History Theatre / SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet

* StalkingIsLove: Anthony's infatuation with Johanna and Mrs. Lovett's obsession with Sweeney Todd can both come across like this. Judge Turpin appears this way at first, but this is horribly subverted when a few minutes later it's revealed that [[spoiler:he rapes Lucy]] after seemingly attempting to court her.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dgdz-XifyU This commercial]], featuring George Hearn and Angela Lansbury, doesn't seem to showcase any of the dark material of the show (although you might catch a hint at the end). If you were to watch it without having any knowledge of Sweeney Todd, you might even think that it's a pretty normal, happy story.

* DoorClosesEnding: Ends with Sweeney [[DoorSlamOfRage angrily slamming a door]] after he has walked through it.

* ImAHumanitarian: You are if you eat at Mrs. Lovett's pie shop.
* IncestSubtext:
** Possibly lightly hinted at in the reprise of "Johanna"; Sweeney talks about how beautiful he thinks Johanna probably is, and that she might "look too much" like Lucy, and that maybe it's better that they don't meet again. On the other hand, maybe he's just saying that having a living reminder of her would make him miss Lucy too much- he's never seen Johanna as a young woman, after all, so she's even more of a shadow to him than Lucy's memory is.
** Todd also later notes to Turpin that they have "similar taste in women". This is supposed to refer to Turpin's lusting after Lucy, but one must remember that the current target of Turpin's affections is Johanna.

* InsaneTrollLogic: "Epiphany" is all about this. Todd decides that "We all deserve to die"--if you're an evil person, murder is a sacred duty, and if you're ''not'' evil, you're being mistreated by evil people, so being murdered is actually the best option.

** [[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". Now, the Beggar Woman, Lucy, is now lying there dead.]]

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Sweeney becomes worse than the monsters after "Epiphany", deciding to just kill everyone.

* GainingTheWillToKill: The eponymous Sweeney Todd was originally a wronged man looking to get his daughter back from an evil judge, who abducted the girl after raping Sweeney's wife and sending Sweeney himself to [[SentencedToDownUnder Australia]] on a trumped-up charge. That all changes when a charlatan named Pirelli recognizes Sweeney as an escaped convict and threatens to turn him in, driving Sweeney to kill him. Sweeney has never killed before, but he shows no remorse for this act, having decided it was necessary to protect his cover. When his friend Mrs. Lovett proposes disposing of the body by baking it into meat pies, Sweeney finds he has no qualms about continuing to kill, and launches himself into a frenzied campaign of revenge against the world that wronged him by becoming a SerialKiller and handing the bodies over to Mrs. Lovett for, er, [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies disposal]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: How did Judge Turpin succeed in raping Lucy? Tricking her into thinking he’s sorry for having her husband deported, and sending a third party (the Beadle) to tell her as much. [[spoiler:How does Sweeney succeed in killing Judge Turpin to avenge exactly that? Luring him with false promises that Johanna feels sorry for having refused him, and acting as the third party carrying news of this contrition.]]

* IWasQuiteALooker: Benjamin Barker was quite dashing, so his appearance as Sweeney is super unnerving compared to back in the day.

A Broadway revival- the first full-scale version on Broadway since the original production[[note]]The now-defunct New York City Opera produced the original Harold Prince staging multiple times between the 1980s and the early 2010s, and there have been two very pared-down Broadway revivals as well as two major concert stagings with the New York Philharmonic, plus an even more scaled-down version performed off-Broadway in an actual pie shop- but this is the first to be on Broadway specifically, with a full-sized ensemble and orchestra and fully fleshed-out sets and costumes, since the original closed in 1980.[[/note]] opened on March 26, 2023 (after beginning previews on February 26) and features Music/JoshGroban as Sweeney, with ''Theatre/KinkyBoots'' and ''Series/MastersOfSex'' star Creator/AnnaleighAshford as Mrs. Lovett, Creator/JordanFisher as Anthony, and ''Series/StrangerThings'''s Creator/GatenMatarazzo as Toby.

** Sweeney frequently spends at least a good portion of the show in a dingy white shirt, dark pants, and suspenders, often with something best described as a curtain haircut (a look so associated with him it extends even to his {{Expy}} Dooley Flint in the second season of {{Schmigadoon}}).

** Sweeney frequently spends at least a good portion of the show in a dingy white shirt, dark pants, and suspenders, often with something best described as a curtain haircut (a look so associated with him it extends even to his {{Expy}} Dooley Flint in the second season of Series/Schmigadoon).

