by any group of performers. The all-star cast that the PSC has assembled is well on their way to mastering it under the tight musical direction of Dan Porri. Many of them are traveling many miles to Naugatuck in order to be part of this production. Their director Ed Bassett mentioned to me that every member of the cast is invested in the production and it already shows.

Mr. Bassett is excited to be directing the show. He told the cast that he had spent the day buried in the script working out some of the details. He had entered all these notes on his copy of the enormous script, but he had a little trouble working with it on the music stand because it lowered whenever he touched it.

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This director confessed that he gets just a little nervous when asked a musical question, but after all, this is a musical. His stage directions tend to have a comic edge .and he kept everyone laughing as they made notes in their scripts. Someone in my family would have enjoyed that  despite the dark nature of the show, there were lots of references to Monty Python's Spamalot. And where else would you hear a music director saying "it doesn't have to be pretty; it has to be lunatic-like?"

John Dressel expertly played the ridiculously difficult score on the freshly tuned piano. Dan Checovetes will work on the lighting so that two scenes can happen on the opposite sides of the stage. Dan Porri had to sing the role of Tobias due to the illness of Richard Damaso and conduct the singers at the same time.

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Much of the rehearsal was dedicated to blocking, or telling the cast members where to stand on the stage and what to do as they stand there. During "City on Fire" lunatics will be snapping to the beats of the music. Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney will search for Tobias amongst the lunatics during the searching for Toby scenes. Blocking of this relatively small cast is still intricate on the small Phoenix stage.

The wonderful bass voice of Joe Harding as Sweeney fills the small theater and honestly gave me chills. The lovely Emily Diedrich plays young Johanna and I got to meet Stephen Michelsson who plays Anthony for the first time.

Mr. Michelsson, who was so good as Rapunzel's Prince in Into the Woods, has a beautiful tenor voice that is perfect for the role of the young sailor. He told me that learning the intricacies of Sondheim's music is probably the most difficult part of the role, so he listens to a recording of it every day. He was not able to attend rehearsals until August because he was busy appearing in Shrek at the Warner.

Marilyn Olsen has wanted to play Mrs. Lovett since 1979 when she saw Angela Lansbury in the role. She is aiming to make this performance somewhere between this actress' very funny take on the role and what she calls the earthiness of the performance of Patti Lupone. I was surprised to learn that this has been a role that she has wanted to play even longer than Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. I also noted some notes of her wonderful performance as the Witch in Into the Woods that I got to see in Brookfield. This is one talented lady and her performance left me wanting more.

Troy Bond, a member of the ensemble, lives in Naugatuck and remembers when the Phoenix was an arcade. When he learned that they needed guys for the ensemble, he figured why not?  Ensemble member Marsha Gaylord told me she sings tenor and alto depending on the song. Jonathan Ross is the creepy Judge Turpin with a fancy cane and his duets with Sweeney are so impressive.

As the director dismissed the ensemble and those who had roles that were not need for the rest of this rehearsal, he suggested that his goal is that by the next rehearsal everyone be off book for Act One. They will be busy studying their script this long weekend.

I will resist reviewing what I saw of the show and save it for my actual review of the entire show.  "A Little Priest" will be a show stopper, trust me. I had a little preview of the costumes and I am excited to see how they turn out.

Some of the buzz about this production is that the show is too big for the Phoenix stage, but rest assured that this director can handle any curve that the script throws him. I got to watch him work his magic as he reworked the blocking of the final scene, all for the better.Some of the actions have been taken from the revival version of the play, so there may be some surprises for some patrons.

Sweeney lovers and presumably family members of the cast have already bought out the opening weekend. If you don't want to miss this production, you had better order your tickets now by calling the box office.



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