How can an extremely Eighties Indiana and 18th-century London cross over, you ask? Leave it up to two Stranger Things stars to have both been cast in Sweeney Todd productions.
Ahead of Gaten Matarazzo taking to the stage for the new Broadway staging of Sweeney Todd, we revisit another Stranger Things star who was cast in another adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s blood-chilling musical movie.
Stranger Things’ Dustin takes on Sweeney Todd’s assistant
This year sees the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd on Broadway. The Tony Award-winning musical, which tells the tale of the eponymous Demon Barber of Fleet Street, stars Josh Groban as Sweeney Todd. He plays opposite Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs Lovett.
Stranger Things fans will be happy to see Gaten Matarazzo in the cast lineup. Gaten joins the cast as Tobias, or “Toby,” a young lad who becomes wrapped up in the butcherous exploits of Mrs Lovett and Sweeney.
Gaten is no stranger to the stage. He actually got his acting start as a child actor on Broadway, starring as Benjamin in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and as Gavroche in Les Misérables.
Hear Gaten Matarazzo belt out a Broadway classic
If you were unaware that Gaten Matarazzo had pipes, then just wait ’til you hear the Netflix star belt out this Sweeney Todd number. This production is being staged at New York’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
Gaten performing Not While I’m Around from the musical can be heard below for a taster of his talents.
Villainous Vecna played the romantic lead in Sweeney Todd
Straying far from the ‘big bad’ of Stranger Things 4, Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Vecna AKA “Henry Creel” or “One,” took on the romantic lead in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd. The 2007 film starred Burton favorite Johnny Depp as the titular character with Helena Bonham-Carter taking on the role of Mrs Lovett.
This was the first feature film role Jamie Campbell Bower ever scored. He plays Anthony Hope, a sailor who meets Sweeney Todd at the beginning of the musical on their voyage home to London.
Anthony becomes the romantic interest for Johanna Barker, a beautiful young woman who lives as the ward of the sinister Judge Turpin, the object of Sweeney’s murderous desires. Far from the villain we’ve come to know in Hawkins.
While you’re unlikely to come across Vecna in the current staging of Sweeney Todd, or any character close to Dustin, you can see Gaten Matarazzo return to his early passion for musical theater. Tickets for this production are available through January 14, 2024.
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