History Theatre / SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet

* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Sweeney slits people's throats with a straight razor and has the bodies baked into pies, but he won't kill men who have families, which is understandable, since the reason for his RoaringRampageOfRevenge is that he was unjustly taken away from his wife and daughter, who were then raped/DrivenToSuicide ([[spoiler:well, not exactly]]) and adopted/implied to be sexually abused by Judge Turpin, respectively. Though it may be more PragmaticVillainy, families mean witnesses and investigations. The latter explains why it's PlayedForLaughs in the stage version. In some productions, he does give a [[PetTheDog customer's daughter a small treat.]]
** He also seems to have a soft spot for Anthony. After all, Anthony and his fellow sailors on the ''Bountiful'' saved Sweeney's life, and as such must stand out to him as the only good and kind people he's known since his life was shattered fifteen years ago (he even grimly points out that Anthony making sure he was rescued was a very rare type of kindness in the world as he's seen it). When Mrs Lovett suggests killing Anthony before he can elope with Johanna, Sweeney seems disgusted with the very idea. Later on, when Anthony accidentally spoils Sweeney's revenge on Judge Turpin, Sweeney furiously shouts at him to get out, but doesn't move to kill him (and in some productions even seems to be deliberately holding himself back against the instinctive urge to do so), even though he's quite literally spiraling into omnicidal madness at that very moment. In Act II, Sweeney is even quite calmly accepting of yet another interruption from Anthony and arranges his second chance at avenging himself on Judge Turpin in a way that will also allow Anthony and Johanna to run away together after all. All in all, for someone who "never forgot and [...] never forgave", he seems very willing to do exactly that where Anthony's concerned.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Sweeney slits people's throats with a straight razor and has the bodies baked into pies, but he won't kill men who have families, which is understandable, since the reason for his RoaringRampageOfRevenge is that he was unjustly taken away from his wife and daughter, who were then raped/DrivenToSuicide ([[spoiler:well, not exactly]]) and adopted/implied to be sexually abused by Judge Turpin, respectively. Though it may be more PragmaticVillainy, families mean witnesses and investigations. The latter explains why it's PlayedForLaughs in the stage version. In some productions, he does give a [[PetTheDog customer's daughter a small treat.]]

* {{Determinator}}: Sweeney has a one-track mind where revenge is concerned.

* SoundtrackDissonance: One of the best scores in musical theatre belongs to a play about a guy who slits people's throats and has them baked into pies. A beautifully [[JustForPun executed]] example in the "Johanna" sequence near the beginning of Act II, where Sweeney's steady, gentle, romantic theme is at odds with the atrocities he is simultaneously committing, showing how disassociated he has become.

* StupidEvil: Judge Turpin. He sends away Benjamin Barker on a false charge, leaving his desired wife a widow with a daughter. He has every opportunity to coerce Mrs. Barker into marriage, from ComfortingTheWidow to blackmail. Instead, he rapes her at a ball, with a bunch of witnesses. Then she swallows poison [[spoiler:and becomes the Beggar Woman after a nervous breakdown]]. It's only because the Judge has a high influence that he proceeds to obtain custody of Johanna, and intends to groom her when she becomes of age. This takes years, while marrying Lucy would have been quicker, and he decides to commit Johanna when she refuses to play along. Johanna is not stupid, however; she figures out his intentions and plans to do what her mother should have done: run away from London. In the film, at least, she succeeds thanks to Anthony.

* LovingAShadow: Sweeney has a variation in regards to his fatherly love of Johanna. His version of the Johanna quartet is him wondering what she's like, and ultimately deciding he'd rather have his fantasy of her remain intact than meet her in person.

* LovingAShadow: Sweeney has a variation in regards to his fatherly love of Johanna. His version of the Johanna quartet is him wondering what she's like.

* YoungerAndHipper: Annaleigh Ashford was only 37 when the show opened, and seemed to be playing the character as about that age, with the only thing done to make her look older being an inobtrusive silver SkunkStripe off the temple in her blonde wig (which could easily still happen to someone in their late 30s).

