Judy Kaye will star as Mrs. Lovett in a one-night benefit concert of Sweeney Todd to be held at London's Royal Festival Hall, Feb. 13, 2000. Len Cariou, who originated the role of Sweeney the barber on Broadway, is in talks to costar. Kaye's agent, Bret Adams, told Playbill On-Line she, too, is a Sweeney, veteran, having played the pie shop owner at Michigan Opera and NJ's Paper Mill Playhouse. Kaye's other credits include playing Emma Goldman in Ragtime.
Sweeney, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's operatic classic of 1979, is based on Christopher Bond's potboiler play about a barber taking revenge on hypocrites and corrupt judges by helping bake "the worst pies in London..." The Sweeney benefit concert is being produced by Doug Mayo.
-- By David Lefkowitz
