Judy Kaye tackles 'Sweeny Todd' villian again
Lucy Van Pelt is no ray of sunshine. Just ask Charlie Brown. Especially during football season.
But when it comes to the wicked women that Judy Kaye has portrayed over the course of her long and stellar stage career, Lucy has to take a back seat to Mrs. Lovett. She's the accessory to Sweeney Todd's crimes and madness in Stephen Sondheim's acclaimed musical, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," the story of a madman bent on revenge - not the guy you want holding a razor next to your throat while he gives you a shave.
Two years ago, British director John Doyle staged a minimalist version of the musical in a small 216-seat theater in London, and it's been gaining momentum ever since. It went to Broadway, where Kaye eventually took over the role of Mrs. Lovett, and now the actress joins the tour, which makes its first official stop at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, Oct. 23 to Nov. 4.
"The thing about wicked people is that they don't know they're wicked," says Kaye, speaking on the phone from San Francisco, where the show is getting tuned up before the tour. "She's just a woman in love."
That's the kind of compassionate assessment you'd expect from the actor playing the role, but Mrs. Lovett has problems. Her devotion to Sweeney is blind, and her desire to please him and support him is going to take them both on a harrowing journey. She'll arm him with razors and protect his identity. And if you enjoy her meat pies, fine, but just don't ask for the recipe.
"Like all women, she thinks she can clean him up," says Kaye, explaining Mrs. Lovett's attraction to Sweeney. "He's got a few flaws, but what the hell?"
It says something, therefore, about the nature of theater and the empathy of audiences that these two irredeemable lowlifes seem to worm their way into the audience's heart.
"At times, the audience starts to root for them," says Kaye. "It's astonishing."
It's all part of a musical that Kaye says may be Sondheim's master work, to date. She's played Mrs. Lovett three times before, and she can tell you details of the score and lyrics that only someone who's been immersed in the music could know. And it only deepens her appreciation of the musical.
Sondheim - or, "Mr. Sondheim," as Kaye refers to him - "has a gift for the English language. He delights [audiences] with his wit, but he's also always telling the story, always deepening the emotion."
The Colonial is a grand stage, but this production had rather humble beginnings. "Sweeney Todd" is usually envisioned on a big scale - the original 1979 Broadway production included a 30-member cast and 27-piece symphonic orchestra - but the limitations that director-designer Doyle faced in that small London theater forced some changes.
"He devised something pretty thrilling," says Kaye. "He found actors who could also play instruments. We tell the story. It's very impressionistic."
Kaye is humble about her own contribution to the music - she says she plays a "mediocre tuba" in the show - but she adds that she's "blinded by the talent around me." Other cast members are accomplished at piano, cello, flute, accordion and more.
It's all in service of Sondheim's darkly entertaining musical. Overwhelmed by the music and spectacle of the show, it's easy to lose track of the very human story at its roots. People remember that Sweeney, based on a 19th-century English legend, is a monster, but they often forget how he got that way. He lost his wife to a corrupt judge, and now he's got an unquenchable thirst for revenge.
Sure, "Sweeney Todd" is also about the anger and resentment that's bred when abject poverty lives next to gaudy wealth, but "at its core, it's about revenge and how revenge will kill you," says Kaye. "It's pretty dark. There's nothing terribly wonderful in the show. [Sweeney] wants to hurt somebody. He's going to go on a rampage, and nothing good is going to come from it."
And then, perhaps realizing this isn't sounding like the ideal ad campaign for the show, she adds, "but there's also lots of laughter. And it's great for Halloween."
"Sweeney Todd"
Oct. 23 to Nov. 4
Tickets: $42.50-$91
617-931-2787