* BobHaircut: Mrs. Lovett, given the setting. Interestingly enough, it's overgrown and gone a bit limp in Act I, and after the time skip into Act II she's cut it shorter and waved it tighter again.

* TheVamp: Mrs Lovett, reinterpreted as a seductress in torn stockings and a black BobHaircut.

* BolivianArmyEnding: [[spoiler: For Anthony and Johanna, who break into the bakehouse with some cops with them; said cops are about to take them for questioning. Toby also gets cornered with Sweeney's body nearby, leaving the cops to charge him for Sweeney's murder as he turns the meat grinder.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:By the end, the only cast members alive are Toby, Johanna, and Anthony Toby is completely mad and just committed murder so he's probably heading to prison or the madhouse. Depending on the staging, Johanna and Anthony may also be on the brink of arrest, though some versions avert this.]]

The musical tells the sad tale of escaped convict and former barber Benjamin Barker, who was sent to an Australian penal colony fifteen years ago by the corrupt Judge Turpin, who lusted after Barker's beautiful young wife Lucy. Back in London with the help of the good-natured young sailor Anthony Hope, Barker has become a grim, cynical figure calling himself Sweeney Todd. When he arrives at his former home to reunite with Lucy and their now-teenage daughter Johanna, however, he finds only his neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, the widowed proprietress of a struggling meat pie shop, who tells him that once he was out of the picture, Judge Turpin raped Lucy, who poisoned herself afterward, and took Johanna in as his ward. Sweeney swears revenge on the Judge as well as his obsequious lackey Beadle Bamford, and Mrs. Lovett takes him in and gives him his old razors back so he can set up as a barber once more. When Anthony [[ContrivedCoincidence meets and falls in]] LoveAtFirstSight with Johanna, who is now [[WifeHusbandry the new target of Judge Turpin's perverse affections]], and Mrs. Lovett begins her own plot to keep Sweeney, whom she's loved since before he was shipped away, by her side, the stage is set for a gruesome rampage of MadLove, bloody revenge... [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies and delicious meat pies]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Sweeney begins his transition into a SerialKiller by killing [[spoiler: Pirelli, a con artist who attempts to {{blackmail}} him]].

* TheBarber: Sweeney's stock in trade, both as Benjamin Barker and as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

* 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- and Sondheim admitted to not giving the question much weight when writing it.
** How aware is Mrs Lovett that [[spoiler:Sweeney is seconds away from throwing her in her own oven after he learns she withheld the truth about Lucy's survival from him? As scripted, she seems to finally cave into her own delusions when he starts buttering her up with promises of living and forgiving, but it's not uncommon for actresses in the part to show her panicking and struggling as she ''immediately'' realizes his intentions.]]
** Does Mrs. Lovett really mean it when she says [[spoiler:she was only thinking of how Sweeney would feel finding out that Lucy ended up a deranged beggar when she decided to keep the truth from him? It goes without saying that that wasn't her ''only'' motive- she's been in love with Sweeney since he was still Benjamin Barker, and if he thought Lucy was dead, she believed she'd have a chance to have him to herself. Yet in some productions, there's still seemingly a note of truth to what she says, and a suggestion that she really did think it would be better for him not to know. Notably, her original line ("Would you have wanted to know that's how she ended up?") was eventually changed to "Would you have wanted to know that was all that was left of her?".]]

* GorgeousPeriodDress: And how! Unlike the original production, the characters all wear perfect period-accurate 1840s clothing. Each ensemble member even has their own unique costume design that's solely their own for the majority of the show[[note:]]the female ensemble all briefly play inmates at Fogg's Asylum and two of the men also play police officers, with one more also playing the bird seller[[/note]], with the swings (understudies who cover multiple ensemble tracks) also wearing outfits that are never seen except for when they personally perform.

* GorgeousPeriodDress: And how! Unlike the original production, the characters all wear perfect period-accurate 1840s clothing. Each ensemble member even has their own unique costume design that's solely their own for the majority of the show[[note:the female ensemble all briefly play inmates at Fogg's Asylum and two of the men also play police officers, with one more also playing the bird seller]], with the swings (understudies who cover multiple ensemble tracks) also wearing outfits that are never seen except for when they personally perform.

