Beadle's death: As we hadn't done it in the space, we looked at Beadle's death. The actual murder of Beadle (and all of the other character that die in the chair having their throats slit) is simple - Rob mimes cutting his throat, and then spins the chair to face the back for Ollie to get off unnoticed and walk through the curtain behind, for Rob to turn the then empty chair to face the front again. We were confident with this part, but hadn't tried Ollie supposedly falling down the chute. We tried this in two different ways. The first way we trued was Ollie jumping off of a chair (that was positioned just behind the curtain) and then falling to the floor just in front of James. The use of the chair made it appear that he was coming downwards from above, but it was a little bit dangerous, as he had further to fall and it was less controlled. Therefore, the second way we tried was him doing the same thing, but instead jumping off of a chair, he would just jump and slide. This worked a lot better as he had more control over his fall, it was safer and it still looked realistic. We went over this fall a couple of times to ensure that he was landing safely, to make it look realistic and to ensure that Ollie's jump wasn't visible from any angle to any of the audience.
Lovett and Todd's exit and entrance: After Lovett has spoken to Beadle and Todd, and the two men have gone upstairs, we needed a way for the three of us to exit before Toby's scene. Rob and Ollie would have to stay up in the tonsorial parlour - we discussed blacking out this section of the stage, but realised that this wouldn't be possible as we can't get a complete blackout in this area. Meanwhile, we also tried and then disregarded me bending down behind my counter (as if tidying) and staying there until after James' section before getting up again to begin my scene with Rob. However, this looked strange and awkward so we decided against this. We then tried having the three of us continue doing what our characters would do, but all in mime - i.e. Rob shaving Ollie and then killing him at the appropriate time, so Ollie could then jump down into James' scene, and I would be cleaning the shop becoming anxious of the sounds from the bakehouse. This worked a lot better than the first idea, but we thought that there would be too much going on, and it would distract the audience away from James' scene. Therefore, we decided that we would all freeze in the positions we finished in - me in the shop cleaning, Ollie in the chair and Rob preparing the razors. However, Rob and Ollie would have to move at the end of James' first line - Rob would have to turn the chair around for Ollie to jump down into the bakehouse at the right time.
Entering the bakehouse: We tried three ways for Rob and I to enter the bakehouse for the final song. The first way we tried was us going down the steps under the stage, to then go up the ladder to get onto the stage. This created the effect of us walking down into the bakehouse, but took far too long, and you wouldn't be able to hear us singing at this point. We then tried Rob and I going up the steps on the right of the stage to go into the bakehouse, as we climb the stairs, the curtains would then fully open, as this is the last location we use. Although this did work better than the first way, as we could be heard singing and it was practical, it looked like Rob and I were just going into Todd's tonsorial parlour. Our third and final idea was Rob and I climbing up the boxes on the left to get on to the stage. This was perfect as we could be heard singing and it looked believable.
Lovett's death: The stage directions state that Mrs Lovett dies by Todd pushing her into the furnace. We thought of how we could do this practically. We thought of having gate on stage to act as the furnace that Rob could push me through, but this would be very difficult to make it look realistic - it also would be challenging for me to fall through the gates safely. We therefore considered having a red light illuminating a section of the stage, and have gates either side of it, that I would then step back into. This would have been safer but wouldn't look realistic. We wanted this death to be realistic, as our whole show is naturalistic (though exaggerated) apart from transitions (i.e. Todd travelling Lovett's shop, as we use round-by-through) and character's dream sequences (i.e. "Epiphany", "A Little Priest" and "By The Sea"). We therefore though about Todd slitting Lovett's throat, but decided against it - Todd's first kill and last kill should be different to his other murders: he strangles Pirelli but slits everybody else's throat. We didn't want Lovett to be just another kill - as she is his last kill, and a very significant one as she lied about his wife (resulting in him killing her not knowing that the beggar was in fact his wife). The other idea we came up with was Todd to snap Mrs Lovett's neck. We thought this was rather gruesome and could look really effective. We wanted to have another dance sequence before her death, as she is fantasising again, as Todd assures her that "there's little point in dwelling on the past". We kept some of the same choreography from "A Little Priest" as the tune is repeated in this section, but just before my death, we needed the characters to get really close, so we did another waltz sequence (so that Rob was holding me close) so he could snap my neck more easily. This worked quite effectively. However, so I didn't have as far to fall we tried doing a lunge before his breaks my neck so I was less likely to hit my head on the floor as I fall. We have now ended this piece with Rob holding me and lowering me down, whilst getting close to me (as if about to kiss, to completely lure Lovett in) just before snapping her neck - this makes it more painful for Lovett as she was so close to getting what she wanted, as well as safer for me.
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