Sweeney Todd, 16 February 2024

I went to see Sweeney Todd on Broadway again because I was curious about the pair of actors replacing Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. It seemed odd to cast Aaron Tveit, who is a charming and lovable tenor, as Sweeney, and equally strange to cast Sutton Foster, a gifted actress who seldom plays anyone sinister, in a show like this. Both of them surprised me with the nuances they brought to these characters, and I left in complete awe of both performers. Both Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster completely blew away the performances of those who graced this same stage in these same roles mere weeks ago.

It was astonishing how complex and beautiful these nuances were. Foster humanized the character of Mrs. Lovett in a way I’ve never seen her portrayed. While Ashford leaned into the oddities and caricatures, Foster captured Mrs. Lovett’s loneliness and inner desires. The brokenness behind Mrs. Lovett’s quirks flowed through Foster’s every move, and it absolutely delighted me to see this familiar character as a fully fleshed out person for the very first time.

I was equally, if not more, enamored with Tveit’s tortured Todd. Despite Tveit’s higher pitched speaking voice, his portrayal of Sweeney was quite frightening. Tveit played into Sweeney’s madness with a very precise quality to his gait. He commanded the stage and moved with purpose. His apathy toward Mrs. Lovett paired marvelously with Foster’s humanized, desperate portrayal, and that, more than anything, painted him a monster. Tveit never for a second lost that apathy.

While Groban had moments that felt human, awkward, and reluctant, Tveit’s indifference was palpable, mocking, calculated, and cruel—I believed in his villainous, sinister nature from his first appearance. He wasn’t just singing his way through the show, he was controlling his body to juxtapose strength with moments of madness, in his eyes, in his posture, in his essence. Where Groban’s Sweeney Todd felt aloof and far away, Tveit’s was frighteningly close, on the edge of an unknown precipice, and, in a way, fragile. So fragile I thought that at any moment his character was going to snap, break down, and destroy everything in his path. Which, of course, he does.

The answer to why Tveit and Foster gave such superior performances can be found on their resumes. Tveit and Foster have devoted their lives to the art of theatre. While I’m not contesting the existence of Ashford or Groban’s previous theatre credits, I find the number of productions and durations of their appearances in them to be relevant and telling. A lifetime in the business on stage, originating roles, the way Tveit and Foster have, is worth something. There’s no real substitute for experience, hard work, and consistently performing in or rehearsing for a show with minimal other engagements in other facets of the entertainment industry. While Ashford’s training is in theatre, Foster still has 13 more years of experience—and it shows. Foster is further along in her performance abilities, and that’s as it should be. One of the wonderful things about theatre is the growth and depth that come with practice and time—the ability to go from an ingénue to a force to be reckoned with.

Foster and Tveit’s performances in Sweeney Todd were a powerful reminder of a theatre industry built on theatrical training over stunt casting, where you have to be, if not a triple threat, at least able to act and sing. No one can argue with Josh Groban as a tour d’force vocal performer. But the role of Sweeney doesn’t get a slow, beautiful ballad. Tveit reminded me that it’s a role for an actor, and theatre reaches people when you make them feel something. Tveit’s Todd made me shiver. Even though a couple of moments were vocally too low for Tveit, I preferred seeing a character on stage, not just a singer, as is increasingly becoming the standard with modern jukebox musicals demanding their own unique, confident pop/rock star vocal performances. But a really gifted actor, like Tveit, can play a sinister Sweeney Todd and win a Tony Award for originating the role of Christian in Moulin Rouge.

I highly encourage those who have not seen this yet, or those who are wondering why these two actors were cast in these particular roles, to consider that, in every role Foster and Tveit have played, they have been acting. This is an opportunity for them to be seen for the masters that they truly are—for their ability to transcend the roles they started in when they were young and green and take us to a place where they have grown to be complex and layered.  I applaud them for landing these roles, which are so far from where they started, and for mastering them so completely that, sitting there in the theatre, I forgot about Sandy and Reno and Link and Gabe—all I saw was Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd. And I loved every minute of it.

I did not attend this performance on a press pass.