Sweeney Todd
Jonathan Kent's quite impeccable new production of Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeny Todd" seems to take its tone from Michael Ball's assumption of the title role: lean, muscular and efficient. Operatic excess is paired back and the result is grimly human and utterly compelling.Indeed, with the exception of the blood jets which get progressively more epic as the body count increases, Kent's staging creates its terror not th…