Nationwide casting call for young actors for Sweeney Todd in Concert with the National Symphony Orchestra and Irish Youth Musical Theatre at the National Concert Hall

Friday 31 January 2025 

On Friday 25 July, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO), by arrangement with Music Theatre International, will partner with Irish Youth Musical Theatre (IYMT) and the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) at the National Concert Hall for a concert performance by young actors aged 16 to 25 of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. 

This concert performance will be led by the creative team of Irish West End director, Séimí Campbell and Music Supervisor, Sarah Travis, who returns to Sweeney Todd twenty years on from winning a Tony-Award for the show on Broadway in 2005. It will be conducted by Anthony Gabriele, renowned for his work as a Musical Director on London’s West End and a leading name in the genre of Film with Orchestra in concert. 

Sweeney Todd in Concert follows on from the hugely successful concert performance of Evita with IYMT in 2022. As with Evita in Concert, this unique model is designed to offer performance, mentorship and training opportunities in a professional environment for young actors aged 16 to 25 years from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.  

The roles of Sweeney Todd, the titular barber, and his equally demented accomplice, pie shop-owner, Mrs Lovett, will be played by professional actors. All other roles will be cast on the basis of open auditions for young actors in training and recently graduated actors. Such roles include Johanna Barker, Anthony Hope, Tobias Ragg, Judge Turpin, The Beadle, Beggar Woman, Adolfo Pirelli, Jonas Fogg, as well as a Featured Ensemble and Chorus. Following a four-day rehearsal period in April, the company will reconvene in July for three weeks of intensive training culminating with the concert performance on Friday 25 July at the National Concert Hall.   

The closing date for applications is Friday 21 February. Auditions will be held at the National Concert Hall in March. For full information on the applications process and training fees, see the RIAM website on here. 

Full casting will be announced following national auditions in March.  

Media Queries 

Assumpta Lawless, Marketing & Communications Manager, National Symphony Orchestra. 

Email: assumpta.lawless@nch.ie 

Mobile: 087 290 4168  

NOTES TO EDITORS 

Irish Youth Musical Theatre  

Irish Youth Musical Theatre is Ireland’s National Musical Theatre Training Company for actors aged 14 to 25 years across both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Established in January 2020 under the patronage of Colm Wilkinson and the Artistic Direction of Séimí Campbell, and run in partnership with the Royal Irish Academy of Music, it strives to find, nourish, train and showcase the next generation of Irish actors, and launch their careers in the musical theatre industry at home and abroad. 

Séimí Campbell 

Séimí Campbell is an Irish theatre director based in London. He was Associate Director at the National Theatre from 2021-2024, working on Brian Friel’s Dancing At Lughnasa, Roald Dahl’s The Witches and Hex, a musical based on the Sleeping Beauty legend, respectively.  

He recently directed Songs for a New World at The London Palladium, A Different Stage (West End and UK Tour; co-director), and Mick Flannery and Ursula Rani Sarma’s Evening Train at the Citadel Theatre for Canada’s Collider New Work Festival. 

Séimí’s passion is in new writing, and in particular, new work that is music-led. He is currently developing the stage adaptation of Cartoon Saloon’s Oscar-nominated, Song of the Sea, an adaptation of a Greek tragedy with Imelda May, and A Mountain for Elodie by Benjamin Scheuer.  

Following his production of Evita in Concert in 2022 (National Concert Hall), he is thrilled to be back working with the National Symphony Orchestra on Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. 

Anthony Gabriele  

Throughout his extraordinary career, conductor Anthony Gabriele has proven himself limitless in terms of genre, travelling the world to perform in over 20 countries, with over 45 orchestras. 

Recent performances with multi-platinum singer-songwriter Anastacia and repeat engagements with Irish singer-songwriter Ronan Keating have established Anthony as the ‘crossover’ conductor of choice, cementing his international reputation for conducting with tremendous passion, born of a profound knowledge and understanding of the repertoire.  

Anthony’s unrivalled expertise as a conductor of Film with Orchestra now includes over 30 titles, including the world premiere performances of John Williams’ score for Superman and his Oscar-winning adaptation of Jerry Bock’s score for Fiddler on the Roof; Thomas Newman’s score for James Bond: Spectre; Caroline Shaw, Andrew Yee, and Asma Maroof’s composition for the silent film Moby Dick; Bruno Coulais’ heartrending music for Les Choristes; and Lorne Balfe’s imaginative score for Life on Our Planet. 

