Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd
The demon barber, from newsstands to stage to screen
Just in time for Halloween and in response to Buddy Gott’s Spooktacular Writing Challenge on Plethora of Pop, I’m going to reflect on the history of one of America’s oldest popular horror stories.
One of my childhood scary memories is the TV commercials for the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street on Broadway. It isn’t entirely accurate to say that the commercials scared me precisely, but they did disturb me. After all, this is a show about a barber who slices his customers’ throats. And I didn’t even know about Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop back then.
After short runs on Broadway and London’s West End in 1979–1980, Angela Lansbury and George Hearn toured with the show across the U.S. and Canada. A Los Angeles production in 1981 was taped for television broadcast, and it was eventually released on VHS and DVD.
The show has been revived several times, and the 2023 Broadway version stars Josh Groban as Sweeney Todd and Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett. Stranger Things’ Gaten Matarazzo is also on board as Tobias.
Many people are likely to be familiar with the tale of the demon barber by way of the 2007 Tim Burton movie musical starring Johnny Depp. I credit that version with giving attention to a great musical that was in danger of being mostly forgotten.
But to me, the 70s Broadway show is the classic version (though I never saw it, save for the DVD of the Los Angeles taping.)
But the story of our demon barber and friends began long ago, with no music, no sound, and no cameras.
It Began with a String of Pearls
Sweeney Todd first came to life in the pages of those old “penny dreadful” publications in the 1800s. The miserable barber was a character in “The String of Pearls,” an 18-part serialized story that was published in The People’s Periodical and Family Library in 1846 and 1847. The author is unknown, and due to the fact that the work is clearly in the public domain, various versions of it are scattered around in books, ebooks, and online.
The story as it’s told in Stephen Sondheim’s musical version involves Sweeney Todd, wrongly exiled by a judge who fancied Todd’s wife, returning to London in a really bad mood. But he arrives in the company of a fresh-faced young lad named Anthony, who represents everything Sweeney Todd was as a youth before the judge ruined his life.
In “A String of Pearls,” Sweeney Todd is only one of many characters. But the story of the murderous barber, his innocent apprentice Toby, and Todd’s deranged and besotted pal Mrs. Lovett is the only part of the old penny dreadful installment that endures.
Non-Musical Adaptations
Long before Sondheim set the bloody story to music, Sweeney Todd was the subject of several motion pictures. There are a few silent versions from the 1920s, but the first major feature film version came in 1936. Actor Tod Slaughter (yes, that’s his real last name!) starred as Sweeney Todd in The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
The BBC produced an exceptionally dark adaptation of Sweeney Todd in 2006. The gritty, depressing, and bloody TV-movie stars Ray Winstone as the barber and Essie Davis as Mrs. Lovett.
The opening theme music sets the tone for this depressing movie. Don’t be fooled by that smile!
Mr. Todd Meets Glam Rock
Even rock ‘n roll wasn’t safe from the the sociopathic barber. Before he had a hit in the United States with “Hot Child in the City,” Canadian Nick Gilder was the lead singer in a band called Sweeney Todd. Their biggest hit was “Roxy Roller” in 1975, but the closest thing they did to a self-titled song on their debut self-titled album was this, “Sweeney Todd Folder.”
Tim Burton’s Weird Vision
The Burtons and Depp movie musical from 2007 is a little too flaky for my liking, but it revived interest in the musical.
Enter Josh Groban
The 2023 Broadway revival brought Josh Groban to Fleet Street as the demon barber. While he’s no Johnny Depp, he is somebody, and along with Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs. Lovett and Gaten Matarazzo from the wildly popular Stranger Things as Toby, younger people are once again tuned in to this fabulous old story.
Although I’ve never seen the musical on Broadway, I have seen it on stage twice. Once was a performance by a local children’s theatre, of all things. There were a lot of young children in the ensemble while teenagers played Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett. And they were all very good. I eventually saw an adult cast at a local theatre as well.
Another local theatre is doing the show in November. Should I attend the tale one more time?
