The Greenfinch Theatre & Dive has established itself as an important venue for St. Louis theater companies, but the small stage limits the possibilities for some shows.

The Greenfinch was the obvious choice for Fly North Theatricals’ current production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” because the theater is owned by the same people who run the company—artistic director Colin Healy and managing director Bradley Rohlf.

Healy, the director of “Sweeny Todd,” and Rohlf, the technical director, deal impressively with most of the Greenfinch’s limitations. The set’s co-designers—Healy, Rohlf, and Lauren Perry—devote one side of the stage to an enclosed platform a few feet off the ground. The platform is the site of Todd’s shaving contest with Pirelli and the barber shop above Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop.

Ideally, the barber shop has a special chair with a lever that enables Todd to send his victims down a chute to the bakehouse, where Mrs. Lovett makes the meat pies. Fly North does not have the special chair but cleverly jokes about its absence with a huge shipping box from a St. Louis–based barber supply house. Even without a special chair, Fly North’s Todd smoothly disposes of bodies through a trapdoor in the platform.

Unfortunately, the stage did not have room for the bakehouse, which Fly North moved to the theater’s house-left aisle. This area is not visible to everyone, and the bakehouse is too far from the platform to show what happens when the stage directions say, “the bloody body of the BEADLE comes trundling out of the mouth of the chute. TOBIAS screams.” This scene is the first one that drives home the brutality of Todd’s murders. The absence of visible horror in this moment of recognition is disappointing.

Fly North is more successful in Johanna’s scenes at Judge Turpin’s mansion. A freestanding stepladder on wheels is rolled out to represent the upper level where Johanna is confined.

The crowd scenes would benefit from more people than Fly North’s cast of 12, but the choral singing has thrilling heft. Margaret Beekman is principal soprano, Parker Miller is principal bass, and Mia Millican is principal alto.

In the leading roles, Chandler Spradling and Jennelle Gilreath Owens sing splendidly and are a suitably contrasting pair. Spradling’s stoniness fits Todd’s fixation on revenge. Owens’ lively, expressive movement fits Mrs. Lovett’s description of her mercurial thinking: “Sometimes ideas just pop into me head.”

Rachel Bailey takes the beggar woman on a convincing journey from an annoyance to a figure evoking great pity. Nathan Hakenewerth is a flamboyant Pirelli. Dereis Lambert as Anthony and Isobel Ramsey and Johanna are a sympathetic pair of young lovers. Crispin Shininger is a childlike Tobias. Ken Haller’s Judge Turpin and Matt Ingram’s Beadle Bamford could be more menacing.

The technical contributions include Jen Blum-Tatara’s costumes Healy and Perry’s lighting, Healy’s sound, Kel Rohlf’s props, and Angela Healy’s fight choreography.

“Sweeney Todd” continues through August 9 at the Greenfinch Theatre & Dive, 2525 South Jefferson Avenue.

—Gerry Kowarsky

Photo by Julie Merkle
From the left, Chandler Spradling as Sweeney Todd and Jennelle Gilreath Owens as Mrs. Lovett in front of the platform built for “Sweeney Todd” at the Greenfinch Theatre & Dive.