By Harry Haun
"Sweetie Todd," Fraver says, "transplants Stephen Sondheim's slasher musical in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and conveys the classic violence of old nursery rhymes.
"I thought an interesting and non-grisly way of presenting this would be with a decapitated gingerbread man. The blood is really icing, but you get the sense that his head has been snapped off or cut off. It was very attention-getting. Anyone walking by would stop to look at it. You never see a gingerbread man in distress.
"I chose the kind of lettering you would see on a candy box. I was still envisioning the story happening in Victorian times so I used the background of Victorian wallpaper pattern. That gives a little sense of period. The gingerbread man is universal and has been around for eons, but the wallpaper pinpoints it to Victorian.
"Once I related it to candies and cookies and sweets, this was a fairly simple ad."
26 Aug 2010
"I actually did use Carol Channing's face," he admits sheepishly — but with a proprietary right: "Over the years, I've worked on many tours Carol Channing did with Hello, Dolly!, and every image, of course, was her with her arms up. I thought it'd be funny if her arms were still outstretched and there were six of them.
"And I used a lot of pink. We all know that pink is the [David] Merrick Red of India."
For a backdrop, Fraver relied on the Harmonia Gardens to supply him with the show's iconic visual. "It always seems if you see waiters dancing, you think of Hello, Dolly!" He even has a jumping waiter levitating above the show's logo.
So, will we ever get to see a Hindu Dolly Levi? Or Spider-Man in a bowler hat? Or hear the songs of Treat Street? Probably not. So it's back to the drawing board for Fraver. But he doesn't mind. "I love theatre and this work. It's a perfect storm for me."
