Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Lovett - NorCal SOTA 2023
This spring, I was in a production of Sweeney Todd School Edition at with Northern California School of the Arts. I played Nellie Lovett, and it was an absolute beast. Sweeney conjured up a lot of emotions for me, and now that it is over, I know it has changed me both as a performer and as a person.
Mrs. Lovett (Sela Sangwin) ogles Sweeney Todd (RobbyMoe Reeves) as he reunites with his razors during My Friends.
A show like Sweeney is what Patti LuPone is talking about when she says that the craft requires discipline. These past few months I have been juggling a persistent illness, a rigorous course load at school, and a Sondheim show with a 200 page score. And an extremely brutal one, at that. Mrs. Lovett was the most vocally challenging role I have ever done. Bizarre melodies, high notes I didn’t know I was capable of, and good old-fashioned Stephen Sondheim Hell-Timing. In God, That’s Good for example, I sang 4 sections of identical melody and different lyrics, all very fast and easily confused. In A Little Priest, the entire song would be thrown off by a missed line. One performance, when our sound system accidentally skipped forward a section, we were completely lost. We ended up just clumsily waltzing and attempting, unsuccessfully, to jump back into the song. It was still a thrill, even in our worst mistakes.
Nellie Lovett is not given an explicit origin story that justifies her actions the same way that Sweeney Todd does. Every other song in the show is about Sweeney’s motivations and grief. Lovett, on the other hand, is entirely open for the actress to decide. My interpretation of Nellie was based off of a few sparse lines and a bit of dramaturgy. Nellie Lovett’s husband died of dropsy, meaning edema, a hereditary disease that would often result in the death of infants. Nellie’s “maternal heart” and resentment of Lucy’s treatment of Johanna is reflective of what I came to understand as grief over a lost child. Further, there were two years between the death of her husband, who she resented for his illness, and the imprisonment of Benjamin Barker. In her grief, Nellie Lovett, widowed and childless, envied Lucy Barker and pined for her husband for two years. When Lucy fell ill following her rape by Judge Turpin, she was sent to Bedlam rather than a hospital. Nellie believes that she is truly doing Sweeney Todd a favor when she lies about his wife.
Our fearless director Taylor Burris gave me quite a bit of freedom in my development of Nellie, but would give me little notes and suggestions that led to great discoveries. Taylor Burris is a class act, and I kick myself thinking that I never auditioned to be in any of her shows before. Even worse, this was my first show I’ve done with NorCal SOTA! I’ve been in the Performing Arts Corps at NorCal since it’s inception during the Covid lockdown. I was chosen as Chair of the Leadership Committee. But I’d never done a show! Oh, what a fool I am. This was the greatest fun I’ve ever had. This show convinced me to defer college to pursue theatre. What have I been doing all this time! The AP classes and additional extra-curriculars, while I loved them, seem silly now. This is the meaning of my life! The craft feeds my soul! I am so grateful I had the chance to be in this show, and I have to just trust that everything happens for a reason.
The beauty of this show was the never-ending spontaneity. The tricky scenes and trickier music forced us all to stay on our toes, which resulted in some wonderful organic choices. During God, That’s Good, our Toby’s and our ensemble would bring a true frenetic panic to Nellie’s storefront. With my main scene partner, our Sweeney, RobbyMoe Reeves, we made new discoveries every performance and rehearsal. Lines would spontaneously become innuendo, stumbles would become character choices. Priest, hellish and fantastic as it is by nature, was an untamable, un-blockable number. I’m sure, had we another week, we could’ve blocked it more explicitly. But we didn’t! Robby and I would dance and guffaw and move based on how we and the audience were reacting towards one another. We came up with new dance moves on the spot, and one particularly fun performance, Sweeney and Nellie skipped offstage. I love Robby very dearly, and I am so excited to see what he does next. He is a star, an apparatus of light.
This production was in rehearsal for a relatively short period of time, and I don’t think any of us anticipated just how intense it would be. I knew, in my gut, having played Cinderella’s Stepmother in Into the Woods a few years ago, that this show would be difficult. We had our fair share of complications— illness or schedule conflicts forcing cast and crew to drop out of the show, and power outages during tech week (William Monnot, our Anthony, decided to invoke the Scottish Play moments prior). I am so proud of all the wonderful people in this show, and so grateful to have had this opportunity.
I hope that after the filmed performance is released (YAYAYA this is such a luxury!) I’ll be able to upload a video or two of the show. EDIT: View here!
So much love in my heart. 04/08/2023
