Is it wrong that I secretly wished Lakewood Playhouse’s production of Sweeney Todd would be a little bit more like a GWAR concert? My instincts say yes, but my heart says no.

Not that I wanted a horde of spastic metalheads kicking me in the head, but if there is one tale of musical theater well-suited for a good, strong arterial spray, it’s that of the Demon Barber.

Fortunately, it turns out there are a good many ways to make a play violent and disturbing without literally drenching your audience in red food coloring.

First, get yourself a creepily intense lead. Glenn Guhr, in the title role at Lakewood Playhouse, has this locked down. When you walk in the front door (I know you will, because I’m going to tell you to before this article is through, and I’m pretty convincing) take a look at his headshot. It’s impossible not to, because his steely stare is already burning a hole in the side of your head.

Then, if you’re trying to impart violence and disturb upon a production without going totally GWAR, choreograph your razor-wielding, occasionally blood-stained chorus through every available aisle. Make sure your audience is right up next to them. Eye-contact close. Crazy eyes swinging barber tools up on a stage is one thing. Right next to your face is quite another. Lakewood Playhouse obviously realizes this.

Then think back to your design professor’s lecture on how not to light actors. Remember when he said “never use green on skin, your cast will look sickly?” Turns out sickly is just the ticket for murder, mayhem and unwitting cannibalism.

Toss in a slow fade to red as the implacable urge to kill rises. Maybe a screeching, startling sound effect at every death.

I didn’t think all this stuff up. But then, I don’t direct, produce or design plays. Fortunately the creative team at Lakewood has you covered.

A show like Sweeney Todd can be risky for a small theater. Not “sex with a goat” risky, but there are degrees of risk. There are the technical demands of killing many, many people via throat-slash and dropping them through a tunnel.

Also, working with a play by Stephen Sondheim, you need a cast that can sing three different sets of lyrics with three different melodies and rhythms all at the same time. On this point the Lakewood Playhouse production falls down a bit — aside from certain singers just not being as good as others, the lack of microphones makes mixing troublesome when members of the cast are stacked at different distances and altitudes

Mostly, though, the thing is dark … in case you didn’t get that from references to throat-slashing and arterial spray. Community theater’s bread and butter are perky classics. In 2010 we saw H.M.S. Pinafore on the Lakewood stage. TMP just closed Hello Dolly, and TLT a show of Patsy Cline tunes. Material like Sweeney Todd, while popular at the professional level, is often relegated to Halloween slots.

Instead, the late Marcus Walker shoved it straight to the big time, and it appears to be paying off (with sellout crowds on opening weekend). Next season opens with the similarly dark Something Wicked This Way Comes, and wraps with what I’m told will be a fairly adult rendition of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, cementing the company’s reputation as purveyors of, if not the bleeding edge, something with at least more edge than you might expect.

But that’s all next year. For now, Sweeney Todd is a load of fun to watch, and I promise you will not be covered in blood.

Even if you ask nicely.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Through June 26, 8 p.m. Friday–Saturday
2 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, $25–$19,
Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood
253.588.0042