Sweeney Todd

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Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd in the 2007 film by Tim Burton.
Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd in the 2007 film by Tim Burton.
For other uses, see Sweeney Todd (disambiguation).

Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as one of the protagonists of a penny part serial entitled The String of Pearls (1846-7). In the most common versions of the story, he is an English barber who murders his customers with a cut-throat razor (or "straight razor" in American English), and turns their remains into meat pies. His establishment is situated in Fleet Street, London. The story became a staple of Victorian melodrama and a hit Broadway musical in 1979. Sweeney Todd has also featured in several films, the most recent being Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), directed by Tim Burton, with Johnny Depp in the lead role.

Claims that Sweeney Todd was a real person are unsubstantiated.

Contents

[edit] Story versions

In the original story, The String of Pearls: A Romance, Sweeney Todd is a barber who murders wealthy customers by pulling a lever while they are in his barber chair which makes them fall backward down a trapdoor, generally causing them to break their necks or skulls. Just in case they are alive, he goes to the basement and "polishes them off", meaning he slits their throats with his straight razor. Todd also has a young assistant named Tobias Ragg. In some versions of the Sweeney Todd story Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime and variously his friend or lover (and whose first name is variously Nellie, Marjorie, Sarah, Shirley, or Claudette), hides his crimes by butchering the corpses of Todd's victims, baking their flesh into meat pies, and selling them to unknowing customers.

In Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Todd was known as Benjamin Barker, a middle class barber, married to Lucy Barker with a daughter, Johanna. The villainous Judge Turpin exiles Benjamin to Australia on false charges in order to have Lucy to himself. Mrs. Lovett tells Todd that Lucy poisoned herself. Turpin adopts baby Johanna as his ward. By the time Todd returns to London, Johanna has become a young woman and falls in love with a sailor, Anthony, with whom she plans to elope.

In the Sondheim musical, Mrs. Lovett takes in an orphan boy, Tobias Ragg, after Sweeney kills Toby's previous guardian, Adolfo Pirelli, who turns out to be a former assistant that tries to blackmail him. Toby is generally the first character to catch onto Sweeney Todd's crimes and also is responsible for Todd's death.

In almost every variation, Johanna, Anthony, and Toby are the only characters who survive.

[edit] Literary history

Sweeney Todd first appeared in a story entitled The String of Pearls: A Romance. This penny dreadful was published in eighteen weekly parts, in Edward Lloyd's The People's Periodical and Family Library, issues 7-24, 21 November 1846 to 20 March 1847. It was probably written by James Malcolm Rymer, though Thomas Peckett Prest has also been credited with it. Other attributions include Edward P. Hingston, George Macfarren and Albert Richard Smith.[1][2]In February/March 1847, before the serial was even completed, The String of Pearls was adapted as a melodrama by George Dibden Pitt for the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton. It was in this alternative version of the tale, rather than the original, that Todd acquired his catchphrase: "I'll polish him off".[2]

Another, lengthier, penny part serial was published by Lloyd from 1847/8, with 92 episodes and published in book form in 1850 as The String of Pearls with the subtitle "The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance". This expanded version of the story was 732 pages in length.[2]A plagiarised version of this appeared in America c. 1852–53 as Sweeney Todd: or the Ruffian Barber. A Tale of Terror of the Seas and the Mysteries of the City by "Captain Merry" (a pseudonym for American author Harry Hazel (1814–89)).[2]

In 1875, Frederick Hazleton's c. 1865 dramatic adaptation Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet Street: or the String of Pearls (see below) was published as Vol 102 of Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays.[2]

In 1992 the first episode of a planned comic adaptation titled Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was published in issue #6 of Stephen R. Bissette's horror comics anthology Taboo. The adaptation was written by Neil Gaiman, with artwork by Michael Zulli. The adaptation was published as a pamphlet insert which came with the perfect bound book. Only the first episode was completed before the project was abandoned.

A scholarly, annotated, edition of the original 1846–47 serial was published in volume form in 2007 by the Oxford University Press under the title of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, edited by Robert Mack.

