Leave it to La Mirada Theatre and McCoy Rigby Entertainment to deliver a Sweeney Todd so spectacular and innovative, it’s not hyperbole to call it Broadway-caliber nor to imagine its two sensational leads winning Tony awards for their star turns as The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street and his partner in murder, mayhem, and meat pies.

Few are those who haven’t at least once “attended” Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Weaver’s tale of Benjamin Barker (Will Swenson), the London barber convicted of a crime he did not commit and shipped off to Australia by a lecherous judge with designs on Barker’s wife Lucy.

Now, fifteen years later, Lucy is out of the picture and evil Judge Turpin (Norman Large) has set his sights on Sweeney’s beautiful blonde teenage daughter Johanna (Allison Sheppard).

Meanwhile, there’s a new man in London town, one who bears a striking resemblance to Barker but goes by the name of Sweeney Todd.

When Sweeney stops in at the pie shop located downstairs from his onetime tonsorial parlor, the down-on-her-luck proprietress Mrs. Lovett (Lesli Margherita) isn’t fooled by the new name, recognizing at once returning ex-con, whose shaving instruments she has kept intact, polished, and sharpened to a killing edge.

His razors restored to him, Sweeney now begins a murder spree with Judge Turpin as his ultimate goal, and when confronted with the question of where to put the bodies, he and Mrs. Lovett come up with a tasty solution to both their problems.

Meanwhile, Sweeney and Anthony Hope (Chris Hunter), the sailor he met on his ocean journey back from Australia, attempt to free the barber’s now grown daughter from the clutches (and matrimonial plans) of the evil Judge and his accomplice in crime Beadle Bamford (Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper).

Also figuring in The Tale Of Sweeney Todd are Italian-accented con-artist Adolfo Pirelli (Andrew Polec), whose “Miracle Elixir” promises astonishing hair growth and more;

 Tobias Ragg (Austyn Myers), Pirelli’s sweet but simple-minded (and now unemployed) assistant; and a nameless, demented Beggar Woman (Meghan Andrews), in whom Sweeney’s face sparks some distant glimmer of recognition.

All of this adds up to a musical that’s thrilled Broadway audiences in four separate productions and captivated regional theatergoers in countless revivals since its 1979 debut, often with casts trimmed way down to a fraction of the Broadway original’s 27.

Not so in La Mirada, where a cast of 21 dazzle throughout, and with the one-and-only Jason Alexander doing inspired work in the director’s chair, audiences are guaranteed a Sweeney Todd well worth revisiting, even if like this reviewer you’ve already seen the show in fifteen different iterations.

Alexander’s first bit of brilliance is to have his production unfold inside Fogg’s Asylum for the Criminally Insane, and to have its inmates (and not the townsfolk of London) inviting audiences to “attend the tale of Sweeney Todd” in the musical’s stunner of an opening number, all of this unfolding as a mysterious Overseer (Jeff Lowe) pulls the strings from high above the stage.

Letting us see Sweeney’s long-deceased love (Lizzy Sheck as Young Lucy) as characters recall her doomed fate is another inspired touch, as is the unique method of body disposal director Alexander has come up with here.

Of course none of this would work the wonders this Sweeney Todd works without a pair of performers capable of making the show’s two most iconic characters feel fresh and new, and in Broadway stars Swenson and Margherita, Alexander has struck gold.

Commanding of stature and bursting with leading man charisma, Swenson rules the stage in a performance of equal parts power and depth, and Margherita (already a SoCal superstar when Broadway beckoned) is ditzy, delicious perfection as Mrs. Lovett, the dazzling duo making “A Little Priest” and “By The Sea” more showstopping than ever.

There’s not a weak link in Sweeney Todd’s superb supporting cast, from Chris Hunter’s dashingly handsome and gloriously voiced Anthony, to Sheppard’s exquisite Johanna with exquisite pipes to match, to Myers’ heartbreakingly vulnerable Toby, to Large’s deliciously despicable Judge Turpin, to Mongiardo-Cooper’s equally hiss-worthy Beedle Bamford, to Polec’s hilariously full-of-himself Italian (or is he?) barber Pirelli.

Perhaps most memorable all among featured players is Andrews’ Beggar Woman, whose haunted eyes hide unspeakable horrors not revealed until Sweeney’s devastating final moments.

Add to the above an ensemble equal to any on Broadway—Gabbie Adner, associate choreographer/dance captain/fight captain Anthony Cannarella (Bird Seller, Young Barker) Ryan Dietz (Jonas Fogg), Grant Hodges, Bets Malone, Drew Margolis, Michael McClure (Passer-by), Hassan Nazari-Robati, Rianny Vasquez (Passer-by), and Tony Elizabeth White—and you’ve got triple-threat performers as adept at acting as they are at singing (accompanied by music director extraordinaire Darryl Archibald conducing an orchestra to match Broadway’s best) as they are to executing choreographer Lee Martino’s dramatic, evocative dance moves.

A dream team of local designers led by Kate Bergh (costumes), Jared A. Sayeg (lighting), Jonathan A. Burke (sound), Kaitlin Yagen (hair/wig/makeup), and Kevin Williams (properties) are joined here by Paul Tate doPoo III, whose stunner of a scenic design hides terrifying secrets behind its multiple, multi-level curtained walls.

Casting is by Julia Flores. Davide Costa and Maddie Miller Lacambra are swings.

Erik Gratton is fight choreographer and Rachel Wirtz is associate fight choreographer. Amanda Rose Villarreal is intimacy choreographer. Rhonda Khol is assistant director. Stephen Gifford is associate scenic designer. Jennifer Lynn Deck is associate costume designer. Molly Cornell is associate properties designer. David Elzer is publicist.

Brant Sennett is production stage manager and Julian Olive and Roe Manzo are assistant stage managers.

There was a while there when I was starting to suffer from Sweeney Todd fatigue, but recent revisits have reawakened my appreciation and even love for one of Stephen Sondheim’s absolute finest. I’ve never seen a better Sweeney Todd than this absolutely magnificent revival.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Boulevard, La Mirada.
www.lamiradatheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
February 1, 2026
Photos: Jason Niedle/TETHOS

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Tags: Hugh Wheeler, La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, Los Angeles Theater Review, McCoy Rigby Entertainment, Stephen Sondheim