#also props to Luigi's voice actor too

[pianokantzart]

Ok but WHY DID THEY GO SO FUCKING HARD ON THAT TAKE?? LIKE HOLY CRAP, ARE THEY OKAY?!

I don't know enough about anime to know Luigi's voice actor, but I know that Mario's voice actor was Light Yagami from Death Note, and I know enough about Death Note to know he was going to do a banger job.

He did not disappoint. That was PAINFUL.

[appleflavoredkitkats]

sweeney todd manila review

okay, just a heads up, i don’t know much about sweeney todd outside of this production and of what little bits i’ve heard of the other productions, so this won’t be the most professional review. i watched the show on the twentieth of october and i believe the whole cast was there.

btw, this is gonna be really messy bc i still have lots of stuff to do so i’m speed typing this review out KDDLJF.

(hello, @thegirlisuedtobe, this is for you! sorry if this is very late, i was really busy!)

- the set is phenomenal. before the show started, there was the sound of rain while smoke scattered across the stage. it really gave off a very eerie vibe to the show, even if it hasn’t started, and i give huge props to the set designers for setting the tone of the musical!

- here’s what amazed me the most about the set-- FLOATING CARS. there were cars hanging up on strings and just... wow. absolutely breathtaking. there was also an upperstage that was build particularly for this musical which was also well done as well. on stage left, there was this platform in particular that intrigued me because it was slanted and only had a railing that could possibly reach below your thigh. it was risky, i might say, and because of that, huge appreciation to the cast because they were able to maneuver themselves on that platform without slipping or injuring themselves.

- another interesting prop which i’m sure many of you have seen in promos was the red car that both mrs lovett and sweeney todd used. in my opinion, at first glance, the car looked cool, but there were some pros and cons.

- pros of the car: the car gave some kind of edginess to the musical. the main characters rode the car into the stage as their introduction and it really left a good impact! additionally, i loved the way how they moved the car around. all transitions were so smooth and commendable and i praise the designer who thought of all of these up.

- cons of the car: it was awkward when the setting was at the bakery of mrs lovett. the car represented the second floor of the building and the chair of sweeney’s barbershop merely rested on top of the car. it was... kinda confusing at first, especially when it is really up to the audience on how they want to interpret the murders that occurred on the car (more on that later). additionally, the car served as a weird divider to the shop, the bakehouse, and the barbershop, and honestly, they should’ve placed the barbershop on the upperstage instead of on top of the car. (gurl, when i say i was confused, i say i was confused.)

- the keep your cellphone message was really funny to me but... kinda long? like it was so unnecessarily long that i was confused whether the show started or not. i also thought they were checking the set since there was many props littered around. but when they eventually get to the point of things, it was really, really funny, so i commend them for adding this small comedic scene just for audience members to stop taking photos. 

- the singing of the cast was phenomenal! these people are just... so great, and it was definitely the highlight of the show. 

- now... here’s where i get a little bit iffy-- the costumes. i don’t really know what to say because the costumes seem... laughable. but not in a good way. it seems like they wanted to modernize the costumes which is understandable but at some cases, it kinda fails? 

- pros of costume: mrs lovett and pirelli really have the costumes which i loved. lea salonga did not look like herself but my god, did her costume stand out from the rest. and pirelli, on the other hand, had a cape that wooshed around a lot alongside a skirt, and boio, did nyoy volante nail this costume well. the modernizing costume thing didn’t really work with the others besides these two. other modernized costumes that look passable were tobias’ costume and some of the ensemble. (also, jonas fogg wore a denim jacket with a junji ito screencap on the back of it? uh, okay, i love junji ito but why is his manga featured here...)

- cons of costume: oh boy. sweeney todd’s costume was... eh. jeans, really? out of everything they could’ve given to sweeney fucking todd, they gave him a polo under a denim jacket under a blazer and jeans? then there’s the mess that is johanna’s costume design. girl, the designer probably went to an sm sale and decided to just shove anything they found in the department store into their cart. johanna’s dress was. eh. her wig? eh. the costumes didn’t snatch my wig but i’ll let them snatch my wig just so that they can replace whatever the heck johanna has on her head. additionally, not all costumes were modernized... which is like... what? the ensemble who had victorian era-esque costumes looked fine! they even could’ve given sweeney todd one of their costumes because it looked much better than the denim outfit they gave sweeney. it’s just quite... odd to see a mix of modernized costumes and oldstyle costumes mix all together because they lowkey clash with one another.

