Jack Weld

Jack Weld plays the part of Beadle Bamford in Lab Theater’s production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. As corrupt Judge Turpin’s greasy lackey, it is Beadle who orders the police to arrest Benjamin Barker on false charges so that with him out of the way, the judge can drug and rape his pretty young wife. Weld portrays the Beadle with a ruthless detachment reminiscent of Travolta’s Vincent Vega, possibly a reflection of his Shakespearean heritage.

In the latter discipline, Weld’s stage credits include Sebastian in The Tempest for Lab Theater, Don John in Much Ado About Nothing, Lord Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, and one lovesick benevolent Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew.

Shakespeare aside, Jack has performed in plays and musicals in Fort Myers and Naples since 2003. He played Edwin Bates in Lab Theater’s summer spoof Whatever Happened to Baby Jane: A Parody of the Horror, Senator Joe Cantwell’s campaign manager, Don Blades, in The Best Man, Stage Kiss, Mr. van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank, Kit Kat boy Viktor in Lab’s 2015 smash hit Cabaret, Glengarry Glen Ross, In the Next Room and The Laramie Project. Local audiences also saw him in Young Frankenstein with the Naples Players. He has also appeared in the chorus of La Boheme with Opera Naples and Les Miserables, The Producers, Something Rotten, Guys and Dolls and The Music Man with The Naples Players.

This is not Weld’s first encounter with Sweeney. He performed in the ensemble of Sweeney Todd in Maryland in 2000. That role marked Jack’s first foray into the realm of musicals.

November 12, 2021; revised February 17, 2023.