History Theatre / SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet

* TheVamp: Mrs. Lovett in the 2005 revival, as played by Patti LuPone.

* CompanionCube: Sweeney's razors.

* DeathBySex: Played straight, subverted, and double subverted. Lucy swallows poison after being raped, and Sweeney wants to kill Turpin for raping her. However, [[spoiler:neither of them dies immediately.]] And when all's said and done and [[KillEmAll Everyone Has Died]], it would seem that only the assumed virgins are left alive. Double points for Mrs. Lovett, easy to interpret as a lusty widow, for getting the most gruesome death in the play.

* KillEmAll: Were you expecting a revenge tragedy to have a happy ending? [[spoiler:Sweeney Todd, Judge Turpin, Beadle Bamford, Lucy, and Mrs. Lovett are all dead. Only Toby, Johanna, and Anthony are all alive. The police burst into the bakehouse just after Toby has slit Sweeney's throat, and is deliriously repeating Mrs. Lovett's secret of how to make the pies juicy and tender. "Three times, that's the secret.. three times through the grinder." This suggests that Toby is on his way to a BedlamHouse. Anthony and Johanna are also there with the police, Johanna presumably having gone to them about the fact that Todd nearly killed her. Presumably they get a happy ending given that the Judge and Beadle aren't around to have Johanna re-committed, but it's still pretty gruesome...]]

* AltoVillainess: Mrs. Lovett

* AntiVillain: Again, Sweeney Todd himself.

* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler: For Anthony and Johanna.]]

* HangingJudge: Judge Turpin is literally corrupt, willing to sentence anyone unjustly. He did exactly that to Benjamin Barker to get his daughter.

* IWasQuiteALooker: Lucy Barker. Benjamin Barker, too.

* LonelyRichKid: Johanna.

-->"I loved you even as I saw you, even as it does not matter that I still don't know your name, sir..."
* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Mrs. Lovett, in spades.

** "A Little Priest"

** "Johanna (Reprise)".

-->[[spoiler:'''Mrs. Lovett''']]: "No, no, not lied at all--No, I never lied, said [[spoiler:she took the poison]]--she did, never said that [[spoiler:she died]]."

-->When a girl's emergent\\

-->Meaning no offense, it\\

** [[spoiler: Listen carefully to the minuet during the flashback to Lucy's rape by the Judge. It's the same melody that she, as the beggar woman, sings as she tries to entice men to sleep with her.]]
** [[spoiler: In productions that include the Beggar Woman's Lullaby, she appears disoriented and consumed by deja-vu in Sweeney's barber shop, and the lullaby she sings to an imaginary baby is not only to the tune of "Poor Thing", but addresses the baby as "my Jo"- presumably short for Johanna.]]
** [[spoiler: Finally, when Sweeney slits her throat, as she stares at him, wide-eyed and gagging, and then collapses, there's an absolutely ''aching'' instrumental reprise of a musical phrase from "Epiphany"- specifically, "And my Lucy lies in ashes".]]

--> '''Sweeney:''' Oh my god! [[spoiler: Lucy!]] WHAT HAVE I DONE?
* MysteryMeat
* NeverTrustAHairTonic: Pirelli's Miracle Elixir... isn't.

* ObiWanMoment: [[spoiler:Sweeney's death.]]

* {{Retirony}}: Arguably, "By the Sea."

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The entire show is one for Sweeney.

* SnakeOilSalesman: Pirelli's trade.

-->There's a hole in the world, like a great black pit,\\

* WeaponOfChoice: Sweeney's razors.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Sweeney Todd himself.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Pirelli,]] Judge Turpin, and Beadle Bamford. [[spoiler: And by the end of the show Mrs. Lovett fits the bill pretty well.]]

* BSODSong: "Epiphany".

* ComeOutComeOutWhereverYouAre: While searching for Toby in the sewers [[spoiler:when he's figured out what's REALLY in the pies]]. ''"Tooooby...Where aaaare you..."''

-->'''Todd:''' In all of the whole human race, Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two/ There's the one staying put in his proper place / And the one with his foot in the other one's face!/ Look at me, Mrs. Lovett--look at you!

%% * DangerouslyCloseShave

* DeadMansChest: Signore Pirelli's final fate.

* DeathSong: [[spoiler: "Pirelli's Death" for, naturally, Pirelli]], [[spoiler:"The Judge's Return" for Judge Turpin]], [[spoiler:"Final Scene" for Mrs. Lovett]], and the reprise of [[spoiler:"A Barber and His Wife" for Sweeney Todd himself.]]
* DeathlyDiesIrae: ''Dies Irae'' is heard in the opening number "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" in the section "Swing your razor wide, Sweeney, hold it to the skies." It remains prevalent throughout the rest of the play. In fact, the only character with a leitmotif that does not contain a reference to the ''dies irae'' is Anthony, since he is the only one who neither kills nor is killed, or both, by the end.

* DirtyOldMan: Judge Turpin is an extremely evil example.

* DistantDuet: "Johanna (Quartet)".

** [[spoiler: Pirelli]] tries this. [[spoiler: It doesn't work.]]
** [[spoiler: Toby]] is a lot more successful at this than [[spoiler:Pirelli]].

* DueToTheDead: Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett engage in the evil version of this.

