Sweeney Todd ~ A Review

Ok. . . Sweeney Todd has captured my attention for a while now. It perhaps started when I heard Josh Groban sing “Not while I’m around” live in concert. I then met Josh and learned that his dog’s name was Sweeney . . . “as in Sweeney Todd??” said I.

I learned about a month ago that Sweeney Todd, the Broadway musical, was coming to Sacramento and was playing at the Music Circus, Wells Fargo Pavilion. I was determined to get a group together to see this well known musical. Several of my closest buds had agreed to go and we set the plan in motion.

First of all. . . I had never been to the Music Circus before. It was great!! The theater was situated with seats surrounding a small stage in the center. The actors/actresses would enter from several corridors making it a bit more interactive with the theater goers. The atmosphere is quite a bit more relaxed than the Sacramento Community Theater . . . one may purchase food and beverages in the outside pavilion (complete with waterfall) and bring these goods inside the theater!

Ok . . . on to the story of Mr. Todd. According to Wikipedia, “In Stephen Sondheim's 1979 stage musical, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, based on the 1973 play of the same name by Christopher Bond, Todd was known as Benjamin Barker, a middle class barber, married to Lucy Barker with an infant daughter Johanna. The villainous Judge Turpin exiles Barker to Australia on false charges in order to have Lucy to himself. Mrs. Lovett tells Todd that Lucy poisoned herself and that Turpin adopted baby Johanna as his ward. By the time Todd returns to London, Johanna has become a young woman and falls in love with a sailor, Anthony, with whom she plans to elope.

In the Sondheim musical, Mrs. Lovett takes in an orphan boy, Tobias Ragg, after Sweeney kills Toby's previous guardian, Adolfo Pirelli, who turns out to be a former assistant of his that tries to blackmail him. Toby is the first character to catch onto Sweeney Todd's crimes and also is responsible for Todd's death in the finale.”
Benjamin Barker, Sweeney Todd, is full of hate, vengeance and murder. His sole purpose is to kill Judge Turpin but after the first killing of Mr. Pirelli, Sweeney cannot stop his lust for blood. He begins to kill all of his customers and Mrs. Lovett then makes meat pies out of them to sell in her shop . . . “Seems an awful waste...I mean, with the price of meat what it is, When you get it...If you get it...” she argues.

It was actually quite funny, yet gorey and morbid. While my good buddy Chris would argue with me on this subject, I believe that the moral of the story is what sin, vengeance, bitterness and hate can do to a person. Mr. Barker was not an animal with murderous intents when the whole story started. Yes, he was done wrong . . .very wrong, but he allowed thoughts to enter his head and after the first taste of blood he could no longer control his hunger for vengeance and was eaten up with it. (this could deffinitely preach!!!) It just shows how low humanity can go without even really realizing it . . . This man no longer cared who he killed, when he killed them, or how. . . . . Think good and hard before you let bitterness and hate creep into your heart. . . . dumm dum dum dum duuuummmmmmm (scary music)

Go ahead Chris. . . I know you are ready with a rebuttle. . . ha!!