Sweeney Todd

The 2007 movie transformed Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, from a theater buff’s icon to a household word. Now everybody knows the story of the couple who kills people and bakes them into pies. If you were grossed out by the film, though, rest assured: The violence in the stage version is far less in-your-face. We’ve had a surprising number of productions of this challenging piece in Dallas and Fort Worth over the years, and now Casa Mañana is tackling it again at Bass Performance Hall. Gabriel Barre, who staged the terrific off-Broadway version of The Wild Party, is directing, with Broadway stalwart Norm Lewis (most recently King Triton in The Little Mermaid) in the title role.