Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford will return in a revival of ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,’ this spring on Broadway.
The revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical will be helmed by Hamilton director Thomas Kail and produced by Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller. Sweeney Todd will play the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with previews set to begin on February 26, 2023 ahead of a March 26 opening night.
The musical, which features a score by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler, originally premiered on Broadway in 1979 and was last revived on Broadway in 2005, in a production that starred Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris and called on its actors to play instruments. This revival will bring back a 26-person orchestra for the first time since the original production, with Alex Lacamoire as music supervisor.
Sweeney Todd tells the story of a murderous barber living in London in the mid-1800s. The original Broadway production won eight Tony Awards including best musical, best book, best score and best direction for Hal Prince. The musical was later adapted into a 2007 film starring Johnny Depp.
Groban, a Grammy-nominated recording artist, will play the title character and returns to the Great White Way after starring in the 2016 musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Ashford, who will play Mrs. Lovett, has several Broadway credits, including starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Sunday in the Park with George, another Sondheim-composed show, and in You Can’t Take It With You, for which she won a Tony Award.
This production follows the death of Sondheim in November 2021. A revival of the Sondheim-composed musical Merrily We Roll Along, starring Daniel Radcliffe, is scheduled to play off Broadway this fall, a revival of Into the Woods is currently playing Broadway and a revival of his musical, Company, recently closed on Broadway.
Sweeney Todd will be choreographed by Steven Hoggett, with set design by Mimi Lien, costume design by Emilio Sosa, lighting design by Natasha Katz and sound design by Nevin Steinberg. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
