A walk on the dark side

Holy Christ!” That’s the reaction Irish actor, singer and musician David Shannon wants audiences to have at one point during his performance in the title role of Stephen Sondheim’s “dark and exciting” musical play Sweeney Todd at the Gate theatre.

And that moment, he hopes, will happen as he sings what he calls a "terrifying" song titled ‘Epiphany’.
That said, before we focus on Sweeney Todd, it is worth noting that even though Shannon may be best known for playing the juvenile lead roles in major West End productions of musicals such as Miss Saigon, The Beautiful Game and Whistle Down The Wind, he’s actually a rocker at heart. Indeed, after getting his break in Les Miserables around 12 years ago he took a year off, joined two bands – “one doing original songs, the other doing covers of everything from Jimi Hendrix to Thin Lizzy” – and played in pubs in places like Acton! He’s also just about to release his first solo album of mostly original songs called Full Circle which will be available on his website www.davidshannon.co.uk.
But what, exactly, makes him say that Sweeney Todd is dark and exciting?
“Well, it’s based on one of those ‘penny dreadful’ stories. The full title is Sweeney Todd, Demon Barber From Fleet Street and that will give you a clue what it’s all about!’ he says. “But what it's really about is a man who’s had an injustice done to him and who comes back seeking justice, seeking closure because of the love he had for his wife. Then he forms a relationship with the proprietress of a pie shop and they hatch this ‘dastardly’ plan. Some people may have seen the video of the original stage production, where Angela Lansbury plays that character, but looking at that it seems a little too much like pantomime. Whereas here, the director, Selina Cartmell has got this great line of darkness running through the play and the character is played by Anita Reeves, who I love working with; she's a wonderful woman I totally adore. And the production has a fabulous cast overall.”
Even so, speaking of acting, it’s a hell of a leap from playing in the juvenile lead in a musical such as Miss Saigon – where Shannon met his future (now ex-) wife Irma Castor who was playing the lead role – to taking on the lead in Sweeney Todd!
“It’s a hell of a challenge but I’m loving every fucking minute of it!” he responds. “Partly because, after the break-up, I came home to Drogheda for Christmas because I needed to be around my family and friends. That’s when my agent called telling me about Sweeney Todd, which has come at a great time for me in every way. After 12 years of doing juvenile leads I’m also, at 35, ready for something more substantial. Because characters like Marius in Les Miserables or Chris in Miss Saigon have a two-dimensional aspect to them, and you can’t do much more with them than that because they’re there simply to be pretty, sing nicely and fall in love with the girl! And if you try, for instance, to darken the characters, a whole show can fall apart. Whereas Sondheim’s take on the story of Sweeney Todd is, in contrast to all that, meaty and something I can really get my teeth into. It also is definitely where I want to go with my career – deeper into acting.”
Not only that, although David has played here in his homeland over the past few years in shows such as Miss Saigon at the Point, “they were British productions” whereas this is “a home-grown production being put on by the Gate.” And given that he started out appearing in shows in Dublin such as A Slice Of Saturday Night back in the 1990s, this has brought him full circle in that sense too. So during the run of Sweeney Todd, can we expect to see Shannon maybe even getting a band together and doing a few pub gigs?
“I’d love to do that!” he enthuses. “And I just might. I do concert tours and corporate gigs, but there really is nothing I enjoy more than standing in front of a rock band and just belting it. So maybe between now and May, which is the scheduled run of Sweeney Todd, I will do a few gigs!”
Sweeney Todd opens at the Gate Theatre on April 24.