Interview with Ramin Karimloo, Sweeney Todd at Birmingham Rep

Conducted by Roni for Theatre and Tonic.

This Summer, Stephen Sondheim’s timeless musical thriller Sweeney Todd heads to Birmingham in a striking revival directed by Rep’s Artistic Director Joe Murphy. Considered one of the greatest musicals ever written, there’s a definite buzz about this new production, which kicks off performances on 4 July. In the role of Sweeney Todd is the musical theatre legend Ramin Karimloo. Known for his performances in Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Fancy a slice of what’s in store? Read our interview with Karimloo!

So we’ve seen you in productions in the West End, and on Broadway, and now you’ve come all the way to Birmingham. What was it about this production specifically that drew you here?

It’s odd because I don’t have much – any – experience with Sondheim, although I worked a bit with him when I did Prince of Broadway, but I wasn’t doing the Sweeney section. So I  never thought about being Sweeney or in Sweeney Todd, but I think sometimes in your career, things find you, or you just find each other. And oddly enough, I’ve been offered four different Sweeney Todd’s this year, so to me, obviously it’s a sign. So I spoke with all of them, but when I met with Joe Murphy, the artistic director here, I was a big fan of the energy and timing, both his and the timing for my career. His enthusiasm and excitement, and his ideas and mine of Sweeney were aligning, and I thought ‘oh. I like this’. His belief in it and in myself for the role felt like everything was just going ‘tick, tick, tick’, so I thought ‘let’s just go for it’. At some point you just have to take that leap of faith.

And how are rehearsals going so far? Has anything surprised you coming into the production?

Well, knowing very little about the show means everything is a surprise, but I’d like to change that word to thrilled for a few reasons. I didn’t realise how much of an ensemble piece it is, how much humour there is within this dark storyline. More importantly, for me, what I love about the roles I like to play is the humanity throughout these characters and stories, even within all that darkness. So that’s been thrilling to play, and obviously I’ve heard of Sweeney Todd and the reputation it’s garnered over the years, and now I’m realising why. It’s valid, it’s earned, and it’s one of these timeless pieces that’s always going to be coming back.

We haven’t had a revival in the UK for a while, and I’m so excited to see this production because this is my hometown, so it feels kind of crazy to think of such a significant production having a revival here..

You should be very proud; there’s a lot of Brummies working on it or in it. They build the sets right here, which I can’t believe. In my head, when you think of a ‘rep’, you think spitting sawdust, but this is quite an elaborate place. If we need anything, it’s like ‘ok, we’ll build that’. It’s phenomenal. The rehearsal rooms are floor to ceiling windows, so you get this light coming in – you feel inspired every day you’re here. I’m having the best time.

I’m so glad! What can audiences expect from this new production, without giving too much away?

I think even for someone like me, who’s never seen Sweeney Todd, through osmosis and legend you pick up what it is. For audiences, what they’ll get with the thriller element and how it walks hand in hand with humour, again, is that human story – the complexities of humanity. Good theatre makes you talk about it long after you leave the building, and I think Sweeney Todd is one of those pieces, this one particularly with how Joe’s directing it and putting it on its feet.

You’re going to be forced to think of uncomfortable things – grief, obsession, loss, portraits of what happens with your memories through that grief and obsession. It’s timely and timeless, because the humanity of it and the human condition still happens. Like, what happens when society oppresses you so much that you break? As a masculine male who has no voice for his pain, who’s got unhealed trauma – what happens when a person breaks that way? Within that legend of Sweeney Todd that we all think we know, I’m hoping that, with how Joe’s directing it, hopefully folks who think they know Sweeney will see it again for the first time.

So, picking at that thread a little bit more – what are you bringing to Sweeney? How are you exploring that role?

