Sweeney Todd is largely considered one of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpieces. With it, he aimed to create a musical that could “scare the hell out of everyone,” and yet, somehow, be funny.
The story centers around Sweeney Todd, an unjustly exiled barber who returns to London, seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which, he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett’s luck sharply shifts when Todd’s thirst for blood inspires the integration of an ingredient into her meat pies that has the people of 19th Century London lining up…and the carnage has only just begun!
