“Spellbinding.” “Endearing.” Bloody brilliant.” Denver-born Annaleigh Ashford is again the Belle of Broadway after this week’s opening of “Sweeney Todd” on Broadway.

Thoroughly won-over critics are falling all over their barbarous quills trying to find words to adequately describe Ashford’s triumphant performance as human piemaker Mrs. Lovett opposite demon barber Josh Groban in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece.

It is already one for the record books.

“This ‘Sweeney Todd’ belongs to the spellbinding Ashford,” wrote USA Today’s Patrick Ryan. “From the moment she springs up from behind the counter … Ashford is bloody brilliant in her elastic expressiveness and slapstick comedy.” Here’s more:  

• ”Most of the humor comes from Ashford herself, a brilliant comic for whom comedy is not the end but the means.” – The New York Times’ Jesse Green

• ”Annaleigh Ashford is a physical comedy genius, a total, very artful ham, bringing the show to a giggling standstill as she slides down the stairs.” Tim Teeman, The Daily Beast

• “This lushly orchestrated and opera-scale production … proves a magnificent showcase for Groban and Ashford’s respective, jaw-dropping talents. Ashford is an especially exhilarating standout. Her wit carries an element of surprise that feels like its own kind of danger; it’s impossible to guess how she’ll deploy the next note, or even syllable, in her commitment to landing unexpected laughs. Her daffiness is delicate and grounded in character, even as it threatens to float off like a stray balloon. Following her turn opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in “Sunday in the Park With George,” Ashford is cementing herself as a premiere Sondheim interpreter.” – Variety’s Naveen Kumar

Ashford, already a Tony Award winner for “You Can’t Take it With You” in 2015, is following in the legendary footsteps of Angela Lansbury and Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett. And very much holding her own. “Ashford leaves her own indelible mark on the role,” wrote Kumar. Added Green: “Ashford’s Mrs. Lovett is not the music-hall zany Lansbury created, but a brutal schemer for whom zaniness is a useful cover.”

This is no cherry-picked list of just positive accolades, either. I couldn’t find a single review that took exception to any aspect of Ashford’s performance, directed by no less than Thomas Kail (“Hamilton”).

Ashford, still only 37, has been on what might appear to some as a non-stop rocket-ship ride since graduating from Wheat Ridge High School at age 16 and Marymount College at 19. (Some might say since she starred as a murderously ambitious – but cute as a button! – 9-year-old diva in a campy 1994 Denver stage production of “Ruthless: The Musical.”)

This is already Ashford’s eighth Broadway show. By sheer luck, I was in New York reporting on her Broadway debut back on April 3, 2007, when she made her first preview performance in “Legally Blonde: The Musical” at the Palace Theatre. Six months later, she was playing Glinda in the biggest musical on the planet, “Wicked.” Since then, she’s starred on TV’s “Masters of Sex,” the Colorado-based true-crime series “Unbelievable,” the FX drama “Impeachment: American Crime Story” (as Paula Jones), Hulu’s “Welcome to Chippendales” and headlined two seasons of the CBS sitcom “B Positive.”

Mention any of this to her, and she will be quick to remind you that only a few months after starring in “Wicked,” she was back to babysitting to pay the bills. Success can certainly be a fickle server of humble pie.

Still: Pretty sure that, after this week, the only babysitting in this young mom’s future is for her own son. Not after notices like these: 

“Her timing is beat-perfect, her Cockney accent a treasure – and her superb vocals blend so well with Groban’s that we’re left hoping for an album of showtune duets as a follow-up to the inevitable ‘Sweeney Todd’ cast recording,” wrote Greg Evans of Deadline.