Jake’s Take on the Murderous Barber

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In the North Platte High School production of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of the Barbary Coast,” “Sweeney Todd,” played by senior Ethan Brown, attempts to frame a little boy named Billy, played by freshman Andrew Timms. “[The Play went] pretty well, that was way better than I was hoping for it to go,” said Brown.

People tend to get more excited about the musical productions at our school, which is good and all, because the musicals turn out great. But, what about the performances that don’t involve music? This year, North Platte High School students performed their comedic rendition of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of the Barbary Coast”. Their version of Sweeney Todd is a melodramatic comedy full of greed, murder and corruption.

“I think [my character] could use some development but overall I think I did a decent job,” said senior Packer Daily, who played Sailor Tom. Senior Ethan Brown played Sweeney Todd, a barber who is a murdering sociopath with a lust for power. Brown felt he portrayed his character well, but the most difficult part about his character was mastering the evil laugh. “He [Sweeney Todd] is not quite all there so you got to get the laugh down, it took me about a week,” said Brown.

Behind the scenes, junior Brandon Anderson, who is a student director, thought that the performance went well, but there is always room for improvement. “I feel the play went absolutely magnificent, big props to everybody,” said Anderson.

The performances in this production are great and everyone involved with the play did an excellent job bringing it to life with the available resources at hand. Each scene moved smoothly with few or no mistakes. The only negative thing I would have to say is that sometimes it wasn’t always clear when the scenes would change, however it works because the scenes still flow naturally with one another and the actors performances leave you wanting to see more.

My rating for this production is eight haircuts out of 10.