Sweeney Logo

Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Hugh Wheeler

From an Adaptation by Christopher Bond

 
Sweeney Todd Ralph Thomas
Nellie Lovett Janet Holloway
Anthony Hope Rick Thomas
Johanna Rhiannon Rose
Judge Turpin Laurence Clarke
Beadle Bamford Paul Buckle
Beggar Woman Lorna Welch
Pirelli Tim Brown
Tobias Richard Thomas
Fogg Nigel Holloway
Birdseller Helen Windsor
With Claire Couldridge, Ellie Hoare, Liz Howson, Cheryl Payne, Bev Pearce, Adam Pitt, Helen Rose, Lisa Sadie, Fiona Thomas, Roger Thomas & Sarah-Jane Waters,
   

 

Synopsis

Victorian London: The Ballad of Sweeney Todd sets the scene for the awful tale about to unfold. Down at the docks, two men disembark and greet their native city. For Anthony, There's No Place Like London. Sweeney Todd echoes the sentiment but for different reasons: to him London is a hell hole.

Todd journeys to Fleet Street and Mrs. Lovett's shop, wherein are sold The Worst Pies In London. There are lodgings above, with a dark history: there was a gentlemanly barber who worked and lived there with a young daughter and a pretty wife who attracted the attentions of a corrupt Judge and his Beadle. They had the barber unjustly transported, lured his sweet, naive wife to the Judge's house, where she was raped and her child taken from her. The barber was never seen again, the wife took poison, but the girl Johanna still lives with the Judge. Mrs. Lovett, no fool, returns the tools of his trade, carefully kept by her since his conviction. My Friends, murmurs Todd, caressing his razors. He takes the lodgings.

Outside Judge Turpin's house, a Birdseller's Green Finch and Linnet Bird are serenaded by another helpless caged creature from the highest window in the house: the beautiful Johanna. Anthony spies her from afar and falls helplessly in love. The Judge has different ideas.

A rival barber, Pirelli, demonstrates the remarkable properties of his Miracle Elixir - Todd challenges Pirellis to a shaving competition. Business subsequently booms for Todd but, obsessed, he awaits only the Beadle's custom. Wait, Mrs. Lovett advises: vengeance will be his. By the end of the first Act Todd has an Epiphany, vowing revenge on all humanity; Mrs. Lovett, practical as always, hatches a devilish plan…

Act II begins with Mrs. Lovett's distinctive pies being the talk of Fleet Street. God, That's Good, belch her patrons. With such a harmonious business partnership, she is keen to put relations with Mr. Todd on a more intimate footing but Todd's mind has been twisted by hate and he thinks only of Judge Turpin and Johanna, now incarcerated in Fogg’s madhouse.

Mrs. Lovett's new help, Tobias, is fearful of Todd, but no-one will harm her, he promises. Suspicious that he suspects something, she locks him in the bake-house. Meanwhile, Beadle Bamford arrives and the wheels of fate are notched up a gear as a series of events race to the gruesome finale