"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (Hair and Makeup Design 2019)

Unraveling. Broken. Shards. Shatter. Flour. Dust. Disheveled. Unwashed. Victorian.

Sharp. Cuts. Bruises. Stains. Shreds. Purity.

Exhausted. Stretched beyond means. Grotesque.

Heavy. Caked. Ratted. Malnourished.

How do I describe Sweeney Todd?

In the dilapidated world of Sweeney Todd, where good food and clean homes are hard to come by, characters look sunken and fallen apart. Drawing inspiration from American painter Ivan Albright, I pulled out flesh and bruised tones as a recurring theme throughout my designs. And depending on their status, they would look more groomed than others. For example, Judge turpin, Johanna, and Anthony are either wealthy or have been kept away from life's cruelty and misfortune, thus keeping them looking rosy cheeked and/or hair well groomed.

For the Ensemble and Toby, they needed to have a more skeletal appearances, more bruising, dirtier than their wealthier counterparts. Hair is messy or misshapen, bones and hollows are defined. Under the high exposure lights, this created contrast and also the inability to hide, so every crevise and imperfection created was on display.

#musicals #theater #distressed #sondheim #Sweeney #Hair #makeup #IvanAlbright