Yes, she can sing.
For her New York stage debut, Emma Thompson is aiming high: She’s taking on the amoral Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”
With the New York Philharmonic, no less.
This would make experienced Broadway stars quake in fear — and the last time Thompson did a musical, it was a West End revival of the daffy “Me and My Girl,” all the way back in 1985. She’s become justly famous for a number of things — acting, writing, being a humanitarian and a wit — but singing isn’t one of them.
Yet she looked and sounded assured at Avery Fisher Hall Wednesday, the first night of this staged concert’s five-performance run. Her ease almost hides the fact that she isn’t quite right for the part.
In the show, Mrs. Lovett is a ghastly baker who becomes the accomplice of the title character, an escaped convict hellbent on revenge. Together, they find unlikely success selling meat pies secretly made out of the remains of Sweeney’s victims.
Sweeney Todd is one of musical theater’s great parts, and bass-baritone Bryn Terfel does it justice here.
Maybe he’s particularly motivated because he was slated to play Sweeney with the Phil in 2000 but had to withdraw at the last minute for health reasons.
In any case, Terfel is terrific in Lonny Price’s production: He’s a hulking presence with a voice that can rumble threateningly, but also ooze like an impossible rich caramel. He’s a great combination of finesse and power, and his Sweeney has the requisite haunted, obsessive grimness.
Terfel fits his role to a T, which can’t quite be said of Thompson.
She nails all of the role’s comic elements — she’s a veritable whirling dervish in the Act 2 opener, “God, That’s Good!” — but she lacks Mrs. Lovett’s street sass. This, after all, is a working-class survivor with dirt and blood under her fingernails, and Thompson comes across as a little too refined. Still, you can’t say she’s boring.
Musically, we’re in safe hands: It’s always a special pleasure to hear the Philharmonic apply its might to a Broadway score, and the orchestra, conducted by Alan Gilbert, shines with a dangerous edge in the second act, when things get pretty brutal.
Jay Armstrong Johnson’s Anthony and Erin Mackey’s Johanna — a k a the young lovers — lack personality, but the ubiquitous Christian Borle (“Peter and the Starcatcher,” TV’s “Smash”) hams it up terrifically as the swindler Pirelli.
It was also a fun surprise to see the unannounced Audra McDonald as the Beggar Woman, whom she also played in the ’00 concert. (Bryonha Marie Parham takes over for the final two performances on Saturday.)
As for Thompson, let’s hope she sticks with that show-tune business — she’s a natural. If “Mame” ever comes back, she should have dibs.