Tony Award winner Judy Kaye will be stepping into Sweeney Todd while Patti LuPone is on vacation next month. Kaye will play Mrs. Lovett from June 20 through June 25.
"I have to go and start learning the tuba and everything," Kaye told Broadway.com. "I'm going to try not to screw anybody else up! I've played Mrs. Lovett three times [in previous productions], so I'm not afraid of her at all. I love her desperately."
Kaye recently received a 2006 Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play for her work in Souvenir, which she starred in off-Broadway and regionally prior to its Broadway run. She won a 1988 Tony Award for her portrayal of Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera. Her other Broadway credits include On the Twentieth Century, The Moony Shapiro Songbook, Brigadoon, Ragtime and Mamma Mia! (for which she received a Tony nomination). Kaye's recordings include Judy Kaye, Diva by Diva and Judy Kaye, Songs from the Silver Screen.
After her June stint, Kaye is also expected to return to Sweeney Todd in August, presumably when LuPone is away at Chicago's Ravinia Festival doing Gypsy (which runs August 11 through August 13). "I do two weeks in August," Kaye said. "I don't know which weeks they are."
Sweeney Todd will continue to star Michael Cerveris as Sweeney Todd, Mark Jacoby as Judge Turpin, Donna Lynne Champlin as Pirelli, Manoel Felciano as Tobias, Alexander Gemignani as The Beadle, John Arbo as Jonas Fogg, Diana DiMarzio as Beggar Woman, Benjamin Magnuson as Anthony and Lauren Molina as Johanna.
