Denver Center Theatre Company's 'Sweeney Todd' Features Music From DeVotchKa

DENVER (CBS4) - The Denver Center Theatre Company has been challenging itself each season with a musical, and this year they're taking on one of the most challenging ones of them all -- " Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

"It's tough to love a show like 'Sweeney Todd' because after all it's a dark and foreboding musical about a murderous barber and Mrs. Lovett's lovely meat pies," Critic at Large Greg Moody said.

Moody said it's also pure Stephen Sondheim with a sound that's rich, rhythmic and discorded all at the same time.

"But for those who take this journey they'll find a rich theatrical experience at the core," Moody said.

"Sondheim calls it a musical thriller and I think it's exactly that," said Robert Petkoff, who plays Sweeney Todd. "It's this sense of this man who's got this mission of revenge, which I think an audience will understand why he wants revenge."

Moody says they'll also find wonderful characters like Mrs. Lovett who journeys right up to the edge of caricature and somehow doesn't sail over.

"I think it always has to be backed up in something that is real and true," said Linda Mugleston, who play Mrs. Lovett. "Mrs. Lovett and all the characters I think are all desperate."

And of course there's Sweeney Todd himself, the banished Englishman back home in search of revenge with a straight razor.

"In a true change of pace the music in this show will be presented by DeVotchKa, the local four-piece ensemble taking the show, I believe, into new and exciting musical territory," Moody said.

Moody said "Sweeney Todd" is a lot of things -- unusual, dynamic, "and because it's Sondheim, it's electric."

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" runs now through May 15. For tickets and information, visit denvercenter.org.