Sheila McCarthy, the flame-haired actress starring in the Stratford Festival's The Threepenny Opera and The Scarlet Pimpernel this summer, will have a bloody good time in spring 2003 when she plays Mrs. Lovett in the Canadian Stage Company's production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.

The staging begins March 24, 2003, under the direction of Morris Panych. George Masswohl plays Sweeney.

The 2002-2003 CanStage season in Toronto, under the artistic producership of Martin Bragg, also includes one world premiere, five Canadian premieres, one Toronto premiere and the 20th anniversary of the CanStage TD Bank Dream in High Park (featuring a July 2-Sept. 1 staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream).

The season includes:

• The Canadian premiere of Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things, a comic drama about appearances, art, passion and loyalty, Sept. 23-Oct. 19 at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Jim Guedo directs.
  
• The Canadian premiere of David Auburn Proof, about a math genius and the daughter who may have inherited his mental illness and his gifts, Sept. 30-Oct. 26 at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Directed by Martha Henry, with set and lighting design by Phillip Silver.
  
• The Canadian premiere of Amy Freed's The Beard of Avon, a comic speculation about Shakespeare and literary authenticity, Nov. 18-Dec. 14 at the Bluma Appel Theatre.
  
• The world premiere of Adam Pettle's Sunday Father, a play about "love, loss and uncertainty," Jan. 6 Feb. 1, 2003, at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Directed by David Storch.
  
• The Toronto premiere of Maureen Hunter's Vinci, set in the Italian Renaissance, an imagining of the humble beginnings of Leonardo da Vinci as "the Vinci family is torn apart by an embroiled, heart wrenching struggle for the illegitimate love child born to Piero, a young, wealthy lawyer and Caterina, a servant girl," Jan. 13-March 8, 2003, at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Directed by Dennis Garnhum, set design by John Jenkins, lighting design by John Munro.
• The Canadian premiere of Rebecca Gilman's Boy Gets Girl, a study of a modern woman and the stalker who changes her life, Feb. 17-March 15, 2003, at Bluma Appel Theatre. Directed by Miles Potter.
  
• Sweeney Todd, the musical thriller, March 24-April 19, 2003, at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Directed by Morris Panych and designed by Ken McDonald.
• The Canadian premiere of Sunil Kuruvilla's Rice Boy, "a magical coming-of-age journey about Tommy, a 12-year-old boy caught between the starkly opposite worlds of Canada and East India," March 31-April 26, 2003, at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Directed by Micheline Chevrier.

For information, call (416) 368-3110 o visit canstage.com.

— By Kenneth Jones