Whitefish Theatre Company Embraces Macabre, Musical Challenge of “Sweeney Todd”

Having been involved in theater for 40 years, Rob Koelzer said that his upcoming role is his most challenging yet, and in quiet moments, usually on the weekends, the actor and construction safety manager can be found pacing in his kitchen, running through his lines for hours on end until muscle memory takes hold.

A missed line often means Koelzer will start back at the beginning. It’s a process that might sound maddening to some, which is fitting considering the role Koelzer is trying to perfect.

In an upcoming Whitefish Theatre Company production, Koelzer will be playing Sweeney Todd, a vengeance driven barber armed with a sterling silver straight razor whose murderous streak in Victorian England and pursuit of the judge who he believes wronged him plays out on stage in Stephen Sondheim’s musical, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” The title character originally comes from 18^th century penny dreadful serialized fiction.

Sweeney Todd’s accomplice, a pie maker named Mrs. Lovett, played by Amy Price, helps cover up Todd’s crimes and cutdown on business costs by adjusting her recipes in unsettling ways. In promotional materials, the theatre company has called the play “a bloody good time,” in which Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett “sing their way through murder and mischief to the top of the food chain in this morbidly funny musical that promises to be a tasty and theatrical treat.”

Price, like Koelzer, has also found this to be her most challenging role yet. Also like Koelzer, she somehow always finds herself in spare moments pacing in her kitchen, and rehearsing lines, with a flubbed line prompting a restart. She wakes up singing Sondheim, and sometimes in a moment where she’s grasping for a word or line, a family member in earshot will supply it.

The premise of “Sweeney Todd” is undoubtedly macabre and a good fit for the Halloween season. Director Kim Krueger said the play grows darker as it progresses but noted that there are moments of levity and humor throughout that cut through some of the growing tension. At a recent rehearsal amid moments of rage, revenge and musical theater, some members of the cast on multiple occasions couldn’t help but break out laughing at Mrs. Lovett’s deranged sense of humor. 

What makes this play, and these roles, so difficult? Koelzer initially answered by simply saying, “It’s Sondheim,” but then elaborated.

“The complexity of Sondheim’s music is probably the hardest part,” Koelzer said.

“All the different ins-and-outs of everyone singing at the same time, and it’s rhythmic. If he’s off or I’m off, it’s a domino effect,” Price responded.

“And he has a lot of cacophonous type sounds,” Koelzer said. “They’re not normal melodies that are normal to your ear. They kind of grind against each other, a little bit dissonant. There’s a lot of that going on.”

The songs often feature multiple cast members singing different lines that overlap and complement each other when timed up correctly, and the people of Fleet Street appear and disappear in a chorus that provides an overarching narration for Sweeney Todd’s descent into the depths of revenge.

For certain performers, the difficulty of this play, and Sondheim’s complex songwriting, present the kind of challenge that drives interest. Krueger saw proof of that in robust turnouts for auditions.

“This is one of those ones, you know it’s going to be hard, so you want to be committed, but everybody wants to do it,” she said.  

 For his part, Koelzer said he didn’t write down Sweeney Todd as his preferred role, but it’s still the one he was tabbed for after auditioning. He sees himself as a relatively expressive actor who is in a role which calls for emotions to be bottled up.

“When he goes off, you’re gonna see it,” Koelzer said. “So that’s kind of the hardest part. You can do a lot of emotion just by facial expression, or just the expression in your eyes.”

“Or how you deliver a line,” Price said.

For some involved with the play, it’s taken on greater significance because of Sondheim’s death in November 2021. Koelzer said he likes to think the playwright’s spirit is hanging around the O’Shaugnessy Center, helping them make the play.

“Or making it more difficult,” he said.

Sweeney Todd will run from Oct. 20 through Oct. 23 and Oct. 27 through Oct. 30. Tickets are $25 for adults, $23 for seniors and $10 for students. Sneak peak tickets for the Oct. 20 show are available only at the door for $12 for adults and $10 for students. For more information go to www.whitefishtheatreco.com.