History Theatre / SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet

* LockedIntoStrangeness: Toby, at the finale.

** Mrs. Lovett is almost always cast a little on the plump side or blowsy, like Creator/AngelaLansbury as opposed to the equally (perhaps more) likely possibility of her being thin and bony. Christine Baranski is one of the few skinny Mrs. Lovetts.

* AbilityOverAppearance: Creator/AudraMcDonald, a Black actress, has played the Beggar Woman in multiple high-profile concert versions in which [[spoiler:Lucy, her younger self, is still described as being a pale blonde, and in which Johanna, played by white actresses, is still described as looking almost exactly like her]]. While this creates a few logical issues, the general reception has been simply that if you can get Audra, you ''get Audra''.

** Johanna is the only member of her family who goes to an [[BedlamHouse insane asylum]], but she's also the only member of her family who hasn't gone irreparably insane. (The lyrics in "Kiss Me" imply that she is at least very anxious, probably clinically so- "It was a gate, it's the gate... --We don't have a gate!"- and some productions do depict her as [[GoAmongMadPeople going a little insane in the asylum]], but the libretto, for the record, limits the description of her mood after her escape to "excited and chatty", and she's clearly in control of her faculties in escaping from Sweeney in the end/)

** 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).

** Johanna is the only member of her family who goes to an [[BedlamHouse insane asylum]], but she's also the only member of her family who hasn't gone insane. This really depends on how she's played--sometimes she's already insane, and sometimes she only goes insane after she's put in the insane asylum. The lyrics in "Kiss Me" imply that she is at least very unstable. "It was a gate, it's the gate... --We don't have a gate!"

* MusicalSpoiler: [[spoiler:When Sweeney kills the Beggar Woman, a piece of the instrumental theme from "Epiphany" plays, specifically the part where Sweeney sings, "And my Lucy lies in ashes..."]]

** 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 is younger 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).

** Ironically, neither did Edmund Lyndeck as Judge Turpin. NotSoDifferent, perhaps?

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Sweeney Todd delivers one to Judge Turpin out of vengeance and later suffers another himself by irony.]] Likewise, [[spoiler:Mrs. Lovett is baked to death inside her own oven.]]

* IgnoranceIsBliss: Toby has this at first toward the meat pies he and his new family are selling.

---> ''What happened then?''
---> ''Well, that's the play,''
---> ''And he wouldn't want us to give it away...''

* EatTheEvidence: Why doesn't anyone ever find Todd's victims? Because no one thought to look in Mrs.Lovett's pies.

* EvidenceDungeon: Sweeney Todd has a variation of this with the meat room of Mrs. Lovett's pie shop. Sweeney Todd starts murdering Sweeney's customers and baking them into pies. The smell of the human flesh burning is pumped into the air and just by the nature of butchery, loads of viscera must be left around.
* EvilIsPetty: Mrs. Lovett. Quite apart from the horrible things she and Sweeney do, which aren't petty at all, she spends a surprisingly large amount of time making spiteful jabs at people. During ''God That's Good!'' she gloats that she's put her rival Mrs. Mooney out of business. Earlier she'd scoffed at her over the suspicion that she was using cat meat. Considering what Mrs. Lovett is now including in ''her'' pies...

** During ''A Little Priest'', if Sweeney and Lovett aren't completely tearing the house down, they're doing it wrong.

* OpeningChorus: ''The Ballad of Sweeney Todd''.

* SayMyName: Both [[spoiler:Turpin's]] FamousLastWords, and Sweeney's PreMortemOneLiner as he does it are "'''''BENJAMIN BARKER!'''''"

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

* TheDragon: The Beadle fills this role for Judge Turpin.

* TheDulcineaEffect: Anthony to Johanna.
* EatTheEvidence: Does this really require explanation?

* EvilVersusEvil: A StrawNihilist SerialKiller with a [[WeaponOfChoice razor]] who [[ImAHumanitarian has his victims baked into pies]] with the help of a ruthless {{Yandere}} StepfordSmiler, against a HangingJudge [[DirtyOldMan Pervert]] whose backstory includes {{rap|eIsASpecialKindOfEvil}}ing the [[SerialKiller serial killer's]] [[ItsPersonal wife]], and whose introduction is a KickTheDog--he [[KangarooCourt has the title character transported for life]] so that he could have his wife for himself. His [[TheDragon "best friend"]] sees nothing wrong with any of this and is quite content to help him [[{{Squick}} seduce the]] daughter, who the judge [[WifeHusbandry has adopted as his own]].

** The imprisonment of Benjamin Barker on a false charge, sending him to a prison colony for many years (Judge Turpin)
** Raping Lucy Barker and thus driving her mad (Judge Turpin)
** Snapping the neck of the bird that Anthony had bought for Johanna (the Beadle)
** Throwing Johanna into [[BedlamHouse Fogg's Asylum]] for defying Turpin (Judge Turpin)

--> ''Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd;\\
He served a dark and a hungry god!\\
To seek revenge may lead to hell\\
But everyone does it though seldom as well...\\
As Sweeney...\\
As Sweeney Todd...\\
THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET...\\
STREET!''

* MurderByCremation [[spoiler:Mrs. Lovett]].

----

The original Broadway production went up in 1979 at the Uris Theatre. It was directed by Harold Prince and starred Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd and Creator/AngelaLansbury as Mrs. Lovett. It has since been the subject of many revivals and concerts, and is widely considered Sondheim's masterpiece. Since the latest revival and release of [[Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet the Tim Burton film version]], it has become even more popular than ''Theatre/IntoTheWoods''.

* FromACertainPointOfView: The major epiphany of the final scene:
-->[[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]]."

--> (after tasting a pie made of a priest) '''''HEAVENLY!'''''

-->'''Mrs. Lovett''': This may bit a bit stringy, but then again, it ''is'' fiddle player.\\

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After realizing [[spoiler:that the old beggar woman he killed was Lucy]], Sweeney Todd has this reaction, before [[spoiler:turning his anger towards Mrs. Lovett, who told a bit of a JediTruth]].

* 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 . 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.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Anthony, when he (rather unfortunately) stops Todd from killing Judge Turpin mid-story.

* 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. 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.

* 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.]]

* TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: The bodies are used to make Mrs. Lovett's meat pies, initially just for body disposal but often it then turns out that this just increases the flavor.