Culver City High School Prepares to Occupy Fleet Street with ‘Sweeney Todd’

The ‘chocolate pie’ in The Help will seem like child’s play compared with the contents of the pies in Sweeney Todd.

You can find out exactly what goes into those pies in the Academy of Visual and Performing Arts’ upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which will run from March 15 – 18.

In a modern take on this 19th century English tale, the show will draw parallels with today’s “Occupy” protests. Pitting wrongfully imprisoned Sweeney Todd, the alias for character Benjamin Barker, against Judge Turpin, the story conjures up battles between classes, inequality and injustice.

Directed by member Jon Kellam, AVPA is bringing together a professional team of creative artists to teach and direct students in this large-scale production. Students are working with experienced professionals who have worked on productions such as The Lion King, Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, and a vocal coach who has sung in the Vatican. 

In order to cover the costs for the production and to give the students a chance to work with these seasoned professionals, the AVPA Theatre department is launching a fundraising campaign.

You can help out by becoming a “Sweeney Sponsor” by visiting www.avpa.org and clicking on the link to the Sweeney page, where you can also find all the information about the production. In addition to being acknowledged for all donations, $100 donors will also receive two reserved premium seats at a performance of their choice.

Be sure to like Culver City Patch on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.