Sweeney Todd
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Sweeney Todd - Biography

 
last update : 24-02-2008 05:07
SWEENEY TODD 2007:

A feature film adaptation of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, jointly produced by Dreamworks and Warner Bros., was released on December 21, 2007. Tim Burton directed from a screenplay by John Logan. It stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Edward Sanders as Tobias, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, Sacha Baron Cohen as Signor Adolfo Pirelli, Laura Michelle Kelly as The Beggar Woman, and Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford.

Sweeney Todd can be interpreted in several respects. Stephen Sondheim believes it to be a story of revenge and how it consumes a vengeful person, while Prince believed it to be an allegory of capitalism and its selfish qualities. Both themes are supported throughout the play.

Hal Prince: "It was only when I realized that the show was about revenge...And then came the factory, and the class struggle-the terrible struggle to move out of the class in which you're born..." Sondheim: "...what the show is really about is obsession."


Where It All Started:

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a Tony Award-winning musical with a book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical is based on the 19th century legend of Sweeney Todd and specifically upon the 1973 play by Christopher Bond.

Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway at the Uris Theatre on March 1, 1979. The musical played for 577 performances.

Sypnosis: WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

Formerly a barber known as Benjamin Barker, he was falsely convicted and sent to prison by the jealous Judge Turpin, who had desires for Barker's wife.

Returning to London after escaping from prison, now under the pseudonym of Sweeney Todd, he returns to his former barbershop and meets Mrs. Lovett, who owns and operates a failing meat pie shop below Sweeney's old barbershop. Mrs. Lovett informs Sweeney that while he was in prison, Sweeney's wife was raped by Judge Turpin, and Sweeney's daughter is now in the custody of the Judge, who plans to marry her for his own lecherous purposes.

Sweeney swears revenge on Judge Turpin and his right-hand man, the Beadle Badford, but is recognized by a former apprentice of his who attempts to blackmail Sweeney into paying him half of his profits for the rest of his life, otherwise he will tell the Judge that Sweeney has escaped. Sweeney eventually kills his former apprentice, and while Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett are deciding what to do with the bodies, they form a diabolical partnership; Sweeney will 'practice' on would-be customers, killing them in preparation for his encounter with the Judge and the Beadle, and Mrs. Lovett will use the corpses for her meat pies.

~Information from imbd Database & Wikipedia~