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Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. He served a dork and vengeful god.
The Family Favorite Musical of
Throat Slashing and Cannibalism
WHO: Sweeney Todd
WHERE: Morton Theatre
WHEN: Feb. 5,6, 12 8. 13
HOW MUCH: $10-515
The legendary demon barber of Fleet Street was, once upon a
time, a traditional bogeyman favorite for mothers chiding their chil
dren: “You better be good, or Sweeney Todd will come for you!“
they'd warn. Like the bogeyman, the Sweeney Todd figure was a
vague Jack-the-Ripper type threat, a folktale evil rather than a
definable person.
These are the facts, as illustrated by Stephen Sondheim's bloody
Broadway favorite Sweeney Todd, now being performed by Athens
Creative Theater (ACT): Benjamin Barker is a barber. He had a lovely
wife and daughter. Cruel Judge Turpin lusted after the wife and sent
Benjamin to sea.* Turpin rapes the wife in front of a tittering crowd
at a masquerade ball. The wife takes poison. Turpin takes the
daughter, Johanna, as his ward and leacherously peeps through the
keyhole of her room during her formative years. Barker returns, re
christens himself as Todd, hooks up with Mrs. Lovett, a ternble cook
but a sharp manipulator. Todd exacts his revenge on various people
with a barber's knife; Lovett whips up some
questionable meat pies that become the hit
of London ("God, that’s good!** customers
sing).
And somehow the audience is empathetic
to Todd's plight more than to that of his vic
tims. This strange sympathy is just one
unnerving element to the macabre musical,
and director Tom Coleman was aware of this
when he decided, with much reservation, to
present Sweeney Todd to a town traditionally
more receptive to standard family fare than
cheerful musicals about eating your neighbor.
“It was a big decision for me to go ahead
and do it," says Coleman, who likens the plot
to Shakespearean tragedy. “I was going.
Okay, the audiences here like Guys and Oolls,
Sound of Music, etc'..I let a lot of people talk
me into doing this show. I was scared of
doing it."
The performers in Athens’ show have had
their traumas. Several people in the cast are
simultaneously performing in the Baptist
Student Union's bible-themed show “Children
of Eden.” Julia Jones, one cast member jug
gling both shows, relates a deeper obstacle
presented to her: “Personally, it's been a
challenge to my faith — the whole storyline
is about acceptable murder."
Coleman would disagree that the murders are presented as
acceptable. "People are pulling for Sweeney Todd because they're
wanting him to have something nice in his life, because everything
has been so bad. It's not about cannibalism being okay. It's about
what is right and wrong...patience is a virtue. If you wait to the
end, justice happens."
Mary Jessica Hammes
Book Report
By Judy Long
The latest issue of The Georgia Review
proves once again that one of the finest
literary journals in America is being pub
lished in our own backyard, well make
that oui back quadrangle. Paul Zimmer
introduces the collage series, "Jazz
Icons," created by his long-time friend
Edward Pramuk.
Images of all the jazz qreats appear
in these pages, Louis Armstrong,
Wynton Marsalis, Theolonius Monk,
Charlie Parker, Een Webster and Lester
Young. "The Zimmer" also contnbutes
an essay, as does Charles Sumc.
A special feature is Rita Dove's
"Meditation: On the Bus with Rosa
Parks." Dove, who served an unprece
dented double term as Poet Laureate of
the United States 1993-1995, published
poetry in the pages of The Georgia Review
over 20 years ago, before her debut col
lection, "The Yellow House on the Corner"
(1980). The fiction section is an impres
sive collection of authors including Tim
Gautreaux, former Grisham Chair at Ole'
Miss., Steve Yarbrough, whose lonq
awaited fust novel "The Oxygen Man"
will be published this May, and Sheri
Joseph. Joseph's fine story "The Elixir,"
from the cycle entitled "Bear Me Safely
Over," appears in the latest issue of The
Georgia Review.” Joseph, last seen at a
reading sponsored by the Writers Bloc,
reports that a second story is forthcoming
in the pages of the Review, and a third in
New Lette'S.
And speaking of the Bloc, John
Holman, author of luminous Mysteries,
read his story
"Rita's Luminous
Mystery," included in the most recent edi
tion of New Stones from the South, at the
Five Star Day Cafe. Also reading for the
recent Writers' Floe gathering was Five Star
Day Cafe co-owner, Mary Long (who can
"really" write as well as serve up great col-
lards) and David Ingl«\
Recently Heard:
• Laura Wexler, assistant editor of
Georgia Magazine, has signed a contract
with Scribner's to write a narrative non
fiction book on the 1946 Moore's Ford
killings. She says, "I am excited that other
people, and now a New York publishing
house, have decided that this story is
important and should be told."
• Kevin Young recently read from his
poetry on a segment of NPR's "All Things
Considered."
• Julie Checkoway is currently co
writing a documentary on mail-order
brides for the Arts & Entertainment net
work. Checkoway who is also wnting a
book on the subject, was recentlyin-
erviewed for A&E here in Athens.
• Augusta Trobaugh's second novel,
Resting in the Bosom of the Lamb lias
just been released by Baker House
Books. Bettie Sellers, Poet Laureate of
Georgia says it best:
"Augusta Trobaugh has more than
upheld the Southern tradition of fire
story-telling. Her black narrator. Pet,
weaves a delicate and mysterious spell
around the past and present fives of the
characters, who have weathered like the
old house to the color of fine wood."
The CjeorgM'R&'irw
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NEXT WEEK
Fn 2/12 & Sun 2/14
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FEBRUARY 3, 1999 FLAGPOLE ID