** In addition to his preexisting fandom, Creator/JoshGroban gained a whole new fleet of admirers on social media for his performance as Sweeney, in a kind of meta AllGirlsWantBadBoys effect. A great number of fans who never thought twice about him before became very interested in the prospect of watching him sing while (pretending to) kill people.

* GoAmongMadPeople: Happens to Johanna where she's placed within a whole asylum of mad people in Jona's asylum.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Sweeney is portrayed as a perpetually exhausted and sad-eyed man who has no idea what to do with his life after he completes his mission- which is perhaps why in this version he seems quietly amenable to Mrs. Lovett's plans to run away to the seaside together.

* PlayingAgainstType: Michael Ball, who played Sweeney, is best known for having created (in English) the role of hapless romantic lead Marius in ''[[Theatre/LesMiserables]]'' as a young man and graduating into playing a mix of comedic and romantic-drama roles later in life, but all of them using his trademark crooning tones. His Sweeney, on the other hand, is a snarling, bitter Cockney maniac who openly sobs during "Epiphany".

This version of the story tells the sad tale of escaped convict and former barber Benjamin Barker, who was sent to an Australian penal colony fifteen years ago by the corrupt Judge Turpin, who lusted after Barker's beautiful young wife Lucy. Back in London with the help of the good-natured young sailor Anthony Hope, Barker has become a grim, cynical figure calling himself Sweeney Todd. When he arrives at his former home to reunite with Lucy and their now-teenage daughter Johanna, however, he finds only his neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, the widowed proprietress of a struggling meat pie shop, who tells him that once he was out of the picture, Judge Turpin raped Lucy, who poisoned herself afterward, and took Johanna in as his ward. Sweeney swears revenge on the Judge as well as his obsequious lackey Beadle Bamford, and Mrs. Lovett takes him in and gives him his old razors back so he can set up as a barber once more. When Anthony [[ContrivedCoincidence meets and falls in]] LoveAtFirstSight with Johanna, who is now [[WifeHusbandry the new target of Judge Turpin's perverse affections]], and Mrs. Lovett begins her own plot to keep Sweeney, whom she's loved since before he was shipped away, by her side, the stage is set for a gruesome rampage of MadLove, bloody revenge... [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies and delicious meat pies]].

''Sweeney Todd'' (subtitled "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"), is a highly-regarded musical with music and lyrics by Music/StephenSondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. It is based on the Christopher Bond version of [[Theatre/SweeneyTodd the legendary story of an English barber]] who murdered his customers and, with the help of his neighbor Mrs. Lovett, [[TheSecretOfLongPorkPies made them into pies]]. In this version of the story, Todd is out to get revenge on a corrupt Judge who sent him to prison on false charges, raped his wife, and [[WifeHusbandry "adopted"]] his daughter fifteen years ago. Mrs. Lovett enables Todd's bloodlust as it helps out her business, but also tries to dissuade him from this goal so that he can settle down with her.

[[Tropes specific to the 2012 London revival]]

[[Tropes specific to the original 1979 Broadway run and its replicas]]

[[Tropes specific to the 2005 Broadway revival]]

[[Tropes specific to the 2023 Broadway revival]]

!!The musical provides examples of:

* ActorMusoShow: The John Doyle production of the show that ran on the West and Broadway in the early 2000s used this approach.

** Also in the original story, Tobias is employed from the beginning by Sweeney Todd, and he had only very passing interaction with Mrs. Lovett (specifically, stopping by to buy a pie). Instead of Anthony, we had Mark Ingestrie, and he and Johanna have a more unambiguously happy ending. Most of the characters from the play and movie appear, but many have had their roles, relationships, and so on shuffled around, essentially being recast (or using a very, very AlternativeCharacterInterpretation).

