Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre has built its reputation on doing things a bit differently so you wouldn’t expect its Sweeney Todd to be the usual full-blown affair.
Under Nick Bagnall’s directorship, the gory tale of the barber seeking revenge for his lost family is completely stripped back.
Gone are the typically lavish stage sets - replaced by a ring of plain chairs surrounding a revolving metal circle.
The fancy period costumes have been swapped for modern dress, but not in a move the action to the 21st century to highlight the parallels with today sort of way.
It’s more like how kids transform into different characters by putting on a few things from a dressing-up box.
Meanwhile, instead of a full orchestra, the score is played by a handful of musicians sitting in one corner of the stage.
Stripped of all the embellishments, a production lives or dies on the merits of its raw materials.
The Everyman’s unvarnished version highlights just how strong Sweeney’s core components are - and in the hands of a restrained director and competent ensemble they added up to something really special.
There is plenty to work with - Stephen Sondheim’s beautiful score, which sounds glorious when pared back to just a piano, violin, clarinet, double bass and trumpet, and Hugh Wheeler’s cast of fiendish characters and bloodthirsty melodrama.
Liverpool’s own Liam Tobin moves between heartbroken husband and murderous avenger, bringing a huge depth of emotion to the lead role.
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EastEnders’ Kacey Ainsworth has bags of energy in her take on Mrs Lovett, in a performance that builds on rather than apes her famous predecessors.
Both leads struggle a bit with the complexities of the score but what they lack in voice they more than make up for in charisma.
There are some stand-out voices among the cast however - Emma Dears lifting the harmonies in the role of the Beggar Woman and Keziah Joseph’s Johanna bringing a real intensity to her opening song Green Finch and Linnet Bird.
Excellent casting has transformed what are essentially bit parts into some of most watchable characters in the show.
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Shiv Rabheru as Toby particularly stands out with a bouncy, exhilarating entrance that makes the audience sit up and pay intention.
And special mention has to go to the buckets of horribly realistic blood and gore emptied into the metal grill after each of Sweeney’s kills - the circle by the end glowing a menacing red like an entrance to hell.
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