The Jacobs School of Music will perform “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” at 7:30 p.m., April 12-13 at the Musical Arts Center. IU students Alice Lind and Elise Miller will play Mrs. Lovett, while the titular character Sweeney will be played by IU students Skyler Schlenker and Sam Witmer.
The production is a musical, unlike the rest of the Jacobs School of Music’s spring season which was made up of operas and a ballet. The production tells the story of the disgraced barber who was unfairly exiled from his home by a corrupt judge. After learning his wife is dead and his daughter has been raised by that same judge, Sweeney partners with Mrs. Lovett, the proprietor of a shop which sells “the worst pies in London,” to slit his customers’ throats and bake them into pies.
The musical was based on a Victorian penny dreadful and Christopher Bond’s 1970 play “Sweeney Todd.” The music and lyrics were written by Stephen Sondheim, and the book was written by Hugh Wheeler. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1979 to great acclaim. A movie version starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter was released in 2007, and in 2023, the musical was revived on Broadway with Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford.
Tickets can be purchased on the school’s website or by calling the box office at 812-855-7433. Student tickets are $10.
