HUNTINGTON -- At the age of 19, Wendy Muir has spent much of her life practicing cello and singing.

Up until a few months ago, the University of Illinois student, who is double majoring in computer science and vocal performance, wasn't sure if all that cello time was going to do anything more than impress friends on Facebook.

Of late, her secret weapon seems to have come in handy, as Muir is playing cello and singing her way across the country performing as part of the tour of the edgy, Tony-Award-winning Stephen Sondheim-penned musical, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

At 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, the Marshall Artists Series welcomes in the tour of the musical that goes down live on stage with 10 musicians and actors recreating the suspense of the 19th century story that stormed Broadway in 2005 and the theaters in 2007 in the Johnny Depp film.

Some tickets are available at $46 and $56.

Muir, who is out on her first professional tour, said she was excited to get to use her cello skills, let alone in one of the coolest touring shows.

"I kind of heard about it from a friend who found out that I played cello and sang," Muir said. "I have been playing cello for 11 years now. It's my main instrument, and I only more recently got more into singing and performing, so I was really excited for an opportunity to do both in the same show. I would never have thought I would be able to use the cello like this. I thought it was just something that I had put all of these hours and hours and money into and would never get to use it."

Recreated by Adam Hunter, this touring version of "Sweeney Todd," is based up on the 2005 Broadway-released Sondheim-written show that had original direction and design by Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards winner John Doyle.

For those who haven't seen the deliciously dark and rather bloody musical movie "Sweeney Todd," the story goes back a couple hundred years as it is based upon the 19th century legend of a London barber driven to a life of crime after a malevolent judge takes his wife and child from him.

Sweeney's plan for revenge includes a cutthroat partnership with Mrs. Lovett -- an enterprising businesswoman -- who is soon producing the tastiest meat pies in London as the two embark on a delicious plot to slice their way through the city's upper crust.

Muir said they want to let audiences know that thankfully the stage show (set in an insane asylum) is much more subtle (i.e. less gory and bloody) than the movie version that may be fresh-carved in people's minds.

"There's a lot of symbolism, and we're trying to emphasize the idea that the imagination is much more powerful than anything you could see on stage," Muir said. "We could have that blood coming out of someone's neck and all of that blood and gore of the movie, but we don't have any of that. Sweeney does the motion and blood will pour from bucket to bucket... So there are these little things, these intricate things in the set that are really cool."

While devoid of Hollywood-esque mechanical barber chairs and that in-your-face gore, "Sweeney Todd," the tour does have a buzz that Muir thinks is the definite result of back-to-back Broadway revival and the Hollywood smash movie.

"Before I think you would say 'Sweeney Todd' and they would have to be a theater person to have heard of it but not after a movie is made," Muir said. "Everyone now is like, yeah it sounds familiar and are more likely to go see the show ... having Johnny Depp attached to any title is helpful."

Although the touring production has lured in a widely diverse audience, Muir said they love doing shows like the Marshall Artists Series where they're playing for a college city crowd.

"It's probably the most fun when we go to the different colleges and when you get a lot of theater people in there who know this show," Muir said. "It's great to have people who really appreciate it and get it in its entirety and tend to appreciate it. It does, though, appeal to the older audiences as well because it is a classically-written, great musical with such a great story. It has something for everyone, well, unless you're under 5 -- you may not like it then."

Painted with a minimalist set, "Sweeney Todd," lets its 10 actors/musicians tell the story through their instruments and songs.

That innovative style caused The Wall Street Journal to write about Doyle's revival on Broadway, "The greatest musical of the past half-century has returned in a staging of the utmost force and originality."

"It was definitely overwhelming at the beginning to learn two-and-a-half hours of music along with the words and the blocking," Muir said.

The instruments become such an integral, powerful part of the show that she couldn't imagine it otherwise, Muir said.

"The way the blocking is worked in, the instruments are very much part of the character and used as props a lot," Muir said. "They also use them a lot to show something about the characters. Anthony and I, even though we are separated at times in the story, still play the same thing and our bows are moving in the same direction, even though we are separated. It adds a lot to the characters."

Courtesy of Peter Coombs Photography, © 2008.

The national tour of "Sweeney Todd" will stop for an 8 p.m. show Thursday, Feb. 5, at the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center in Huntington. The show is a Marshall Artists Series event.

Purchase this photo