Actor/singer DeAndre Simmons had the best possible training to one day star in a Stephen Sondheim musical.
Introduced to the legendary composer and lyricist by his musical theater coach Barbara Cook, Simmons received some priceless advice from Sondheim on a few occasions between 2013 and 2016.
“The discussions were extraordinary,” Simmons recalled. “As a musician, I knew the music. That wasn’t the conversation. The conversation was the why and wherefore. Why did he write this lyric the way he did? What created this rhythm pattern based solely on the character and the lyrics?
“It changed the way I saw a lot of music in general. To sing his music is always revelatory. It creates in me as a person, as an artist, a certain space that is unlike any other.”
Simmons’ starring turn in a Sondheim musical has arrived. He’s playing the title role in San Diego Musical Theatre’s production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” A Broadway smash that debuted in 1979, Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for the show. Hugh Wheeler, who six years earlier had collaborated with Sondheim on “A Little Night Music,” wrote the musical’s book based on a play by Christopher Bond.
Set in the 1840s, Sweeney Todd (drawn from the serialized penny dreadfuls of Victorian England) is a barber named Benjamin Barker, who returns to London after being wrongly imprisoned in Australia for 15 years by a corrupt judge who would rape Barker’s wife. Todd, nee Barker, has returned to London with rage and revenge in his heart. His accomplice becomes Mrs. Lovett, a pie shop owner who finds a creative way to dispose of Sweeney’s victims. The character is played at SDMT by Meghan O’Brien Lowery.
Given the luridness of the narrative, “Sweeney Todd,” in spite of its creators credentials, could be viewed in retrospect as an unlikely Broadway hit, one that has been produced worldwide for more than 40 years.
But as Simmons has gotten to know Sweeney Todd, he suggests that “One sees a little bit of oneself in Sweeney. Many people think that he’s the bad guy in the show, but that is not the reality. The bad person is Mrs. Lovett. Yes, he falls in line with her, but she takes his hand and leads him in a different way.
“You have to be able to show the sides of him that are human, that are loving, that make someone go ‘I get it,’” Simmons said.
The part is a strenuous one physically and emotionally, Simmons said.
“You need stamina. His whirlwind songs are in the first half and you’re basically onstage the entire time. You also need an understanding of the human psyche. This is a man who has gone through a lot. Now he is back and going through the emotions of anger, depression, love and longing.”
This is where Simmons’ experience with and education into the late Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics has empowered and inspired him.
“Mr. Sondheim is so specific about his characters that all throughout the script he gives you key insight into them and tells you what kind of person they are. That certainly is the case with Sweeney. His (Sondheim’s) ability to dive into human emotion is unparalleled whether you’re listening to ‘Send in the Clowns’ (from ‘A Little Night Music’) or ‘Epiphany’ from ‘Sweeney’ or ‘West Side Story.’”
“How he can touch the human heart through his lyrics and his compositional style is unlike anyone else you will find.”
‘Sweeney Todd’
When: Preview, tonight. Opens Saturday and runs through Oct. 20. 7 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: San Diego Musical Theatre, 4650 Mercury St., Kearny Mesa
Tickets: $60-$70
Phone: (858) 560-5740
Online: sdmt.org
