The opening of a musical needs to set a certain tone. "Alexander Hamilton" offers information about young Alex, and it shows that your evening will be "about" tenacity and innovation--but, most importantly, it acquaints you with the particular sense of humor you will be exploring:
The ten-dollar founding father without a father
Got a lot farther
By being a lot smarter
By working a lot harder....
One of the greatest opening numbers, "Little Shop of Horrors," invites you into Mr. Mushnik's shop, but it also (immediately) gives you a taste of the sassy, gay, extremely intelligent voice that makes Howard Ashman special:
Shang-a-lang....
Feel the sturm und drang in the air!
And Sondheim, writing about Victorian London, sends you back in time with deliberately archaic language. "Kept a shop in London Town." "A lavabo and a fancy chair." "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd."
Sondheim knows how to be contrarian; although he is writing about a monster, he begins by celebrating the qualities that make his protagonist extraordinary.
Inconspicuous, Sweeney was....
Quick and quiet and clean, he was...
Back of his smile...
Under his word...
Sweeney heard music that nobody heard...
This is--perhaps--someone you'd want to have lunch with.
Sweeney was smooth; Sweeney was subtle...
Sweeney would blink, and rats would scuttle....
Everyone wants to play the title role in this show; for this reason, the selection of Aaron Tveit seems disappointing. Tveit is just a bit bland. (In recent interviews, Steven Boyer, Corey Hawkins, and Audra McDonald have all randomly mentioned a desire to be Sweeney. I would take any one of these performers over Tveit.)
I do think the Sutton Foster choice is smart. For a long while, Foster has been quietly reproducing the career of Patti LuPone. She says, in her memoir, that a certain PBS LuPone performance once jolted her from her adolescent stupor and told her there was a specific path she needed to pursue, in her studies. We've seen Foster as Reno Sweeney (a LuPone role). We've seen her taking a swing at "Being Alive" (a LuPone song). And so "Sweeney Todd" (a LuPone show) seems to be the logical next step. I'm just wondering if we'll ever see Sutton Foster as Momma Rose.
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