** Does Mrs. Lovett really mean it when she says [[spoiler:she was only thinking of how Sweeney would feel finding out that Lucy ended up a deranged beggar when she decided to keep the truth from him? It goes without saying that that wasn't her ''only'' motive- she's been in love with Sweeney since he was still Benjamin Barker, and if he thought Lucy was dead, she believed she'd have a chance to have him to herself. Yet in some productions, there's still seemingly a note of truth to what she says, and a suggestion that she really did think it would be better for him not to know. Notably, her original line ("Would you have wanted to know that's how she ended up?") was eventually changed to "Would you have wanted to know that was all that was left of her?", implying that Mrs Lovett regards the Beggar Woman as an EmptyShell that used to be Lucy, or a kind of CameBackWrong version of her. This is especially notable in the 2023 Broadway revival, in which Annaleigh Ashford as Mrs Lovett seems much fonder of Lucy during "Poor Thing", and much sadder about what happened to her, than she is typically portrayed as being.]]

** Especially prominent in the 2023 Broadway production, where Josh Groban plays him straightforwardly as a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. After he [[spoiler:kills the Judge]], he looks as though he's not sure what to do with the rest of his life.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Music Theatre International licenses a high school friendly version of the show that features toned-down lyrics, gore, and slight key changes to accommodate younger singers.

* CrosscastRole:
** In the 2005 revival, Pirelli is played by a woman, but as a man.
** Toby is also occasionally played by a woman.

* DamselInDistress:
** Subverted in the stage version. Although Johanna's character mostly fits the trope, in a memorable scene, Anthony rescues her from a madhouse where she is being imprisoned, pointing a gun at the asylum keeper. After Anthony admits he can't shoot, Johanna picks up the gun and kills the asylum keeper.
** Played straighter in the film, in which neither Anthony nor Johanna shoots the asylum keeper--[[spoiler:they leave him to be torn apart by the abused inmates.]]

* DoorClosesEnding: The original staging ends with Sweeney [[DoorSlamOfRage angrily slamming a door]] after he has walked through it.

* DramaticDrop: In the 2012 London revival, Sweeney drops his razor in the climax when [[spoiler:he recognizes the beggar woman he killed was actually Lucy, his supposedly dead wife.]]
* DrivenToSuicide: Lucy poisoned herself, according to Mrs. Lovett. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Except she never said that she died...]]]] Some productions may have Sweeney fill this trope after [[spoiler: he realizes he killed his wife]]. Though arguably it'd be assisted suicide. Take the concert production, Sweeney unbuttons his collar so [[spoiler: Toby can slit his throat easier]].
* DrumrollPlease: Toby does this himself while presenting "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir".

* TheDulcineaEffect: Anthony is suddenly devoted to Johanna's well being, despite not knowing her well at all.

* EvilIsBurningHot: Mrs. Lovett's oven is treated with hellish tones as dead bodies are sent into it to be cooked in its roaring flames, and Lovett usually has red hair to strengthen the devil association of the flames. She is also largely unsympathetic and [[spoiler: dies in her oven as a symbolic sendoff to Hell.]] In the film adaptation, the flames of the oven symbolically take over the film as its color grading switches from old blues and greys to infernal tones once bodies start piling up and cooking in large numbers.

* FramingDevice: In the revival, the events of the play are shown as being the story Toby tells in [[spoiler:the insane asylum]].

* GirlInTheTower: Johanna, despite her walking outside. It's implied that Turpin not only forbids her from leaving the house, but also from leaving her room (because the rest of the house must have windows, too). Not to mention other allusions to Rapunzel.

* HellIsThatNoise: ''That damned factory whistle''. It sounds every time Sweeney kills somebody.

* HighPressureBlood: Depending on the production. Can also be done on-stage, but it's very tricky.
* HumanResources: The two main characters use human flesh in decidedly resourceful ways.

* ItGetsEasier: A large part of the 2023 Broadway revival. Neither Sweeney or Mrs. Lovett are particularly insane compared to other versions, but it gets easier and easier to ignore their consciences in the pursuit of revenge and love and material comfort, respectively.