[edit] Sweeney Todd on stage and screen

  • The String of Pearls (1847) a melodrama by George Dibden Pitt. It opened at Hoxton's Britannia Theatre, and billed as "founded on fact". It was something of a success, and the story spread by word of mouth and took on the quality of an urban legend. Various versions of the tale were staples of the British theatre for the rest of the century.
  • Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet Street: or the String of Pearls (c. 1865), a dramatic adaption written by Frederick Hazleton which premiered at the Old Bower Saloon, Stangate Street, Lambeth.[2]
  • "Sweeney Todd, The Barber" , a song which assumes its audience knows the stage version and claims that such a character in real life was even more remarkable. Stanley Holloway, who recorded it in 1956, attributed it to R. P. Weston, a songwriter active from 1906 to 1934.
  • Sweeney Todd (1926), the first film version of the story, starring G.A. Baughan in the tile role. The film is now lost.
  • Sweeney Todd (1928) a silent film starring Moore Marriott as Sweeney Todd and Iris Darbyshire as Mrs. Lovett. This is the first surviving film adaptation.
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (1936), a film version of the Victorian melodrama starring Tod Slaughter as Sweeney Todd and Stella Rho as Mrs. "Lovatt".
  • "The Strange Case of the Demon Barber" (8 January 1946), an adaptation of the Sweeney Todd story featured in an episode of the radio drama The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
  • In 1947, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's CBC Stage Series broadcast a radio adaptation of the Pitt play starring Mavor Moore as Todd, Jane Mallett as Mrs. Lovett, John Drainie as Tobias, Lloyd Bochner as Mark Ingesterie and Arden Kaye as Johanna Oakley. The production was adapted by Ronald Hamilton and directed by Andrew Allan, with original music composed by Lucio Agostini.
  • Sweeney Todd (1959), a ballet version performed by the the Royal Ballet with music by Malcolm Arnold. The choreography was directed by John Cranko.
  • Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970), a horror film with John Miranda as Sweeney Todd and Jane Helay as Miranda Lovett, directed by Andy Milligan.
  • "Sweeney Todd" (1970), an episode of the ITV series Mystery and Imagination starring Freddie Jones as Sweeney Todd and Heather Canning as Nellie Lovett. In this adaptation, written by Vincent Tilsey and directed by Reginald Collin, the title character is portrayed as insane rather than evil. Heather Canning played Mrs. Lovett, Lewis Fiander played Mark Ingesterie, Mel Martin played the heroine Charlotte and Len Jones played Tobias.
  • Sweeney Todd (1973), a TV production by the CBC TV series The Purple Playhouse with Barry Morse (best known for his role as "Lt. Gerard" in The Fugitive) as Todd. This was again Pitt's version of the play.
  • Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1973), a play by the British playwright Christopher Bond. This version of the story was the first to give Todd a more sympathetic motive: he is a wrongfully imprisoned barber named Benjamin Barker who returns under the name Sweeney Todd to London after 15 years in an Australian penal colony to find that the judge responsible for his imprisonment has raped his young wife and driven her to suicide. He swears revenge, but when his plans face obstacles, he begins to slash the throats of his customers. This new element of Todd being motivated by vengeance was Bond's way of grafting dramatic themes from The Revenger's Tragedy onto Pitt's stage plot.
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. A Musical Thriller (1979), the acclaimed musical adaptation of Bond's play by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler starring Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd/Benjamin Barker and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. George Hearn later replaced Cariou as Todd. In 1982, the musical was televised on The Entertainment Channel, starring Lansbury and George Hearn, and directed by Terry Hughes and Harold Prince.
  • The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998), a television movie directed by John Schlesinger, commissioned by British Sky Broadcasting for which Ben Kingsley received a Screen Actors Guild Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of the title role. Joanna Lumley was Mrs. Lovett.
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert (2001), a filmed concert version of Sondheim's musical, stars George Hearn as Sweeney Todd/Benjamin Barker and Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett.
  • In 2005, the Broadway Revival Cast made their recording of the show by Sondheim. It was a special redoing of the musical, re-scored specifically for a small orchestra to be played by the actors themselves. The cast consisted of John Arbo (Jonas Fogg; bass player), Donna Lynne Champlin (Pirelli; piano, accordion, flute), Alexander Gemignani (The Beadle; piano, trumpet), Mark Jacoby (Judge Turpin; trumpet, percussion), Diana DiMarzio (Beggar Woman/Lucy Barker; clarinet), Benjamin Magnuson (Anthony Hope; cello, piano), Lauren Molina (Johanna Barker; cello), Manoel Felciano (Tobias; violin, clarinet, piano)), Patti LuPone (Mrs. Lovett; tuba, percussion), and Michael Cerveris (Sweeney Todd; guitar). Cerveris, LuPone, and Felciano were all nominated for Tony Awards; the show itself was nominated at the Tonys for Best Revival and won Best Direction and Best Orchestration.
  • Sweeney Todd (2006), a BBC television drama version with a screenplay written by Joshua St Johnston and starring Ray Winstone in the title role and Essie Davis as Mrs Lovett.
  • Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls: an Audio Melodrama in Three Despicable Acts (2007), an audio play by Yuri Rasovsky, won three 2008 Audie Awards for best audio drama, best original work and for achievement in production.
  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) a film directed by Tim Burton, adapted from Sondheim's musical. Johnny Depp is Sweeney Todd and Helena Bonham Carter is Mrs. Lovett. Alan Rickman plays Judge Turpin, and Ed Sanders is Tobias. The cast also included Sacha Baron Cohen and Timothy Spall. The film received two Golden Globe Awards - one for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical (Johnny Depp), and one for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical. The film was also nominated for three Academy Awards, winning for Art Direction.

[edit] Possible history

In two books,[3][4] Peter Haining argues that Sweeney Todd was a historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800. Nevertheless, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims.[5][6][7] There is also a similar story reputed to have occurred on the Rue de la Harpe in Paris that may well have influenced the story.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" PBS.org. URL accessed February 11, 2006.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Robert Mack (2007) "Introduction" to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  3. ^ Haining, Peter (1979). The Mystery and Horrible Murders of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. F. Muller. ISBN 0-584-10425-1. 
  4. ^ Haining, Peter (1993). Sweeney Todd: The real story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Boxtree. ISBN 1-85283-442-0. 
  5. ^ BBC Press Office (2005-08-12). "Man or myth? The making of Sweeney Todd". Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-15.
  6. ^ Duff, Oliver. "Sweeney Todd: fact or fiction?", The Independent (London), 2006-01-03. Retrieved on 2006-11-15.  (Full text)
  7. ^ True or False?. Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert. KQED (2001). Retrieved on 2006-11-15.

[edit] Further reading

  • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street edited by Robert Mack (2007). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199229333
  • Robert Mack (2008) The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend. Continuum. ISBN 0826497918

[edit] External links