DIRECTOR Robert Readman decided to take Tim Burton and Hollywood head on by staging Sweeney Todd, reasoning that York Stage Musicals might as well have a slice of the action now.

He was rightly confident that Stephen Sondheim's songs would still better suit their natural habitat, and so he has restored Burton's judicious cuts to the score, not least the scene-setting The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd.

This establishes the look of the piece, designed by Readman himself, with sharp pinstripe drainpipes for the men, cleavage agogo for the women, and a claustrophobic London as dark as Sweeney's mood as he returns home seeking vengeance, 15 years after the demon barber was wrongly transported to Australia by Judge Turpin.

Fifteen years have passed too since John Hall first played Sweeney in York, and the added years suit his tremendous revival of the role, enhancing the older man's pressing need for revenge. His Sweeney wields a blade with cold, gothic poise yet his heart burns, and it is hard to recall Hall ever singing better. The human pie-making Mrs Lovett (Sandy Nicholson) is more to the fore than in Burton's film, and Nicholson's scenes, not only with Hall but also with Alex Deadman's naïve young assistant, Tobias Ragg, are the best of her musical career.

Deadman, such an engaging performer, is part of a team of impressive young principals in which company debutant Alistair Barron's Anthony sings mightily in declaring his love for Sophie Young's Johanna, and Alex Papachristou's The Beadle combines Dickens with A Clockwork Orange. Lee Gemmell, meanwhile, ages convincingly to play the corrupt judge with stern malevolence.

Not to be outdone, Neil Foster's faux-Italian barber, Pirelli, is the most flamboyant turn, while Juliet Waters's witch-like Beggar Woman has a haunting presence.

Readman's thrilling production loses its melodramatic menace late in the second half but has gothic humour, Hammer horror gore, sadness and characterful singing that relishes Sondheim's macabre wit and dextrous turns of phrase.


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