Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, originally published in 1979, is a musical play by Hugh Wheeler with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The play follows murderous barber Sweeney Todd, who seeks revenge against the corrupt Judge Turpin for wrongfully incarcerating him in order to steal Todd’s wife. Wheeler and Sondheim use this tale to examine the exploitation and retaliation of the working class, the perils of obsession, and the tension between tenderness and wrath.

Sondheim was inspired to write a musical based on the Sweeney Todd character popularized in penny dreadfuls after seeing a reinterpretation by playwright Christopher Bond. Wheeler, who had previously collaborated with Sondheim on the book for A Little Night Music, lent his talent for mystery fiction to the book for Sweeney Todd. 

After the musical opened on Broadway in 1979, it won the Tony Award for Best Musical, the Tony Award for Best Book, and the Olivier Award for Best New Musical. It was adapted into a film by Tim Burton in 2007, starring his frequent collaborators Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett.

This guide refers to the hardcover first edition of the text, published by Dodd, Mead, and Company in 1979.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, rape, suicidal ideation, death by suicide, animal death, and cursing.

Language Note: The term “asylum” is preserved throughout, as it is historically and linguistically accurate to the depiction of the time in which the play is set.

Plot Summary

The play takes place in 19th-century London. In the first act, a barber named Sweeney Todd arrives on a ship called the Bountiful. He talks with an idealistic young sailor named Anthony Hope, who rescued Todd from a shipwreck at sea, unaware that Todd was incarcerated in Australia. Years earlier, a corrupt judge named Turpin wrongfully sentenced Todd, whose real name is Benjamin Barker, to incarceration because Turpin coveted Barker’s beautiful wife, Lucy.

Todd revisits the site of his former barbershop, maintained by the landlady, Mrs. Lovett, who runs a pie shop below the barbershop. She recognizes Todd as Barker and tells him that soon after he was sent away, Turpin raped Lucy, who consumed poison in the aftermath. She implies that Lucy died, provoking Todd into a rage. Mrs. Lovett offers to help him seek revenge against Turpin, who raised Todd’s daughter, Johanna, as his ward. 

Meanwhile, while roaming the streets of London, Anthony stumbles upon Johanna and is immediately smitten. He resolves to elope with her, but Turpin, who wants Johanna for himself, obstructs the relationship. Anthony asks Todd for his help in sheltering Johanna after he liberates her from Turpin’s mansion.

Todd builds a reputation by besting a barber named Signor Adolfo Pirelli in a public contest. This draws the attention of Turpin’s assistant, the Beadle, who promises to visit Todd’s parlor. Later, Pirelli visits Todd at his parlor and reveals that he is actually Barker’s former assistant, Daniel O’Higgins. Pirelli blackmails Todd, extorting him for his future profits as London’s top barber. Todd kills Pirelli, drawing the suspicion of Pirelli’s assistant, Tobias.

When Turpin tells the Beadle about his plan to marry Johanna, the Beadle refers him to Todd. Turpin visits Todd at his parlor as Todd conspires with Mrs. Lovett to dispose of Pirelli’s corpse. Todd accommodates Turpin, encouraging him to let his guard down by discussing their shared admiration for pretty women. Just as Todd is about to kill Turpin, Anthony stumbles into the parlor, announcing his plan to liberate Johanna. Outraged, Turpin leaves the parlor. Todd sends Anthony away and soliloquizes that all of humankind should die. He resolves to kill every customer that comes to his parlor. Mrs. Lovett encourages Todd’s resolution, suggesting that they use the corpses of Todd’s customers for her meat pies. Their agreement to work together marks the end of the first act.

In the second act, Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop becomes widely successful. She hires Tobias to assist her and dreams of retiring with Todd in a seaside town. Todd devises a trapdoor chute to send customers into Mrs. Lovett’s bakehouse. Anthony learns that Turpin placed Johanna in an asylum. When he reports this to Todd, Todd disguises him as a wigmaker. Anthony gains access to the asylum under the pretense of buying Johanna’s hair. Todd informs Turpin of Anthony’s plan, hoping to lure him back to the parlor.

Moved by Mrs. Lovett’s tenderness, Tobias promises to protect her, including from Todd. To prevent Tobias from learning the truth about her partnership with Todd, Mrs. Lovett locks him in her bakehouse. Shortly after, the Beadle visits Mrs. Lovett to investigate complaints from a beggar woman that the bakehouse chimney emits a foul stench. Todd arrives, and Mrs. Lovett has him kill the Beadle upstairs. When his corpse falls through the trapdoor chute, it shocks Tobias. Mrs. Lovett and Todd go to the bakehouse to deal with Tobias but cannot find him.

While Todd is away killing the Beadle, Anthony brings the liberated Johanna, disguised as a sailor, to Todd’s parlor, promising to return for her after he hires a coach to take them out of London. The beggar woman who reported to the Beadle looks for Todd in his parlor, frightening Johanna into hiding. Todd finds and kills the beggar woman and sends her down the chute, with Johanna watching from her hiding place. Turpin arrives, and Todd convinces him to get another shave. Todd kills the judge and sends him down the chute. He catches the disguised Johanna and nearly kills her, but she manages to escape.

Todd returns to the bakehouse and learns that the beggar woman he killed was really his wife, Lucy. Realizing that Mrs. Lovett withheld the truth about Lucy, wanting to keep him for herself, Todd throws her into her oven. Furious about Mrs. Lovett’s death, Tobias emerges from the bakehouse cellar and uses Todd’s razor to kill him. Anthony, Johanna, and the police find Tobias and the corpses, ending the play.