--->No one can help, nothing can hide you!\\

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Benjamin Barker to Sweeney Todd.

* GildedCage: Well, technically it's damask and dark.

* GoAmongMadPeople: Happens to Johanna.

* HangingJudge: Judge Turpin.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Sweeney becomes worse than the monsters after "Epiphany".

* {{Yandere}}: Mrs. Lovett.
* YankTheDogsChain: At the very end, Todd finally tells Mrs. Lovett everything she's been longing for him to tell her throughout the play, while ''dancing'' with her. And then [[spoiler: he throws her in the oven and lets her burn to death.]] On the other hand, [[spoiler:she did withold the truth that his wife was alive, despite her protests to the contrary. It would have saved the Beggar Woman's life]].

* ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld: "There's the one staying put in his proper place and the one with his foot in the other one's face."

* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: We are asked to accept that a serial killer can operate so openly for so long before people realize that very few of Todd's customers are ever seen again after their appointments. However, it seems that the plan is only to dispose of visiting foreigners and other people who have no close acquaintances in the city (Mrs. Lovett specifically points out that [[spoiler: Pirelli]] isn't likely to have any relatives coming to look for him and cause trouble, whereas one customer brings his family along to his appointment, so Todd lets him live) which makes it slightly more believable. Plus the plot eventually unravels when the neighbours start complaining about the smell - aka burning human remains - coming from the bakehouse, and Toby himself mentions to Mrs. Lovett that Todd's customers keep disappearing.

* SerendipitousSurvival: One of Sweeney's customers survives his time in the chair because his wife and daughter come into the barbershop ''with'' him, rather than waiting outside or planning to meet him later.

* SerendipitousSurvival: One of Sweeney's customers survives his time in the barber chair because his wife and daughter came into the shop with him, rather than waiting outside or planning to meet him later.

* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: We are asked to accept that a serial killer can operate so openly for so long before people realize that very few of Todd's customers are ever seen again after their appointments. However, it seems that the plan is only to dispose of visiting foreigners and other people who have no close acquaintances in the city (one customer brings his family along to his appointment, so Todd lets him live) which makes it slightly more believable; plus the plot eventually unravels when the neighbours start complaining about the smell - aka burning human remains - coming from the bakehouse, and Toby himself mentions to Mrs. Lovett that Todd's customers keep disappearing.

* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: Sweeney to Turpin, the {{Trope Namer|s}}. Also [[spoiler:the Beggar Woman]].

* ContrivedCoincidence: To be expected in a {{melodrama}}. The sailor who saves Todd's life and brings him back to England immediately falls in LoveAtFirstSight with a girl who turns out to be Todd's daughter, and [[spoiler:the first person Todd meets upon returning to England turns out to be his own now-unrecognizable wife.]]

* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: We are asked to accept that a serial killer can operate so openly for so long before people realize that very few of Todd's customers are ever seen again after their appointments. However, it seems that the plan is only to dispose of visiting foreigners and other people who have no close acquaintances in the city (one customer brings his family along to his appointment, so Todd lets him live) which makes it slightly more believable; plus the plot eventually unravels when the neighbours start complaining about the smell - aka burning human remains - coming from the bakehouse.

* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: We are asked to accept that a serial killer can operate so openly for so long before people realize that very few of Todd's customers are ever seen again after their appointments. However, it seems that the plan is only to dispose of visiting foreigners and other people who have no close acquaintances in the city (one customer brings his family along to his appointment, so Todd lets him live) which makes it slightly more believable.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: While women ''do'' die over the course of the story, the meat pies are entirely made from Sweeney's male customers, as they're the only ones Sweeney would be able to get into the barber's chair and a blade close to their throats without rousing any suspicion. It never even ''occurs'' to him to kill a man's wife and daughter too when they accompany him to the barbershop, and even the puns in "A Little Priest" are entirely about different types of men.

* ParanoiaFuel: Obviously in the present day the audience has far less need to worry that their barber is going to slit their throat with a straight razor -- but the musical amps up the dread that someone who's apparently completely sane and mundane will suddenly turn on you when you're defenceless and least expecting it. And in "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" (Reprise) the Chorus reminds us that the rage Sweeney feels is in so many people here and now, musing that 'perhaps today you gave a nod/to Sweeney Todd'.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: While women ''do'' die over the course of the story, the meat pies are entirely made from Sweeney's male customers. It never even ''occurs'' to him to kill a man's wife and daughter too when they accompany him to the barbershop, and even the puns in "A Little Priest" are entirely about different types of men.

* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: We are asked to accept that a serial killer can operate so openly for so long before people realize that very few customers of Todd's are ever seen again after their appointments. However, it seems that the plan is only to dispose of visiting foreigners and other people who have no close acquaintances in the city, which makes it slightly more believable.

* AmbiguousSituation: Are Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett sleeping together, or is Mrs. Lovett's desire to see her "rumpled bedding legitimized" in "By the Sea" simply wishful thinking about their future? WordOfGod from Sondheim himself, in a letter to a fan, states that he wrote it believing them to be sleeping together, but whether or not a given production leans into it really varies.

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: While women ''do'' die over the course of the story, the meat pies are entirely made from Sweeney's male customers.

* AnAesop: If you seek vengeance, you will only end up becoming as bad as (if not worse than) the one who wronged you.