Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester

5 Stars

The challenge for director James Brining in dramatising an updated version of Stephen Sondheim's musical thriller was how to make it work for the traditional stage at the West Yorkshire Playhouse as well as the theatre-in-the-round at Manchester's Royal Exchange.

Despite some critical acclaim for the Yorkshire production, this paper had some reservations and so how Brining would reconfigure the production was a big question.

The answer is simple - magnificently.

Brining has radically redesigned and reshaped the work to take advantage of a fantastic cast, a wonderful score from Sondheim, with some of the wittiest and cleverest lyrics yet written for music theatre, and an excellent use of light and sound to convey the horror and pathos of the story.

There are moments when the wonderfully menacing yet vulnerable Sweeney Todd - a towering performance from David Birrell - stands alone belting out one of the many classic songs which make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

Moving the action from Victorian London to the early years of Thatcher's Britain works, especially in the tremendously anarchic opening scene of the second act where the homage to excess, greed and the clamour for money is as repulsive as the cut-throat activity of the old barber himself.

The fact that Todd and his outrageous sidekick Mrs Lovett - a comic tour de force from Gillian Bevan - make their wealth from some very dodgy pies is immaterial.

They're merely living up to the all too familiar motto that a businessman needs to make money where he can.

There cannot be many theatrical experiences where the audience audibly winces at the frightening events taking place on stage while at the same time being reduced to tears of laughter at the macabre lyrics ricocheting between the singers.

Amid all the blood, gore and slaughter this is an amazingly uplifting experience.

Where else can you witness nearly three hours of bloody massacre yet walk out of the theatre humming a catchy tune and with a broad smile on your lips?

Great stuff.

Runs until November 30. Box office: (0161) 833-9833