Elliot Wood - Mrs Lovett’s Famous Meat Pies Grand Reopening Extravaganza

Not a lie: one minute into Elliot Wood’s Mrs Lovett’s Famous Meat Pies Grand Reopening Extravaganza, a random audience member next to me whispered to their friend, “I love this so much.” And I couldn’t agree more!!! This is a dazzling hour of fun, a spectacular from start to finish, as Wood giddily flounces about the space as Mrs Lovett with such high intensity and wonderful unbridled enthusiasm.  

While the premise is a pretty bonkers Sweeney Todd fanfiction, underlying the show are some heroic call-to-actions to the theatre industry and broader cultural landscape of Australian politics. It’s a tonal balance that mostly lands, but feels slightly underbaked in contrast to the over-time allotted to the vulgarity of Mrs Lovett’s love of puns. Although a little scrappy set-design-wise, Wood immerses the audience into her world with ease and a touch of dramatic flair. The charm lies in the chaos - as things begin to go awry plot-wise, you can’t help but fall in love with Wood’s Mrs Lovett.

Playful, physically mesmerising and unabashedly outrageous, Mrs Lovett is a tasty treat for theatre nerds and fans of big character campiness.