REVIEW: ‘Sweeney Todd’ returns with a vengeance — and Josh Groban

Director Thomas Kail stuffs his stage with actors, fills his pit with dozens of musicians. The result is a lush production that suggests what the 1979 original must have been like.

Even better? It has Josh Groban in the lead role – a baritone who will make you weep when you hear the way he can sell those songs. In support: Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime. Because the meat pie maker is enamored with Sweeney (a new take), there’s a lustier relationship that produces plenty of laughs. There’s also a swarm of townspeople who move in tandem (not unlike the folks in “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” which also was choreographed by Steven Hoggett). That lends a sense of urgency and helps refine the story.

For those who couldn’t quite follow Sweeney’s descent into madness in other iterations, this production spells it out very clearly. Blood doesn’t spurt like a Grade B horror flick. It trickles out, making the “demon barber of Fleet Street” difficult to pin down.

Fueling Todd’s anger is a vile judge – one who raped his wife and abducted his daughter. Eager to get back at him, he sets up a barber shop above Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop. Because the supply chain is low (cats, apparently, are hard to catch), they hatch a plot to grind up his victims and serve them in pies. The surprise? They’re incredibly popular with consumers. Todd’s goal, though, is to get Judge Turpin (Jamie Jackson) in his chair. Once there, the two sing “Pretty Women,” a moving ballad that has multiple intentions.

That missing daughter, Johanna (Maria Bilbao), is locked in an upper room, unable to protest the judge’s bizarre proposal. At her disposal: a young sailor (Jordan Fisher) who wants to help her out of the madness.

Mrs. Lovett has her own accomplice – Tobias, a simple-minded young man whose keeper has “disappeared” thanks to a shaving accident.

Those “helpers” figure into the resolution of Sweeney’s story and add to its unsettling demeanor.

Kail is great at stirring the pot, then letting it boil. He makes the most of a bridge that hangs over all of the activity and gets out of the way when Ashford lets her improvisational skills loose. She’s a marvel – the best Mrs. Lovett since Angela Lansbury – who uses youthfulness as strength. When she’s crawling around Groban, you get new motivation and meaning.

While a factory whistle was a key part of the original production, it’s not essential here. Instead, other musical “tricks” fill the bill, giving this “Sweeney Todd” a different taste, if you will.

Well-sung, the music accomplishes so much in the process of telling a dark, dark story. It gives Groban the perfect showcase and Ashford a new dimension to her already stellar career.