Backstage: 'The Light in the Piazza' at Arena; Sherri Edelen in 'Sweeney Todd'

Arena Stage's Molly Smith loves musicals. She's directed four classics at Arena herself: "South Pacific" (2002), "Camelot" (2003), "Damn Yankees" (2005) and "Cabaret" (2006).

Now she's staged a newer piece, "The Light in the Piazza," running in Arena's temporary Crystal City space through April 11. The fulsomely scored, achingly romantic show debuted on Broadway in 2005, with music and lyrics by Adam Guettel ("Floyd Collins") and a book by Craig Lucas ("Reckless," "Prelude to a Kiss"), based on the 1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer. (A 1962 movie based on the book starred Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi and George Hamilton.)

"This is such an unusual musical that it almost refuses to be categorized," says Smith. "Is it musical theater? Is it opera? Is it operetta?" The piece could be a slice of all three in its evocation of guileless young love set against the backdrop of Italy's gemlike Renaissance city Florence, circa 1953. A childlike American beauty, Clara (played by Margaret Anne Florence), traveling with her mother, Margaret (Hollis Resnik), falls for a sweet Italian, Fabrizio (Nicholas Rodriguez). Margaret must decide whether to take a stand in defense of conventionality or give her daughter the freedom to find joy.

Smith has conceived the show as a chamber musical for the 460-seat venue. She says it was the composer-lyricist's earliest concept. "Adam Guettel," explains Smith, "had first envisioned 'Light in the Piazza' as a chamber piece, and I think when one goes back to an artist's original idea and impulse, some of the most powerful work can come." Music Director Paul Sportelli will play the piano and conduct an ensemble that includes harp, violin, bass and cello. The musicians will be costumed like Florentines and always onstage.

The sound of her cast singing, says the director, is the first reward of the more intimate scale. "The individuals really stand out within it," she says, adding that she's been "thrilled [by] the actors' voices and their ability to convey the emotions that are so huge."

Guettel is descended from musical theater royalty. His grandfather was composer Richard Rodgers. His mother, Mary Rodgers Guettel, wrote the music for "Once Upon a Mattress" and other shows and is expected to attend "The Light in the Piazza" here. When Arena opens the Mead Center for American Theater next October, Smith will direct Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!"

The latest Mrs. Lovett

Playing the dread maker of human meat pies in "Sweeney Todd" is a dream for any musical theater character actress. But Sherri L. Edelen always felt she was not physically imposing enough or old enough to live that dream.

Then she did "Les Misérables" last year at Signature Theatre in Arlington, her frequent stomping ground. She won a Helen Hayes Award for playing Madame Thénardier, the conniving innkeeper's wife. Choreographer Karma Camp, recalls Edelen, took note of her grubby 19th-century attire and said, "Gosh, Sherri, you look great -- you could play Mrs. Lovett."

Then, Edelen says, as soon as "Les Miz" closed, Signature Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer said, "We want to do 'Sweeney Todd' next year. You want to do Mrs. Lovett?" Adds the actress matter-of-factly, "Anyway, here I am doing it." (The show continues at Signature through April 4.)

So it turns out that being slight of stature and south of 50 didn't get in the way of Edelen's adding her own dash of seasoning to Mrs. L and her dubious pies. "Anytime you take any character to such an extreme, it's always going to be a huge challenge for an actor, whether it's Sweeney or Mrs. Lovett," observes Edelen. "You raise the stakes, put the characters in dire situations. We're in the 1800s in London. Her husband's dead. She's a woman. . . . There's a whole inspiration right there. Times are hard, as she says over and over again." Hard enough for her to help her beloved, revenge-obsessed Demon Barber of Fleet Street make his "customers" disappear.

During rehearsals, Edelen says she and co-star Edward Gero, who plays Sweeney Todd, could get a little gloomy about the grim world in which they were cavorting. "She's down there chopping people up!" exclaims the actress. "We started thinking about all the serial killers out there and Jeffrey Dahmer. . . . I would have just horrible dreams and would wake up [thinking], I have to go to jail!"

Another challenge Edelen had to face was Gero's reputation as a classically trained actor whose résumé bristles with Shakespearean titles. "I thought, oh my God. I was so intimidated by his reputation and his education. . . . [Then] I thought, what better person is going to dig into the text than a Shakespearean actor? I'm excited about that."