“This role is one of the best women of musical theater in the United States,” she said. “She does a terrible thing, and she’s a monster, but I’ve always seen her as a woman trying to find love and trying to be loved.”
Production has an all-star team. It will be directed by Thomas Kail, the Tony Award-winning director of “Hamilton” and produced by Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of “Hamilton.” The choreographer is Steven Hoggett, a famous British movement director, and the set designer, Mimi Lien, is not only a Tony Award winner but also a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Grant “genius”.
This will be Groban’s second star on Broadway – in 2016 he leading the cast of the “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” Won many strong reviews and Tony Award nominations. Ashford has a longer Broadway record; She has appeared in seven Broadway shows, winning a Tony Award in 2015 for “You can’t take it with you“After scoring his first nomination in 2013 for ‘Kinky Boots. “
The revival of “Sweeney Todd,” featuring a book by Hugh Wheeler, comes at a time of growing interest in Sondheim’s work. A new product of “Go to the forest“Has been among the best-selling shows on Broadway this summer, and the upcoming Off Broadway revival of “Merrily We Roll Together,” with a cast led by Daniel Radcliffe, it could be a tough ticket, as the New York Theater Studio, where it’s being staged, has only 199 seats.
Sondheim and Groban were develop a friendly relationship in the years before the composer’s death – Groban periodically performed Sondheim’s songs in concert, and Sondheim reached out when “The Great Comet” took off. Sondheim died just three days before the revival’s first workshop began; he had planned to take part in a reading session on the last day of the workshop.
The original production of “Sweeney Todd” premiered on Broadway in 1979 and won eight Tony Awards, including one for best musical. It has been revived twice on Broadway and widely staged elsewhere; in 2007 it was adapted into a Hollywood movie directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.