I guess this is where sometimes ignorance is bliss, because with not knowing anything about the show, I just started with the text and a conversation with Joe. Once we did a shallow dive into who Sweeney Todd is, a man with no voice for pain, with unhealed trauma, then I could dive into the text and the music – everything is on the page. Then I found I’m far more interested in Benjamin Barker than the legend of Sweeney Todd; I keep going back to Barker and finding who he was, because society created Sweeney Todd. He became Todd to reclaim his life, with that single purpose of justice because he snapped. So it’s not playing a villain. He’s not a villain. He does horrible things, but it’s not about judging him. I think we have to understand what causes people’s actions, what causes them to have those thoughts and be that way? And the more we have that grace and no judgement, we’ll be in a better world. It comes down to not judging him; it’s understanding him.

I think with Sweeney, you almost end up rooting for him, which is so strange because when you think about it on paper, you really shouldn’t root for him as a character. I think that’s the nuance that Sondheim does really well within his texts where he takes these complex characters that might be perceived as a villain at first glance, and writes them in a way that audiences can’t condemn too much.

Right? Because there’s a bit of that in everyone. All of us have the capability of doing horrible things, but we don’t. Until we do. I’m not saying we’re all going to put people in to pies, but hurt people hurt people, which is a cliché but it’s true. If we start looking at the human side of things, like you mentioned, Sondheim doesn’t write cardboard cutouts of a villain or a hero. He writes humans. And everyone’s complicated.

So with the character of Sweeney, what has been the most challenging thing about the role that you’ve found so far?

There hasn’t been anything too challenging actually! Although on a surface level, he’s so morally complex, and at times he switches on a dime. So it’s making sure I have that clarity in the storytelling of that, because at times, he’s fighting to bury Benjamin Barker because I feel anytime Benjamin’s with him, then he has a conscience – and a conscience leads to being hurt. He has to build this completely desensitised prison around him so that he can carry on, and that’s why he shows grace with Anthony. He’s telling him to get out, but he’s not angry – he’s like ‘I’m saving your life, get out of here’. So it’s finding those moments, the almost ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ moments of all that he’s dealing with.

We’ve spoken about the darkness to this show, but also the nuance as well. The show has just announced a week’s extension before even opening – what is it that you think draws audiences to that grittiness?

Deep within us, we all have our dark passenger I think. And hey, we don’t want to be those people – God forbid – we don’t want to see horrific things in the world, but people stop and slow down at accidents. Because we’re all curious, we’re human beings. We’re all flawed, as much as one individual might protest they’re not. This is extreme measures we’re talking about, but the complexity of people, the anger, grief, dealing with grief and obsession, dealing with loss. That’s all within these characters to an extent, and it’s quite an extension, but then there’s an entertainment value. So I think that’s what draws people to these kinds of stories. And then you go back to that question of people saying ‘well that makes your Sweeney different?’ , and I’m like, I don’t know – I’m not trying to be different.

And maybe he’s not different, because like you say, he’s not a caricature - he’s human.

That’s it. This is not a museum piece; this is an important piece of theatre. Again I use these words, timely and timeless.

Something a little bit more lighthearted then - Sweeney seems to decide quite quickly that his patrons need to die, whether for small reasons or often no reason at all. I want to know what petty thing – or a pet peeve - would have you considering putting someone in a pie…

Oh I’ve got so many pet peeves!

Mine is people who don’t use their indicators at roundabouts, so you could have gone but miss your chance because they didn’t indicate

Well, to keep mine on point, when I see a cell phone in a theatre… yeah I want to put you in a pie. Because I find that so selfish, cause you don’t care one iota for the person next to you, behind you, the actor on stage. I’m seeing people like, just check Facebook now during performances! It’s why I don’t go to the theatre, because I want to do something I shouldn’t when I see that. Also, don’t you want to shut off for two, three hours?!

Yes, that baffles me – just respect the live performance! Finally – why should people come and see the show?

Like I said, great theatre doesn’t allow you just to sit comfortably. You will talk about this long after you leave the theatre, and I think that is a sign of great theatre.

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street plays at Birmingham Rep from 4 July to 15 August 2026. For further information, including booking your tickets can be found by visiting the Birmingham Rep website.