Demon Barber of Fleet Street: A Bloody Masterpiece

Is he truly just a barber on Fleet Street? Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was composed by the well-loved Stephen Sondheim. A story that seems ordinary at first glance but there are a few details that seem off. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is such a deep and emotional story. Spinning Tree Theatre portrayed this story so well in every aspect. 

The entire cast of this show was stacked with the skills to portray a story that is so dark and twisting. Each character had such a distinct personality; I could always understand the tone and intent of every one. Sweeney Todd is a show about a barber with a dark side. The aspiring love of a young couple. Learning how some things changed. A few actors made choices that specifically stood out in the best ways possible. Patrick Lewallen, who played the leading man Sweeney Todd, put his all into this character. From the moment Lewallen came on stage, I was immediately drawn to his performance, even when he wasn't the main focus of a scene. The mannerisms he gave his character always showed you how he was thinking. Another stand-out character to me was the yearning lover Anthony Hope, played by Charlie Tietjen. The emotion that Tietjen poured into every song was admirable, and the way he interacted with every character in such a unique way. This entire cast was amazing and I was pulled into the story from the moment the music started at the top of the show. 

On the technical side of things, this show was also fantastic. A technical element that I found outstanding was the way they symbolized the deaths caused by Sweeney Todd. The designers did this by having a whistle sound effect that brought you the uncomfortable feeling, plus a sharp red lighting over the scenes, and red handkerchiefs being pulled from the collar of the shirts of his victims. This trio of work done by costume designer Taylor Zimmerman, sound designer and operator Jeff Eubank, and lighting designer Zach Dulny brought the uncomfortable dark undercurrent this show has to the stage. 

Not every show can be perfect—after all, it’s live theatre. This show being in a black box theater made some of the crucial details hard to see. Every now and then there were inconsistencies in ability to understand what was happening but never enough to pull you away from the story, just enough to be noticeable to probably only very observant people. 

This show was amazing and a great way to kick off my Halloween weekend. The way this show uses the same phrases in songs in different contexts really develops each and every character. This show runs through November 8th, 2026 at The Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center, lasting around 2 hours with an intermission. With a TeenTix KC Pass you can see Spinning Tree Theatre’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street for $5.