- okay, let’s move on to the actors themselves. let’s start of with lea salonga-- oh my god, she is a legend. she easily adapted into being mrs lovett and that is so commendable especially when she isn’t used to playing an insane role like that. her mrs lovett had consistent, chaotic energy which i admired and she really was the one to eye whenever you see her in a scene.

- jett pangan was great but he isn’t as consistent as lea when he portrayed his character. sweeney todd was insane, he is angery, he is chaotic but jett pangan portrayed him as stoic and silent in some parts. i really enjoyed his more insane side during little priest but i wished he kept it throughout the whole performance. what i did like about him is his voice is just so, so great. his vibratos were so good y’all, his singing in general makes up for everything. additionally, when sweeney gets emotional, he did a really good job portraying a sadder and more depressed kind of sweeney, almost like he was having some existential crisis on stage. (he really looked like he was regretting life choices during by the sea and the ending, it was actually kind of amusing).

- now, luigi quesada, an underrated actor from this production. god... he was just so consistent and energetic and an absolutely great actor. he really portrayed a pure soft boi through tobias and when he started to become insane, he portrayed that shift of character so fucking well. the shift of character was my absolute favorite thing because, in my opinion, it is the scariest thing that’s happened in sweeney todd. tobias was a pure, innocent child who wanted nothing more but to have a smol job and serve others nicely and then, bam, when he saw the corpses, something snapped in his head and it was so horrific to witness his change. additionally, luigi had such a cheerful singing voice which embodied the character well and accustomed to both the innocent and insane side of tobias.

- nyoy volante was another great treasure in this. he wasn’t as seen since his character died midway through but his stage presence is so great. he was so flamboyant while also being very comedic, using his costume to emphasize the comedy. also, he didn’t die immediately when he got attacked by sweeney, and he did portray the struggling pirelli so, so well. 

- gerald santos was... okay. he has a great singing voice, they all do, so i tend to judge how good they are based from their acting. gerald was really good at portraying a panicky anthony who was desperate for johanna. his character was really consistent and i like that! my main issue with gerald is at some times, his diction isn’t too great. i know that some filipinos (even me) would struggle pronouncing words in english, but if you’re an actor who’s worked on many musicals in english, i expect a lot from you. i think he had a really thick filipino/tagalog accent and mixed with a really mediocre british accent, it wasn’t too... understandable. i couldn’t understand most of his dialogue and because he can’t do accents well, his acting becomes affected. 

- mikkie volante’s voice is so fucking beautiful, how do you even sing that high and make it look easy? anyways, she portrayed a very frightful johanna very well, and i can’t believe how much the costume and wig really affects my perception of the character. it’s just... i can’t take her seriously if she looks... like that. okay, enough about the costumes-- her johanna felt scared and i felt that, but when she fell in love with anthony, she was desperate, and i fuckin loved it. being isolated for your entire life will leave you desperate for affection and mikkie fucking nailed it!

- andrew fernando was so-so as the judge. he wasn’t... creepy, or disturbing. his character is disgusting and so close-minded but i never felt any eerie vibes from him. i also think the costume he had was restricting him from doing anything because he had layers upon layers of clothing and when he began whipping himself, he looked like he struggled a lot to sing and do the actions (the costumes for this production is just so off in general it’s a bit offensive). there wasn’t much stage presence from him and i just wanted him to act a bit filthier.

- arman ferrer as the beadle was a trip. he portrays the character as so dumb and i loved it, it’s just the idiotic energy really cracks me up. additionally, his singing, oh my word, his singing is so good. he hits high notes like it was no problem and it was jawdropping. there was not much to say besides his fuckin costume was whack why did he wear that-- but overall, he was pretty solid!

- ima castro was good! she portrayed a crazy beggar woman which was so chaotic and funny and just fucking bonkers and i loved the energy she had! the only thing i note is that, at times, her voice would stop and i’m not sure if it was intentional or not? even if it wasn’t, it actually added to her character rather than brought her down.

- ensemble was... phenomenal. ignoring the costumes for the hundredth time, i love the ensemble so much because they don’t get enough credit yet they nail it every time they get into a production. their acting during the asylum scene? iconic. their accents? iconic. everything was so iconic.

