Sweeney Todd slices into Marina Civic Center

 PANAMA CITY - When Sweeney Todd returns to London and realizes what has happened to his wife and daughter, he meets Mrs. Lovett. That's where their story begins.
    
"Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" will make its Panama City premiere at the Marina Civic Center for one-night only on Tuesday, Oct. 7. With music and lyrics by Tony-winner Stephen Sondheim, it's based on the 19th-century legend of a London barber driven to a life of crime after a malevolent judge takes his wife and child from him.
    
Todd's plan for revenge includes a cutthroat partnership with his neighbor Lovett, an enterprising businesswoman who soon is producing the tastiest meat pies in London. The pair slice their way through London.
    
"I think it's a great role, and it's one of the hardest musicals ever written," said Merritt David Janes, who plays the lead role of Sweeney. "I think the challenge is what drew me to it. Everyone plays their own instruments. It's a really cool concept."
    
In this revival version brought to life by Tony-Award director and designer John Doyle, the musical is set in an asylum for the insane, not the traditional setting. The storytelling is through the eyes of Tobias Ragg, an orphan boy whom Mrs. Lovett took in after Todd killed Toby's previous guardian.
    
"It's pretty clear where you are," Janes said. "The character Toby is brought out in a straitjacket. The storytelling is through the eyes of Toby."
    
Many people might be more familiar with Tim Burton's movie, starring Johnny Depp, than the musical it inspired.
    
"It's a little different from the movie," Janes said. "But I think people should understand something about it before. The more the audience knows, the more the audience enjoys it."
    
"If you watch the movie, you'll know the story," Janes said, so you can be prepared for differences in the setting. "This allows for delusional reality. When you see stories unfolding, all inmates believe in the story of Sweeney Todd.
    
"The great thing about this version is a lot of things are left up to audience to choose. You can choose if this is really happening or is it the delusional effect."
    
Each actor plays two instruments, which also "takes you to many different settings," Janes said. "The music reflects a lot of the story behind the character. He (Todd) sort of falls victim to his own vengeance."
    
Doyle's production of "Sweeney Todd" opened on Broadway in 2005 to universal critical acclaim. It won the Drama League, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Revival of a Musical, and was awarded a Special Citation by the New York Drama Critics Circle.
    
Unlike the 1973 play of the same name by Christopher Bond, Sondheim's version reinvents the character of Todd as driven by revenge rather than greed. The tragic story shows the audience the behavior that leads Todd on his dark path.
    
"Todd is obsessed with the judge, Turpin, and trying to get revenge," Janes said. "Everything else falls second to him."
    
"There's not a lot of blood," Janes said. The musical has blood in buckets, but the lighting and orchestration of music, along with use of a razor, provide the effects.
    
"It's creepier when you let audiences have their own experience with the show," Janes said. "One person in the show might be thinking one thing in one seat, and someone next to him is thinking something totally different. It's left up to the audience."