* KangarooCourt: Judge Turpin's trial of Benjamin Barker is anything but fair.

** The final death of the story is given to [[spoiler:Sweeney Todd, having his throat slit by one of his own razors at the hand of a vengeful, traumatized Toby]].

** Pirelli, notably, is written for an opera tenor when the others are just written for regular theatre voices.

** People who saw Angela Lansbury early in her Broadway run and then later on, around the time of the recorded production, generally say that she was playing a couple jokes much bigger as the show's run went on.

* LockedIntoStrangeness: Toby, at the finale. Sweeney himself, in the movie.

* LooksLikeCesare: There's a lot of this in the movie, thanks to Creator/TimBurton's involvement and his fondness for the trope, but Sweeney has had this going on [[https://bsp-static.playbill.com/dims4/default/09fc7a1/2147483647/crop/1127x634%2B0%2B114/resize/970x546/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpb-asset-replication.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff8%2F80%2Fde0ca37b4c5fa683cad6b01e346e%2Fgeorge-hearn.jpg ever since the original production]].

** Subverted with Johanna in Fogg’s Asylum. She sings incessantly to herself, but this is to ‘’avoid’’ going insane by giving herself something else to focus on.

* MeaningfulEcho: During "Poor Thing", a flashback shows Lucy opening up the window curtains in Sweeney's barbershop. [[spoiler: During Act II, the Beggar Woman opens up the curtains in the exact same fashion.]]

** Played with in the 2023 Broadway revival, where Sweeney is just as fixated on revenging Lucy but is more gentle and affectionate toward Mrs. Lovett than in most versions, and seems resigned toward eventually marrying and retiring to the seaside with her, which seems like a HopeSpot until one remembers ''this'' Mrs. Lovett is a pretty blonde, probably around the same age Lucy would be. ReplacementGoldfish, anyone?

* NeverTrustAHairTonic: Pirelli's Miracle Elixir... isn't. It's a mixture of urine and ink as Sweeney reveals.
* NeverTrustATrailer:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dgdz-XifyU This commercial]], featuring George Hearn and Angela Lansbury, gives the impression that the show is foremost a rollicking black comedy with a kitschy horror vibe rather than the grim revenge tragedy it is.
** Subverted with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90vBH847AD4 this commercial]], which sums up the darkness factor in 30 seconds.

* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: Sweeney to Turpin, the {{Trope Namer|s}}; although he's not ''so'' changed that Mrs. Lovett and Adolfo Pirelli, who both admittedly knew him well in the past, don't recognise him upon first meeting him. Also [[spoiler:the Beggar Woman]].

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Len Cariou in the original production made no attempt at an English accent. Which actually helped sharpen the character's isolation from the rest of the cast, most of whom either were English or affecting FakeBrit accents.
** Ironically, neither did Creator/EdmundLyndeck as Judge Turpin.

* OriginalCastPrecedent:
** Mrs. Lovett’s trademark [[{{Odango}} twin bun hairstyle]], usually symbolically verging on DevilishHairHorns, 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.
** 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}}).
** The title character's OneLiner when he triumphantly holds out his razor is, according to the script: "My right arm is complete again!" So why is it usually performed and remembered as, "At last my arm is complete again"? Len Cariou of the original Broadway cast was left-handed.

* ReplacementGoldfish: Johanna seems to be this to Judge Turpin, in VillainousCrush fashion, for her mother (and his onetime rape victim), Lucy
** In a twist exclusive to the 2023 Broadway revival, Sweeney is unusually affectionate towards and openly fond of Mrs. Lovett compared to most other productions. But then again, she's played as a pretty blonde in her mid-to-late thirties, just like Lucy would have been had Turpin never torn their family apart...

** SWING YOUR RAZOR WIDE, SWEENEY! HOLD IT TO THE SKY! The first two verses were sung with only the singer illuminated. During the music between the second verse and the above line, the entire stage was dark and the entire cast assembled in ranks. The line starts; cue ''every'' spotlight in the house going on and ScareChord. Truly amazing.
** The shrill factory whistle that accompanies Sweeney's murders.
** Another, more dramatic example plays in the final scene, [[spoiler: when Sweeney sees the face of the beggar woman he has just murdered, and recognises her as his wife, Lucy.]]

