actor Merritt David Janes creates a killer you can connect with

True, he slices people’s throats open with a shaving razor. True, he and his partner bake his victims into meat pies. True, he eats a pie made from the flesh of a priest. You might say Sweeney Todd is a tad unstable.

But actor Merritt David Janes, who portrays the demon barber in a Broadway musical coming to Portsmouth, thinks everyone is a little bit like Sweeney Todd.

“It’s a character that I try and make people identify with. That may sound strange, but when you look at the circumstances of Sweeney Todd, he’s had a lot of bad things happen to him,” Janes said in a recent phone interview. “He’s just a guy who’s reached a snapping point. Everyone has it, and it’s just a question of what they do when they reach it.”

The Music Hall will stage two productions of director John Doyle’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” on Sunday, March 1. Janes, a New England native, plays Todd, while actress Carrie Cimma plays the baker Mrs. Lovett (whose recipes might not pass modern FDA standards). The two leads join a 10-person ensemble of actor-musicians who bring composer Stephen Sondheim’s acclaimed musical to life.  

Originally from Colchester, Vt., Janes’ resumé includes roles in the first national tour of “The Wedding Singer” (Robbie Hart), “Little Shop of Horrors” (The Dentist), “Two Gentleman of Verona” (The Duke) and “Grease” (Danny), among others. But “Sweeney Todd” presents a fresh set of challenges. Every cast member doubles as an instrumentalist, incorporating the orchestra directly into the live performance. In addition to acting and singing, Janes also plays trumpet and guitar.

“This is the most artistic role I’ve done. The music is so infused with the story and it’s so representative of the character. It’s not just dialog, cue song, sing song, back to dialog. Everything is just so closely intertwined,” Janes said.

The musical tells the story of a once honest man who loses everything—his marriage, his daughter and his freedom—to a corrupt and malevolent judge in London. After years of exile, Sweeney Todd returns to the city to reestablish his barbering career. But styling hair and shaving beards is no longer foremost on his mind. His bitter obsession with revenge spurs him to cut throats instead of hair, and he embarks on a bloody campaign to eradicate the city’s crooked elite.

Todd partners with the owner of the bakery downstairs from his barbershop, who sells “the worst pies in London.” Mrs. Lovett’s business experiences a swift upswing after she starts using the flesh of Todd’s victims as her main ingredient. But as the pair becomes increasingly callous and incautious, their murderous scheme begins to threaten even the innocents around them, and their operation spirals out of control. 

Replicating the polar extremes of emotion Todd experiences over the course of the show is a challenge that Janes savors. He channels Todd’s anger by mentally applying the character’s circumstances to his own life. He also has a method for embodying the growing nonchalance with which Todd slashes his victims. “The way I connect with that is I think of the way he kills them as the way I might swat a fly,” he said.

Janes studied trumpet and singing at the University of Maine in Orono and also attended Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York. During his time in New England, he said, he made occasional stops in Portsmouth for breakfast at The Friendly Toast. But the upcoming shows will mark his first visit to The Music Hall. The shows come just 10 days after a performance at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord. 

The tale of Sweeney Todd dates back to 19th century penny novels. Various adaptations have emerged over the years, including an 1847 melodrama by George Dibden Pitt and a 1936 British film directed by George King and starring Todd Slaughter. In 1973, playwright Christopher Bond altered the story to make it a “revenge tragedy.” Stephen Sondheim and author Hugh Wheeler based their 1979 Broadway musical after Bond’s version of the story.

“Sweeney Todd” experienced a major boost late in 2007 when Johnny Depp starred in the fantastically bloody American film version directed by Tim Burton. First staged in 2005, John Doyle’s revival of the musical is two and a half hours long and features actors in modern dress.

Janes said the musical is not quite as gory as the movie. There’s some blood, to be sure, but not of the water-spigot sort that characterizes the big-screen version. Doyle also jettisons the gruesome film element of limp cadavers launching down chutes and landing on a stone floor. Instead, mild gore is achieved mainly with colored lights and body motions. “There’s a lot of subtlety about the violence,” Janes said.

With each new telling of the story, Todd’s motivations have evolved to become increasingly complex. In current times, Todd could be seen to symbolize a working class man who lost his job in the economic fray, while the evil judge represents one of the wealthy bank execs still accepting giant bonuses. Maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but Janes said every viewer will identify with Todd in his own unique way.

“There’s been a lot more layers added to the character with Sondheim’s musical. Now, with this musical, there’s even more layers,” Janes said. “It’s not just a case of frightening gore. It’s not just a case of a murderous guy.”

Doyle claims that Sweeney Todd actually existed in 19th century London. And you might say he still exists today. Janes compares Sweeney Todd to Captain Ahab in “Moby Dick” or Khan in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” Just about anyone who has sought cruel vengeance for an injustice can relate to the demon barber.

“People who indulge their desire for revenge and let it consume them—they are Sweeney Todd,” Janes said.

The Music Hall, located at 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, will present “Sweeney Todd” on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $30 to $65. Call 603-436-2400 or visit www.themusichall.org.