2005 - Sweeney Todd

Dates: Saturday 23rd April - Saturday 30th April 2005

The WLOS 2005 production will be Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd".

Unanimously acclaimed by critics as one of Stephen Sondheim's most powerful scores, this black comedy concerns the homicidal career of Sweeney, falsely imprisoned by a Judge who covets his wife.

Cast

The Opera Society has announced the line up for the production, with Des Whelan taking on he challenging role of Sweeney, a morose and brooding barber, newly arrived in London after 15 years unjust incarceration in a penal colony.

Siobhan Fawsitt will play Mrs. Lovett, a cheery, chatty but wholly amoral shopkeeper whose premises and pies are coated in dust and plagued by flies. She would like to be more than merely a landlady to Mr. Todd.

George Lawlor will play Anthony Hope, a young man, befriended by Todd on the voyage, and Aoife Clancy, Johanna, a beautiful girl, Todd's daughter but now claimed by Judge Turpin as his own.

Photo: Michael Harpur

Maurice McCarthy will take the role of the judge who is supported by his wicked crony Beadle Bamford played by Owen Brady.These are corrupt and depraved officials; upholders of justice who twist the system to serve their own ends.

Jennifer Swords will play the beggar woman, a mad old crone with a filthy tongue, whose cries go unheeded, and Tony Carty, will become Pirelli, an Italian barber, though of unauthenticated provenance.

Pat Lawlor will play Tobias Ragg, a simple, kind-hearted lad. He works first for Pirelli, then for Mrs. Lovett, but never trusts Todd.

There was a great turn out for auditions over the past two weekends and according to the production team the show could have been cast two or three times over.

The Society said it was very pleased with the outcome and delighted to have on board a talented production team in Director Bryan Flynn, Musical Director Fintan Cleary and Chorus Master Eanna McKenna as well as such a marvellous front line.

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