The poster for the show, that triples as playbill and ticket.

This Halloween, I didn’t want to yell, “Boo!”  I went to see Pacific Opera Project’s performance of Sweeney Todd at the Miles Playhouse in Santa Monica, and it was a treat that made me want to yell, “Bravo!”  The show was an impressive undertaking, but more than that, well-realized. The large cast in a relatively small space was powerful and made the story just a bit more terrifying for a Halloween performance. The voices were good and strong and carried well with no amplification. The leads were so professional and well-suited to the roles, that you had to wonder if they’d played them before. I found Mrs. Lovett particularly charming, nailing the accent, lyrics, timing, humor and heart. I appreciated Director Josh Shaw’s clever additions to the small moments – often adding humor or underscoring – as well as the attention to detail in the “crowd scenes.”  Humor in particular seems to be one of Shaw’s trademarks, which makes sense in light of his greater goal of making opera accessible to everyone. Shaw also designed the show – no small feat.  He appears to have custom-built a barber’s chair that converts into a gurney to dump the victims’ bodies into a repainted water slide that dumps them conveniently in the “bakehouse.” There’s also a bathtub-that-doubles-as-settee, but it’s worth taking a step back to notice that he managed to pull off a two-story set on a small local stage with only a day or two in that space prior to curtain. Costumes were well done, with nice touches like tear-away pants for a fantasy sequence and red coats or capes to indicated those deceased-but-still-singing in the grand finale (the exception being Lucy). If I had to criticize two things it would be that Joanna’s escape from the Tonsorial Parlor made me think twice – she appeared to exit in a direction from which we’d never seen anyone enter, making her escape woefully convenient and a little hard to believe – and that the opening credits, while a fun nod to the film that introduced so many to the show, were a bit long. That being said, the trailer for their upcoming La Boheme was great (“Hipsters… Yeah, I invented that sh*t.” – G. Puccini) and POP certainly deserves the recognition. Thematic snacks and beverages were available at intermission, including the bubbling green Adolfo Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir to quench your thirst, and pies, both meat and sweet, the latter homemade.

If you have time this weekend or next, I highly recommend Sweeney Todd (11/3,4) and suggest checking out La Boheme (11/9-11).  It’d be hard to find a better value in LA theater, not to mention, opera.