By Hajin Yoo

news@kykernel.com

The story of the notorious barber-turned-murderer Sweeney Todd is coming to the Lexington Opera House to give audiences a taste of 19th-century vigilantism.

Adapted from the 1979 musical thriller by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler, the play tells the story of Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Todd, the English anti-hero who seeks revenge on those who wrongly subjected him to a 15-year jail sentence.

Broiled in dark comedy and complex characters, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” will show Saturday Oct. 4 through Sunday, Oct.12.

According to UK director of opera and the musical’s producer Everett McCorvey, every spectator should attend with high expectations. He called on the significance of the performer’s role in taking “the audience to a different place,” and “all their care and worries (would be) gone for the next few hours.”

McCorvey said the musical would require teamwork between the performers and the audience.

Sweeney Todd will be performed with two casts, with two actors playing each role at separate dates. The main two casts, Thomas Gunther and Holly Dodson will interchange with Matthew Turner and Rachel Snyder in the lead roles of Sweeney Todd and his accomplice Mrs. Lovett.

McCorvey actively searches for a play that would meet, if not surpass, expectations after every performance.

“Looking at the singers helps me to decide what opera or musical piece I am going to present (next),” McCorvey said.

Choosing a play requires McCorvey to find the “triple threats,” in which the performer would have to “move well and be … convincing actors and good singers,” McCorvey said.

McCorvey said that he was “not shy about demanding excellence from (the students) in all of their works, rehearsal process, singing, in the way they live their lives, in the way they carry themselves in public. I want them to expect of themselves excellence.”

To McCorvey, the preservation and nurturing of opera is a major concern. Choosing Sweeney Todd not only employed the operatic lungs and Broadway-esque acting skills of the UK voice majors, but also the energy and gusto often found in younger patrons.

“It is incumbent upon us as music professionals that we ensure the future of the arts and music for the next generation,” McCorvey said. “We cannot just cater to the old generation. We have to engage young people.”