The set-up for Sweeney Todd is straightforward. The demon barber of Fleet Street, who returns to London to seek vengeance, establishes a barber shop above a pie shop as part of his ruse. He kills his clients selectively and the bodies are callously dumped into the shop below, run by his partner in crime Mrs Lovett, who minces the victims for her meat pies.
But the set design in this production is unwieldy and distracting. The barber shop is perched on the back of a vehicle, which means "dead bodies" slide off the barber's chair and then off the vehicle before they walk into Mrs Lovett's oven.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Read the full story and more at $9.90/month
Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month
ST One Digital
$9.90/month
No contract
ST app access on 1 mobile device
Unlock these benefits
All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com
Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device
E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you