As a Musical Director in London’s West End, and internationally, his credits include The Lion King, CATS, The Phantom of the Opera, Grease, The Wizard of Oz, Funny Girl, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Sound of Music and Evita. As a past prize winner in the international opera conducting competition Blue Danube Musik Impresario (Vienna), Anthony’s opera credits include Don Carlo, La traviata, La bohème, Don Giovanni and Madama Butterfly. 

During Anthony’s exciting 2024-2025 season, he will return again to London’s Royal Albert Hall, Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw, and the KKL in Lucerne, and enjoy repeat engagements with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia (London), and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. Anthony will also make his debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie (Hannover), European Philharmonia (Belgium), Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. 

Sarah Travis   

Sarah Travis is one of the most celebrated Music Supervisors and Orchestrators of the West End. In 2006 she won Tony and Drama Desk awards for her orchestration of Sweeney Todd on Broadway, in a reimagined, actor-musician treatment of the production. 

Sarah’s main passion is new writing, most recently music supervising and orchestrating 101 Dalmatians (Regent’s Park), The Magician’s Elephant (RSC, Orchestrator), Talent (Sheffield Crucible), and Miss Littlewood (RSC Orchestrator). 

Over her vast career, she has been music supervisor and orchestrator on some of musical theatre’s biggest titles including West Side Story (Curve, Supervisor), Grease (Dominion Theatre, UK Tour), Sweet Charity and A Little Night Music (Watermill Theatre), Beautiful, Fiddler on the Roof, Chess, Sister Act, An Officer and a Gentleman, Legally Blonde (UK Tours). 

Her actor-musician-led work is synonymous with the Watermill Theatre, with productions including Copacabana, Spend Spend Spend, Sunset Boulevard, Martin Guerre, Hot Mikado, Mack Mabel, Ten Cents A Dance, Piaf, Gondoliers, and Carmen. 

As composer, her work for stage includes the recent London-hit of The Cabinet Minister (Menier Chocolate Factory), as well as The Secret Garden (Chester), The Marriage of Figaro (Watermill), Peter Pan (Oxford Playhouse), and A Star Danced (Watermill). 

Sarah is thrilled to be returning to Sweeney Todd twenty years later, working with Ireland’s next generation of musical theatre talent, at the National Concert Hall. 

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About the National Concert Hall 

The National Concert Hall (NCH) is Ireland’s national cultural institution for music, proudly serving the Irish public since it opened in 1981 through live music performances and significant educational and cultural programmes. Based in the heart of Dublin’s city centre, next door to the picturesque Iveagh Gardens, the NCH is proud home to our National Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Chorus, Cór Linn and Cór na nÓg, as well as providing residence for a range of other music organisations including Chamber Choir Ireland, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Music Network, Crash Ensemble and Music Generation. It is currently planning for a major redevelopment of all its facilities as part of the National Development Plan and Project Ireland 2040. 

Faoi an Ceoláras Náisiúnta 

Is institiúid chultúrtha náisiúnta na hÉireann don cheol é an Ceoláras Náisiúnta, a fhreastalaíonn go bródúil ar phobal na hÉireann ó osclaíodh é i 1981 trí thaibhithe ceoil beo agus cláir shuntasacha oideachais agus chultúrtha. Lonnaithe i gcroílár Bhaile Átha Cliath, agus béal dorais le Gairdíní Uíbh Eachach, tá an Ceoláras Náisiúnta bródúil as ár gCeolfhoireann Shiansach Náisiúnta, Cór Siansach Náisiúnta, Cór Linn agus Cór na nÓg chomh maith le háit chónaithe a chur ar fáil do réimse eagraíochtaí ceoil eile lena n-áirítear Cór Aireagail Éireann, Ceolfhoireann Bharócach na hÉireann, Music Network, Crash Ensemble agus Music Generation. Tá sé i gceist faoi láthair athfhorbairt mór á dhéanamh ar na háiseanna go léir mar chuid den Phlean Forbartha Náisiúnta agus de Thionscadal Éireann 2040. 

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