There are a series of good details in Sweeney Todd, currently being revived at the Lunt-Fontanne.  The stage is framed by a brick semi-circle, giving the audience the impression we are viewing the action through a seedy Victorian tunnel.  Some of the action is played in silhouettes above the heads of the actors.  And the first kill is long, silent, and unglamorous, which reminded me of Hitchcock, who said he wanted to show “what a messy thing it is to kill a man.”

Still, there is something missing in this musical, which follows Sweeney (Josh Groban) as he returns to London, in disguise after escaping false imprisonment, befriends Mrs. Lovett (Annaleigh Ashford), and quickly falls into her scheme to serve human meat in her pies.  Sweeney is presented as a sympathetic figure, manipulated by Mrs. Lovett, but the transformation is too quick; we see too little hesitation before the murders become routine.  I would take Sweeney as either a Macbeth or as a Jean Valjean, but he’s a little of both.  As a result, the violence loses some of its macabre fun while the melodrama over his wife (Ruthie Ann Miles) and daughter (Maria Bilbao) loses most of its pathos.

Which isn’t to say that this production is without its pleasures.  There are some great songs, like “A Little Priest,” where Mrs. Lovett imagines serving a variety of professions to her customer: for example, for “something lean,” you might “enjoy a Royal Marine.”  Groban has a rich, low tenor, and Ashford is brilliant, finding the comedy in almost all her dialogue.  But the musical fails to succeed as a whole.

Sweeney Todd runs through January 14th at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.  205 W. 46th Street  New York, NY.  2 hours 45 minutes. One intermission. Photograph by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.