- now, imma just say a few points in the show that i remembered which is worthy enough to tell yall of.

- here i’ll explain how the murders work. it’s kinda... weird. the execution was inconsistent and i remembered three ways on how they were able to kill and cook their victims. firstly, the murder with pirelli is the only one of its kind. sweeney sliced his throat and threw him into the driver’s seat of the car which was confusing considering how the other murders took place. the second kind of murder and the more common one is when sweeney sliced someone’s throat, the victim would walk off the car and walk into mrs lovett’s oven by themselves. i’m assuming that with pirelli, they didn’t bake him yet so they just hid him in some kind of box or crate somewhere. the third kind applied to the judge and the beggar woman wherein when they killed them, it was implied that they were brought to the bakehouse and not burnt.

- here’s my interpretation of how the murders go. in the original, the bakehouse was the basement, but here, i assume since they claim it’s a “bakehouse”, there’s a secret compartment in the barbershop that brings dead bodies directly into the oven. i’m guessing that with judge turpin and the beggar woman, the oven was not on so they were just... brought there? it’s really, really confusing and i wished they cleared it up so i won’t keep wondering about what is where and how things work. i do think that the victims walking into the oven is really genius because it was a perfect mix of comedy and eeriness which i really commend.

- i liked the way they portrayed the streets in this. they used the upper stage and it really clears up where each scenery is set! it isn’t like the bakery and barbershop wherein the set is confusing, it was much better than that. when mrs lovett and sweeney walked up to pirelli’s barbershop, the scenery was so interesting because they walk from above and look down at them. i really, really liked it.

- additionally, the sprays tobias advertised were cleaning sprays found in ace hardware store, that’s funny. also, the only time their haggard wigs would be effective is when tobias used it and nothing else. (i’ve seen better wigs in beautiful, where did those wigs go?)

- the way they portrayed johanna’s place was so, so good. johanna’s room would be atop the upper stage and, ugh, it’s just so well put-together. this whole set was the work of god and no one can convince me otherwise.

- the lighting was great but the sound design was a bit off for me. the electrocution noises were smart to use but i thought it was a bit too loud? like it was really off-putting. i wished they added gross sloshing noises when they were handling the body parts just to add give a better effect when mrs lovett was holding actual intestines and organs.

- the opening of act 2 was hilarious and one of the more intriguing parts of this musical. pangan’s voice? spectacular. lea’s look of distress whilst serving pies? hilarious. the ensemble? god’s gift to mankind. it was so comedic because sweeney is calmly singing about johanna whilst he slices throats and the victims, in a daze, just walk into an oven while mrs lovett’s expression just screams, “yea, that’s life.”

- i can’t believe. they used handkerchiefs to express what a wig is during the asylum scene. like............ really. where are the leftover wigs from beautiful???

- also, it was weird to me that johanna was the one who shot jonas fogg. it was kinda badass of her and perhaps portrayed her character to become more brave but i still kinda thought it was ooc? (ALSO DEAN ROSEN IS GREAT I LOVE HIM HE POSTS CAT STUFF ON IG AND THATS ALL HE DOES)

- okay someone clarify with me because i initially thought tobias escaped the bakehouse, hence why they went looking for him, but they said it was locked from the outside and i’m left confused why they left in the first place...?

- btw whenever lea speaks, i become more of a lesbian, thanks lea salonga.

- when the plot twist was revealed and mrs lovett and sweeney were slow dancing, that was a theatrical experience. god, just... mrs lovett with the most fearful look in her face as sweeney slowly moves her into the oven is so iconic and that has to be one of the more chilling scenes in the musical. then, once sweeney kills her off, she holds the beggar lady close to him and he looks absolutely mournful.

- AND THEN TOBIAS FUCKING COMES BACK AND GIVES THE BIGGEST CHILLS EVER. will i ever stop talking about how good tobias was written/how good luigi quesada is? probably not.

- anyways, tldr; sweeney todd was beyond average but wasn’t perfect, the costumes were. eh. the singing was perfect, the SET was amazing, lea salonga, nyoy volante, and luigi quesada own my heart, and philippine theatre really needs better wig suppliers, someone please donate your wigs to them.