* ShoutOut:
** Pirelli's appearance and behavior might be one to Figaro in Music/GioachinoRossini's ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville''.
** Part of "The Worst Pies in London" recalls the chorus of "Tomorrow" from ''Theatre/{{Annie}}'', which was playing when ''Sweeney Todd'' debuted on Broadway.
* SilentCredits: In the 1982 live filming of Hearn/Lansbury the credits are unsettlingly so.

* SociopathicHero: Given that he was wrongly imprisoned for more than a decade and has lost his wife and daughter, the audience is encouraged to sympathize with Sweeney Todd. At first.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Johanna is implied to look very much like her mother Lucy did, in many cases extending to having the actress who plays Johanna also playing Lucy in the flashback during "Poor Thing".
** The 2023 Broadway revival also shows Johanna to resemble Sweeney himself, her biological father. They share many of the same nervous tics and anxious or despairing gestures, and the makeup used to suggest the toll Fogg’s Asylum takes on her beauty resembles the makeup used on the actor playing Sweeney [[spoiler:and notably not the makeup used on the actress playing her mother, Lucy, in her current state as the Beggar Woman]].

** In the 2023 revival, [[spoiler:Mrs Lovett has this attitude toward Lucy/the Beggar Woman. Unlike in most versions, Mrs Lovett seems fond of Lucy when she describes her during "Poor Thing", and is sadder than in most versions as she recounts what happened to her. Contrast that with how she treats her in the present, and it puts her line about the Beggar Woman being "all that was left of her" in a different context- she's no longer her old friend Lucy, she's an EmptyShell.]]

* TragicDream: She may be a sociopath, but Lovett's enthusiastic dream of marrying Todd and living a blissful life in a seaside StepfordSuburbia is never going to happen. As everything starts falling apart she seems to grow desperate to cling to this.

* TheVamp: Mrs. Lovett is very vile and seducing to add to her {{Yandere}} quality in the 2005 revival, as played by Creator/PattiLuPone.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: Sweeney Todd himself had been sentenced to Australia for false charges by a HangingJudge and had his wife and taken away from him by said judge. This turned him into the cold guy we see him in the play. When he finally loses it after [[spoiler:failing to off Turpin]], he goes full blown murderous.

* WrongfullyCommitted: Johanna Barker gets involuntarily committed to Fogg's Asylum after her plan to elope with Anthony Hope gets discovered by her guardian Judge Turpin. Turpin wanted to marry Johanna himself, but learns of her elopement plans due to a tragically foolish act by Anthony which also spoils Sweeney Todd's plot to kill Turpin. She is markedly affected by the experience but is eventually rescued by Anthony, with Johanna herself shooting the asylum keeper in the play.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Anthony believes himself to be the romantic hero of a love story between him and Johanna and is completely naive to how corrupt and evil the other characters are (including his "friend" Sweeney Todd). Johanna seems much less naive than him as she grew up with the Judge and knows how awful he is. At the very least, the two escape in the film. Similarly, in different ways, both Toby and Mrs. Lovett seem to think of themselves as being in a more conventional Victorian rags to riches story, with Lovett planning a better life away from the city, and Toby believing that he can protect and repay her for saving him. Indeed, much of the pathos in the play comes from characters acting as though they are in a rather different kind of story.
* {{Yandere}}: Mrs. Lovett is so willing to have Mr Todd for herself that [[spoiler:she lied to him about his wife poisoning herself]].
* 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 withhold the truth that his wife was alive, despite her protests to the contrary. It would have saved the Beggar Woman's life]].
* YouNeverAsked: Mrs. Lovett told Todd that his wife poisoned herself while he was gone, but didn't mention that [[spoiler:Lucy was still alive, but had gone crazy and become a street beggar.]] Lovett keeping this fact from Todd caused him to [[spoiler:kill his wife]].

And he was..."''