| Tobias "Toby" Ragg | |
|---|---|
| Portrayed by | Ken Jennings (original 1979 Broadway cast) Neil Patrick Harris (2001 concert) Manoel Felciano (2005 revival) Edward Sanders (2007 film) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
Tobias "Toby" Ragg is a fictional character who appears in various adaptations of the story Sweeney Todd.
In the penny dreadful The String of Pearls, Tobias Ragg is in a madhouse, driven mad by Sweeney Todd, a barber who murdered his customers.
In the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Toby is the apprentice of Signor Adolfo Pirelli, a barber who was once an apprentice of Todd. Pirelli pretends to be Italian, and sells some fake potions for hair, made of "piss and ink". Toby is hired by Mrs. Lovett after Todd kills Pirelli. Toby becomes deeply attached to Mrs. Lovett, thinking of her as a surrogate mother; when he discovers that she and Todd have been killing customers and making them into meat pies, however, he goes insane with horror and shock. After seeing Todd kill Mrs. Lovett, a vengeful Toby emerges from the sewers where he was hiding and slashes Todd's throat with his own razor.
It is of interesting note that Tobias originally was to be played as an adult, albeit a mentally handicapped one; Ken Jennings was 31 on opening night, Neil Patrick Harris was 27, etc. The movie is the only version of the story in which Tobias is an actual child; Ed Sanders being 14 in the movie.
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