As a self-proclaimed Sweeney Todd fiend, Ty Bru: A Night In Charlotte with Sweeney Ty immediately piqued my interest.
Clearly inspired by Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, this rap/hip-hop production gave the melodramatic victorian tale a previously unseen twist.
Ty Brueilly is the front man – and presumably the vision behind this performance – who has been involved with independent music for nearly two decades.
Intercepting and merging with Ty Bru’s rap are the familiar voices and instrumentals from Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd musical. The two genres weaved between each other effortlessly.
In the same way that Baz Lurhmann’s The Great Gatsby mashed the twenties with modern music, I think this performance did a great job of blending the victorian-based thriller with modern rap.
While the smoke machine sets the scene, the make up is individualistic and the camera work is smooth, what’s lacking from this performance is slickness. It seems loose, particularly when considering performers in the background who act as though they can’t be seen when others are in the foreground. I think this makes the performance messy and breaks the illusion.
Having said that, from another point of view this could just be the interjection of a typical imperturbable rapper’s performance to the theatre stage show backdrop.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the theatrical nature of this Sweeney Todd inspired performance. Certainly very creative and unlike anything I’d seen before.
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This is a paid review
NZ Film Freak 