INTERVIEW: Sally Ann Triplett goes immersive in ‘Sweeney Todd’
Photo: Sally Ann Triplett stars as Mrs. Nellie Lovett in the new, immersive staging of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by BBB with permission.
There are only a few weeks left to catch the new, immersive staging of Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, at the Barrow Street Theatre in the West Village of New York City. But buyers beware: This is not your grandmother’s Sweeney.
This diabolical musical is being given a fresh, unique revival that immerses the audience at the Barrow Street Theatre. Theatergoers sit within inches of the cast, and the action spills out of the bakery set and onto the tables and aisles of this intimate production.
Sweeney Todd, of course, tells the murderous story of the demon barber of Fleet Street. The title character has returned to his old digs and sets up shop as a barber, but he’s less interested in giving a perfect shave and more interested in revenge. Helping him out is Mrs. Nellie Lovett, a baker of the worst pies in London. The two devise a devilish scheme for Todd to kill his clients, and Lovett to bake the corpses into the pies.
It’s all deranged fun and classic Sondheim. The production, directed by Bill Buckhurst and produced by Tooting Arts Club, comes to the United States after a successful run in England.
At the center of the musical is Sally Ann Triplett, an accomplished British actress who has appeared on Broadway and in the West End. She plays Lovett and carves out a characterization that is unique from its previous interpretations.
“I actually auditioned for it in the very beginning, not when it was in England, but when it came over here,” Triplett said in a recent phone interview. “Obviously, I didn’t get it because Carolee Carmello got it, but then when she left, the audition came up again. And then I managed to get it.”
In preparation for the role, Triplett had seen the production twice, so she knew what to expect with the immersive staging. Still, she didn’t understand how different it would be to play Lovett in a production that blurs the line between cast and audience.
“I knew what was in store, but I didn’t realize and I don’t think any of us realized just how demanding that can be on you as a performer,” she said. “It’s brilliant and wonderful and interesting and different, but it really takes it out of you because there’s no fourth wall. There’s no spotlight in your eyes. You can’t ask for your mic to be turned up if you feel a bit ropey vocally. There’s nothing. There’s no net, and people can sit there and look the happiest they’ve ever looked in their lives. Or they can look like they want to kill you — I mean literally. People don’t show what they’re feeling. They’re responding to something they’ve never seen before, so their reaction is always going to be odd and different and brilliant. It’s quite something, and I will never forget this experience I’ve had. I’ll never forget it.”
At the beginning of the show, the actors descend upon the audience and ask them questions. It’s all in good fun, but there’s a tension in the air as well. After all, these soon-to-be characters will be slitting throats and baking human pies. That energy and good-old-fashioned nervousness make this Sweeney unlike any other that came before it.
“Some days I don’t want to,” Triplett said of the pre-show antics. “I just want to do the show. In fact, sometimes I feel like that, and then I go out. And someone will say, ‘I’ve seen every show you’ve been in and so happy to see you in this.’ Or there will be a little kid, and they say, ‘This is my favorite show.’ And they’re like 10, so it can be quite inspiring being able to chat with people and to find out their little stories. Maybe they’re on a holiday. Maybe they’ve seen the show three times before. It’s all different.”
She added: “Before I start the show, I often think, how am I going to do the show tonight. Then it starts, and I realize that I’ve put so much thought into it and effort that once Lovett starts, it’s sort of a journey that even I don’t really know what’s going to happen. … Sometimes I get to work, and I think, oh no, oh no — and it’s brilliant. And other nights I get to work, and I think, yeah, here we go — and it’s not great. You just never know where Sweeney is going to take you that night, and also because we’re so reliant on the audience. I mean you shouldn’t be. You should do your own show and stay true … but you just can’t help it. You can see the whites of everybody’s eyes, even in the balcony. It has such an impact on you. They’re brilliant. It’s the most brilliant musical probably ever, or top three at least.”
It’s a high compliment to say that Triplett’s take on this popular character is utterly unique, and that’s saying something being that Patti LuPone played the part on Broadway, Angela Lansbury originated the role and countless other actresses have offered their own spin on the baker of the worst pies in London.
Triplett, who has appeared on Broadway in Carrie, The Last Ship and Finding Neverland, has heard feedback that her Lovett is different than previous incarnations, but she’s not exactly sure what she’s doing differently on stage.
“People have said this to me a lot, and I don’t know what it is,” she said. “I honestly don’t know what I’m doing that’s unique, and I don’t have a thought about being unique. All I try to do with anything I do is just try to be real, and that’s the only way I know to do anything. I did listen to Angela Lansbury. That’s the only person I listened to do because I thought, well, that was the original. It came firsthand from Sondheim, so that was the only thing I would listen to. And then after a while I stopped listening to that as well. I just tried to get through it in my own honest way. Obviously it is a humorous part. Again, if it can come from something real, then that’s even better. If you put on a hat, then it’s never going to really be truthful enough. … She’s bonkers. She lives in a crazy world, and I guess there’s so much depth to her, you never really run out of places to go with it.”
The cast on stage at the Barrow Street Theatre is clearly having fun with the Sondheim material. Thom Sesma plays the title character, and Jake Boyd plays Anthony Hope. Other cast members include Michael James Leslie as Judge Turpin, Betsy Morgan as Beggar Woman and Pirelli, Joseph Taylor as Tobias Ragg, John Rapson as Beadle Bamford and Delaney Westfall as Johanna Barker.
“Everyone is wonderful,” Triplett said of the rotating cast. “Thom Sesma — I just want to do everything else for Thom Sesma from now on in life. … He’s a wonderful man on and off, and we’re very, very similar. So that I think is a good starting point for anyone that’s going to do Sweeney Todd, for your Lovett and Todd to connect like that.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Sally Ann Triplett plays Mrs. Nellie Lovett in Sweeney Todd at the Barrow Street Theatre in the West Village of New York City. Performances run through Aug. 26. Click here for more information and tickets.
