OK they're pulling your leg a little bit unless you believe all that about a baker and a barber going into the business of making meat pies out of the victim of tonsorial excess. Of course, Halloween is coming, and what could be better than a grisly little murder tale that smells of both bay rum and baking pastry? As long as you're not the one resting uneasily in Sweeney Todd's barber chair, you can sit back, relax and enjoy Diablo Light Opera Company's high-style gothic revival, of Stephen Sondheim's wicked little story of murder most fragrant. It isn't a piece for the overly sensitive – face it, there's no way you can make giving total strangers the four and twenty blackbirds treatment sunny and cheery.

On the other hand, the premise is just silly enough, and the dialogue is just melodramatic enough, to make the piece more humor than horror. And it's performed with such style and exuberance in the DLOC production that the nearly three hour show (including intermission) is just a whole lot of fun.

"Sweeney" tells the story of a poor young barber and family man, Barker, whose lovely wife was coveted by the evil Judge Turpin. The judge managed to get Barker convicted on trumped up charges and exiled to a prison abroad for life. His young wife was so overwhelmed, she took poison, and her daughter became the judge's ward. But Barker manages to escape from prison after 15 years and returns to 1840's London to exact his revenge. Older and more frantic, he takes the name Sweeney Todd (John Hetzler) and goes about establishing himself with the help of a young sailor, Anthony Hope (Keith Barlow), who, by coincidence, meets Barker's daughter (Katharine Filak), now a virtual prisoner in Judge Turpin's )Richard Davis home.

Anthony vows to marry the young girl, and Sweeney ventures deep into London, where he meets Mrs. Lovett (Michele Krapp) who has the bakery beneath Barker's old barber shop. She also makes the worst pies in London, a fact that has her business nearly bankrupt. Sweeney sets up shop in the old barbershop and eventually is forced to murder a rival barber (Michael Ryken), who recognizes him as Barker, the escaped con. As Sweeney continues to plot his revenge against the judge, Mrs. Lovett comes up with a novel means of disposing of the body, and gastronomic history is made.

Soon Mrs. Lovett's pies are the most popular in London, and the couple is forced to build an enormous oven (that looks oddly like an angry, fiery monster) to take care of all the business (and as it turns out, all the bodies). Sweeney is so busy murdering people looking for a close shave, he installs a special quick-escape chair in his shop. And all this unfolds behind a wonderfully wry Sondheim score that gives a jolly sort of bounce to the whole gruesome scene. His lyrics are huge fun and a vocal challenge to the performers, who handle them quite well.

The chorus, often a weak point in large productions such as this one, instead became one of the major assets of the show, providing a rich I mood-setting sound that added considerably to the off-kilter spookiness of the piece. Also enhancing the mood is Andrea Bechert's set, which presents a Dickens version of London – dark, foreboding and just a little bit frightening and dangerous. The make-up by Sara Belkers also adds to this bleak and scary tone.

The principals in the show were simply outstanding. Hetzler, made up to look like an illustration from a terror-dripping gothic novel, has a strong, evocative voice and stunning acting talent that blends here to create a memorable Sweeney. And with him, step by step, is Krapp, always a strong performer, who uses her outstanding comic talent to make the mostly malevolent Mrs. Lovett almost lovable with her delightfully wicked performance. Also quite excellent in support roles are Donna Turner in a rare, well-wrought character performance, and Adam Elsberry in the wide-ranging role of Tobias Ragg, the boy who eventually catches on to the whole scheme.

The rest of the cast is wonderful as well. This is another extremely strong effort for DLOC, and also something of a risk - you just don't know how someone might take a musical about putting a lot of humanity into a pie. It's all done with tongue-in-cheek good humor, of course, but if you're expecting springtime and roses, boy, are you in for a surprise.