Apr 03, 2025

KWU, Theatre Salina present 'Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street' opening this weekend

Posted Apr 03, 2025 1:22 PM
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Kansas Wesleyan University

Shave and a haircut — if you dare.

The Kansas Wesleyan Theatre Program and Theatre Salina are co-producing “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” Performances will be on Fridays to Sundays from April 4 to 19, plus Thursday, April 17, at Theatre Salina in downtown Salina.

Tickets are available at salinatheatre.com

The story of the barber who seeks vengeance and justice by cutting his customers’ throats and the landlady who makes grisly meat pies from his victims has grown in importance since its premiere in 1979, with music by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler.

Mary King as Mrs. Lovett and Jacob Corman as Sweeney Todd
Mary King as Mrs. Lovett and Jacob Corman as Sweeney Todd

“I would call it the great American opera,” said David Corman, the production’s music director and KWU director of vocal music. “As musicals go, it truly goes into the operatic world, as far as the complexity of music. It’s an important piece in American music history. From the 1980s, it is entering the opera houses of the world.”

Corman likens it to Shakespearean in its tragedy.

“It reminds me a lot of the darkness of Macbeth,” he said.

Vickee Spicer, of Theatre Salina, is directing “Sweeney Todd,” and Kansas Wesleyan students and faculty will have much to do in the collaborative production. Fifteen current KWU students have taken parts from the leads to the ensemble in the collaborative production.

“The ensemble is super important,” Corman said, with several of the members having solos.

KWU students are playing in the orchestra, which will be conducted by Tyler Breneman, KWU pianist, and Dr. Leonardo Rosario, director of the KWU strings program. Breneman and Dr. Gustavo do Carmo, KWU assistant professor of music, each will play the piano and Rosario will play the violin for the performances.

Corman has introduced understudies for this collaboration, with some students covering two other roles in addition to learning their own parts. Corman called understudying “the hardest job in theatre.”

It’s important that KWU students have a wide range of experiences, said Michelle Dolan, executive director of music at Kansas Wesleyan — types of music, performance venues and directors.

This semester alone, KWU students have participated or will in “A Night at the Opera,” a fundraiser for The Temple in Salina, in March; the “Sweeney Todd” collaboration in April; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Salina Symphony in May.

For tickets to “Sweeney Todd,” call Theatre Salina or go online to salinatheatre.com/tickets/.

Cast and Crew

Sweeney Todd – Jacob Corman*

Mrs. Lovett – Mary King

Anthony – Zander Flener*

Johanna – Grace Corman*

Judge Turpin – Alex Engelland

Beggar Woman – Aubrey Powell*

Beadle – Nathan King

Tobias – Kaiden Comeau*

Pirelli – Perry Grewell*

Fogg – Spencer Wesley

Ensemble

Addilyn Jagodzinske

Bradyn Houltberg

Brandy Sandoval*

Cathie Norris

Chris Comeau

Donovan Johnson*

Erin Dolezal

Evan Burns*

Evette Stoskopf

Grace Welsh*

Jacob Brown*

Jared Jarvis

Karly Kroeker

Kirsten Lamia*

MacKenzie Martinez*

Matea Gregg

Richard Groetzinger

Sydney Cantin

Vanessa Arceo*

Violet Arb

Off Stage Voices

David Corman

NEXT TIME IT COULD BE YOU!

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