** Mrs. Lovett’s trademark [[Main/Odango twin bun hairstyle]], usually symbolically verging on DevilishHornedHair, which has persisted across a rather impressive number of very different-looking stagings. Broadly speaking, even if she doesn’t have that specific hairstyle, she can often be identified by having particularly crazy-looking hair in general, though still styled and put up in some way.

A Broadway revival- the first full-scale version on Broadway since the original production[[note]]The now-defunct New York City Opera produced the original Harold Prince staging multiple times between the 1980s and the early 2010s, and there have been two very pared-down Broadway revivals as well as two major concert stagings with the New York Philharmonic, plus an even more scaled-down version performed off-Broadway in an actual pie shop- but this is the first to be on Broadway specifically, with a full-sized ensemble and orchestra and fully fleshed-out sets and costumes, since the original closed in 1980.[[/note]] is set to open on March 26, 2023 (after beginning previews on February 26) and will feature Music/JoshGroban as Sweeney, with ''Theatre/KinkyBoots'' and ''Series/MastersOfSex'' star Creator/AnnaleighAshford as Mrs. Lovett, Creator/JordanFisher as Anthony, and ''Series/StrangerThings'''s Creator/GatenMatarazzo as Toby.

** Mrs. Lovett is almost always cast a little on the plump side or blowsy, like Creator/AngelaLansbury as opposed to the equally likely possibility of her being thin and bony (though Lansbury was more plump in the face than the body).
** There also seems to have been a shift based on the Revival's take on her. Angela Lansbury made her rather grandmotherly, but Patti LuPone's version was younger (despite having been [[OlderThanTheyLook two years ''older'' than Lansbury was when she created the role]]) and more in the way of a PerkyGoth, a presentation which also applies to the film version (although most Creator/TimBurton characters have LooksLikeCesare going on anyway).

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dgdz-XifyU This commercial]], featuring George Hearn and Angela Lansbury, doesn't seem to showcase any of the dark material of the show (although you might catch a hint at the end). In fact, if you were to watch it without having any knowledge of Sweeney Todd, you might even think that it's a pretty normal, happy story.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90vBH847AD4 THIS commercial]], on the other hand, sums up the darkness factor in 30 seconds.

* 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 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.
** Some productions do manage to subvert this outright by implying Johanna and Anthony sleep together during "Ladies in Their Sensitivities", meaning they, the only characters ''shown'' to have normal, healthy sex, are the only ones left alive in the end.

->And though I’ll think of you, I guess,//
->Until the day I die,//
->I think I miss you less and less//
->As ev’ry day goes by,//
->Johanna…//

—->And though I’ll think of you, I guess,//
—->Until the day I die,//
—->I think I miss you less and less//
—->As ev’ry day goes by,//
—->Johanna…//

And though I’ll think of you, I guess,//
Until the day I die,//
I think I miss you less and less//
As ev’ry day goes by,//
Johanna…//

A Broadway revival- the first full-scale version on Broadway since the original production[[note]]The now-defunct New York City Opera produced the original Harold Prince staging multiple times between the 1980s and the early 2010s, and there have been two very pared-down Broadway revivals as well as two major concert stagings with the New York Philharmonic as well as an even more scaled-down version performed off-Broadway in an actual pie shop- but this is the first to be on Broadway specifically, with a full-sized ensemble and orchestra and fully fleshed-out sets and costumes, since the original closed in 1980.[[/note]] is set to open on March 26, 2023 (after beginning previews on February 26) and will feature Music/JoshGroban as Sweeney, with ''Theatre/KinkyBoots'' and ''Series/MastersOfSex'' star Creator/AnnaleighAshford as Mrs. Lovett, Creator/JordanFisher as Anthony, and ''Series/StrangerThings'''s Creator/GatenMatarazzo as Toby.

** The old woman [[spoiler:Lucy]] spouts these: "Beadle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle dumpling!" "Mischief! Mischief!"

* ParentalLoveSong: “Johanna (Reprise)”. Sweeney fondly reminisces over his daughter and what she may look like as a young woman, but he ultimately feels as though he has no place in her life since he had been away from her for so long.

* CrapsackWorld: Just about every character is an extreme {{jerkass}} at best or complete sociopath at worse. Johanna, Toby, and to a lesser extent the Beggar Woman[[spoiler:/Lucy]] are [[ExtremeDoormat victims pushed into unhappy compliance]]. Only NiceGuy Anthony manages to be decent and entirely stable at the same time.