sweet-shop

Manzke — which also recently received the Michelin guide’s Exceptional Cocktails award — carries more than 100 bottles of rare and vintage spirits, including whisky, bourbon, rum, vodka, gin and a sweet-shop assortment of liqueurs, fruit brandies and eau de vie.

The complex plot and wide-ranging cast expand to include the owner of the foster home, an antsy operator of a child-placement agency, a sketchy ex-cop, a couple of iron-willed nuns, a charismatic protector of street kids, a mentally challenged restaurant employee, a sweet-shop owner, an ex-convict or two, and members of the Chicago Police Department.

At that point, one foolish witch got so excited at the possibilities presented by owning a sweet-shop that she leapt to her feet and shouted, "The children will come flocking to my shop and I will feed them poisoned sweets and poisoned chocs and wipe them all out like weasels!"

Das sweet-shop wears a bejewelled turban, as if it were a human head.

At first the music seemed insubstantial compared to his operas — unsurprisingly, given the work’s frothy sweet-shop subject matter.