Sweeney Todd Tickets

About Sweeney Todd

If you are looking for a Sweeney Todd summary and a little information about the Sweeney Todd plot, read further. But be warned, there are some spoilers involved (we'll try to leave the ending ambiguous for you!). Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical about Benjamin Barker, a barber with scores to settle. The barber is wrongfully accused of a crime and transported out of London on a ship. The man charging Barker with this crime is the cunning Judge Turpin, who lusts after the barber's beautiful young wife Lucy. When Benjamin Barker returns to London, he finds his home empty and his view of the world is bleak. Mrs. Lovett, the owner of a pie shop (she has the "worst pies in London"), takes the woeful Barker in. He tells her his name is "Sweeney Todd," and he uses this pseudonym throughout the rest of the production. Lovett realizes who he must be and she tells him that Lucy was raped by Taupin and was driven so mad that she killed herself, and that his daughter was the ward of that same judge. When Sweeney decides that he must kill Judge Taupin for his treachery but fails at his attempt, he swears revenge on the world. Eventually, Sweeney Todd enters into a pact with Mrs. Lovett. The barber could have his vengeance, and the wily Lovett would bake his victims into pies, thereby getting rid of the evidence. The story builds to a pinnacle of an ending, with many twists, turns, surprises, and the closest shaves imaginable.

The legend of Sweeney Todd isn't new. Stories about the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street" have been around since the 1800s. Some believe that Sweeney Todd actually existed, while many scholars believe that he is merely an urban legend. In any case, the first most recognized appearance of the "Demon Barber" in print was in a series of penny dreadful stories called The String of Pearls: A Romance, published in 1847; in the same year, the story was adapted to the stage. The tale of the murderous barber captured the imagination of Victorian society, and the legend of Sweeney Todd continued into the 1900s. A silent film was made in 1928 depicting the story, and in 1936 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, another film, was released. The macabre tale continued to appear in film, radio dramas, television, on stage, and even as a ballet through the 1970s. Finally, Sondheim's musical appeared under the title Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, A Musical Thriller in 1979. The show wasn't nearly as well-received at its original opening as it is today. A revival of the show on Broadway opened in 2005, directed by John Doyle. The director's re-imagining of the original Broadway musical turned the 10 actors into the pit orchestra, with the actors playing their own instruments. Three of the show's performers were nominated for Tony Awards, and the show as a whole was nominated for Best Revival and won Best Direction and Best Orchestration.

In 2007 Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd (a film adaptation of the musical) was released in theatres, and the tale of the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street" was brought to audiences worldwide. With interest in Sweeney Todd at an all-time high, cheap Sweeney Todd tickets are tough to find. Don't wait too long to get in on the macabre sensation that has been tantalizing audiences since the Victorian era; check out Sweeney Todd tickets and get them before they're gone.

Sweeney Todd - Links

Sweeney Todd - Trivia

• From IBDB.com: The first production of the musical Sweeney Todd was performed in 1979 at the Uris Theater in New York.
• From TruTV: The character of Sweeney Todd was based on a real-life serial killer in London, who became a sort of urban legend.
• From IMDb.com: The 1979 musical version of Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler was adapted from a play written five years earlier by Christopher Bond.