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Lyrics - Stephen Sondheim
Opened - 1979
Main characters - Sweeney Todd, Mrs.Lovett, Anthony, Johanna, Judge Turpin, Toby, Beadle
Plot - The scene is London in the last century. Benjamin Barker was a barber who had a beautiful wife, Lucy, and
a pretty young daughter, Johanna. The evil Judge Turpin and his Beadle took a fancy to Lucy and so they exiled the barber.
The story begins with Benjamin returning to London with a young sailor called Anthony after years of sailing the
world. He goes back to his old barber shop and meets Mrs.Lovett in the pie shop below. She soon works out who he
used to be and shows him back to his shop, and he adopts the name Sweeney Todd, with the sole intention of taking
revenge on the judge.
Meanwhile Anthony sees Johanna, now grown up, confined in the Judges mansion, and they fall in
love at first sight. Sweeney wins a shaving contest with a rival barber, who he later has to murder when he reveals Todd's
identity. Because of this the Beadle visits Todd and passes a good word about the barber onto the judge. The judge visits,
and Todd is just about to kill him when Anthony bursts in and mentions about Johanna. The judge, who intends to marry
Johanna himself, hides her away in an asylum. Because of this infuriating near miss Todd decides that he will have vengeance
on all men until he gets to the judge. Mrs.Lovett has the bright idea of putting the dead bodies into her pies.
In a few months business is booming in the pie shop and Todd daydream's as he finishes off his customers. When Anthony finds out where Johanna is and rescues her Todd sees a way to get the judge to visit. Then begins the finale, which consists of many twists and turns and much carnage, and I won't give the outcome away here. If you'd like to know what happens then email me and I'll tell you.
Songs (With marks out of 10) -
1.The Ballad of Sweeney Todd (10)
2.No place like London (10)
3.The barber and his wife (8)
4.The worst pies in London (8)
5.Poor thing (8)
6.My friends (9)
7.Green finch and Linnet bird (10)
8.Johanna (Anthony) (10)
9.Pirelli's miracle elixir (7)
10.The contest (6)
11.Wait (7)
12.Johanna (Judge) (6)
13.Kiss Me (10)
14.Pretty women (10)
15.Epiphany (9)
16.A little priest (9)
17.God, thats good! (8)
18.Johanna (Sweeney) (10)
19.By the sea (10)
20.Not while I'm around (9)
21.Parlour songs (7)
Favourite song - Kiss Me
Favourite character - Johanna
Favourite quotes -
"They all deserve to die!"
- Sweeney, finally turning to outright slaughter, 'Epiphany'
"The history of the world, my sweet, is who gets eaten and who gets to eat.
But fortunately it's also clear, that everybody goes down well with beer!"
- Sweeney and Mrs.Lovett, celebrating their new business venture, 'A little priest'
Comment - I bought this musical on the advice of a musicals book I bought which said that this was one of the best scores ever written, and it was right! It treats a very dark subject with compassion and humour, while always having an eerie sound to it. It's a brilliant story, and it has been called a musical 'thriller', and there is plenty of action in it. There's also a really nice love story between Anthony and Johanna, and 'Kiss Me' is a simply wonderful song.