The cast for Sweeney Todd will hit the stage on October 22, but it's only the very beginning of rehearsals at this stage.

Co-director Mitchell Alcorn said the team was "blown away" by how many people showed up for auditions.

"I think we had between 45 and 50 and we ended up with a 32 strong cast," he said.

"They needed to show they were the right person for the range in the songs, their stage presence, ability to work with others and understanding of the actual musical and songs."

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Fellow co-director Natalie Creighton said some of the people who tried out weren't selected simply because "we have to limit the size of the cast because of the stage size and things like that as well".

She said Sweeney Todd was based in Victorian England, when there was a "fairly poor community and a meat shortage".

"[Sweeney's] barbershop is above the pie shop, now there needs to be ingredients for pies, and it happens to be customers," she explained.

"There are a couple of confronting scenes in it. They will be handled very delicately but people need to realise it is kind of an adult and older show."

The idea for this particular production has been in the works for about eight years, but COVID-19, planning, and other shows got in the way of the dream coming to life.

But now the time has finally come, and the cast will be thrown right in the deep end when learning the long list of songs.

Musical director Samara Redman will be heading this up, helping the cast "to shape their performance and help them sing their best, and tell the story through the music".

"There's about 27 or 28 different pieces. It's a show that's quite sung through, there's not a lot of separate dialogue scenes compared to other musicals so a lot of the story is sung," Ms Redman said.

"It's such an amazing score - the music is so rich and lush and symphonic and really surprising and different so I think everyone should see it."

Ms Creighton said TMS liked to have two varied shows in a year, and after Mamma Mia! this would be completely different and would appeal to a different audience.

"There'll be eleven shows, and a couple of less matinees than we normally have, just because the audience is different. It's not something you necessarily would bring little kids along to, we would warn about that," she said.

Locals can keep up with the progress on Sweeney Todd by visiting the TMS Facebook page.

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