Sweeny Todd

[Joey Deadcat]

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

Depp's got that Dave Vanian look goin' big time! Lookin' forward to this!

[Crazed Vampyress]

OOooO I cant wait!

[freydis]

Somehow I think I'll always like the Sondheim version best.....

[savageminstrel]

"Sweeney Todd" is one of my favorite musicals, for those of you who have never seen it.

It was written by Stephen Sondheim, and has been done on stage and recorded onto DVD..... it is well worth the 14.00 it will cost you to buy it.

The movie should be awesome, but like Munin, i will probably love the Sondheim version best.

[Joey Deadcat]

Depp's performance reminds me of THIS

[savageminstrel]

Fuck me!!!

I just saw the preview for the movie.. It IS the Sondheim musical....!!!

I am not sure how I am gonna feel about this.... Sweeney Todd is one of my all time favorite shows.

I am thinking that I am gonna like it.... it looks good.

[freydis]

Fuck me!!!

I just saw the preview for the movie.. It IS the Sondheim musical....!!!

I am not sure how I am gonna feel about this.... Sweeney Todd is one of my all time favorite shows.

I am thinking that I am gonna like it.... it looks good.

reaaaaaly?

Depp's gonna have big shoes to fill, George Hearn was a helluva stage actor, and a helluva singer.

[Destroit]

reaaaaaly?

Depp's gonna have big shoes to fill, George Hearn was a helluva stage actor, and a helluva singer.

...but...he's Johnny Depp He's one helluva an actor, too. Sooooo it'll be sweet.

[jadnifer]

I cant wait to see this.

Everyone says that its going to be good.

Probably go with some friends to see it.

Never saw the original.

I dont think that good ole Johnny will let us down though.

[Nienna]

OMG!!!! I can't wait!!

[FarrIL]

I'm actually pretty excited for this movie. I mean, come on! Depp and Bohman-Carter?! =D

[Winter Steele]

I'm actually pretty excited for this movie. I mean, come on! Depp and Bohman-Carter?! =D

What she said. I hope to find time to see it working hard rt now.

[jadnifer]

Im so excited.

Does anyone know the release date for it?

[Fierce Critter]

Son of a mother fucking bitch.

I am SO FUCKING TIRED of being all HOT AND BOTHERED by JOHNNY FUCKING DEPP.

And the only reason I, as a loyal, married woman, can say that about JOHNNY FUCKING DEPP is because my husband, should he ever, just on a whim, decide to be gay, would surely want to fuck JOHNNY FUCKING DEPP.

Goddamnitalltohell.

(I will say, however, I did find his character in The Libertine to be truly distasteful and didn't desire his services 'tall.)

[Homicidalheathen]

http://www.sweeneytoddmovie.com/

And although the character is fictional....its about a serial killer! W oot! Gotta see this one on the big screen.

[Homicidalheathen]

...she bakes them into a pie.....lol.......

Sweeney Todd

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Find out more about navigating Wikipedia and finding information •Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Sweeney Todd (disambiguation).

Sweeney Todd is a fictional villain/antihero. A well known barber and serial killer, the character appears in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century. His weapon of choice is a straight razor, with which he cuts his victim's throats; in some versions of the story his lover, friend, and accomplice, Margery (sometimes Nellie, Shirley or Claudette) Lovett, bakes the carcasses into meat pies.

In two books[1][2], the horror and crime story writer Peter Haining argues that Sweeney Todd was an historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims.[3][4][5]

Contents [hide]

1 Early history

2 Background

3 Adaptations

3.1 Musical

3.2 Tim Burton's film

4 References

5 External links

[edit] Early history

Todd's first appearance could have been in a British penny dreadful called The People's Periodical, in issue 7, dated November 21, 1846. The story in which he appeared was titled "The String of Pearls: A Romance," and was probably written by Thomas Prest,[6] who created a number of other gruesome villains. He tended to base his horror stories on grains of truth, sometimes gaining inspiration from real crime reports in The Times.

[edit] Background

It is sometimes claimed that the Sweeney Todd story is based upon fact, but no reliable evidence of this has ever been found. According to the tale, Todd was tried at the Old Bailey and hanged at Tyburn in January 1802, in front of a large crowd. However, no record of the trial can be found in the Old Bailey sessions papers or the Newgate Calendar, nor are there any contemporary press reports either of the trial or of the hanging. As early as 1878 a contributor to Notes and Queries noted this absence of authentic non-fictional sources.[7] Peter Haining, while arguing for historical reality, does not offer verifiable specifics.[2]

An episode in the legend of Saint Nicholas may represent a yet earlier version. This episode, which likely developed in the eleventh century, sees three clerks seeking accommodations for the night. In the night, their host murders them and, on the advice of his wife, decides to dispose of the evidence by baking the clerks into meat pies. The saint eventually resurrects the young scholars.

The cannibalistic trait of the story goes back as far as the myth of Pelops, while the moralistic symbolism of eating one's fellow man appears in social satire such as Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. The myth's imagery of meat pies made from people is almost certainly an allusion to the finale of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and the original Roman tale on which it was based. There is thought to have been a Jacobin barber who cut the throats of his customers during the French Revolution, though for politics rather than profit. Likewise, the 15th-century Scottish figure Sawney Bean led a family of thieves who are believed to have feasted on their victims. It may be relevant that 'Sweeney' could be considered a typically Irish name, just as 'Sawney' is a Scottish one; ethnic prejudice could underlie both legends.

[edit] Adaptations

The String of Pearls was adapted as a melodrama in 1847 by George Dibdin Pitt and opened at the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton, with the title Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and billed as 'founded on fact'. It was something of a success, and the story spread by word of mouth and took on the quality of an urban legend. Various versions of the tale were staples of the British theatre for the rest of the century.

In 1936 a film version of the Victorian melodrama was made, called Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, starring Tod Slaughter in the title role.

"Sweeney Todd, The Barber" is a song which assumes its audience knows the stage version and claims that such a character in real life was even more remarkable. Stanley Holloway, who recorded it in 1956, attributed it to R. P. Weston, a song writer active from 1906 to 1934.

The duo known as the Two Ronnies produced a musical sketch called "Teeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Queer Street" with Ronnie Corbett in the title role. The sketch features the barber cutting throats with a razor and then pulling a lever to send his victims into the baker's shop below.

A version of Sweeney Todd's story is told in the 1970 horror film Bloodthirsty Butchers, directed by Andy Milligan.

The British playwright Christopher Bond wrote a 1973 play titled Sweeney Todd. This version of the story was the first to give Todd a motive other than pure greed: He is a wrongfully imprisoned barber named Benjamin Barker who returns to London after fifteen years in Australia under the name Sweeney Todd to find that the judge responsible for his imprisonment has raped and murdered his young wife. He swears revenge, but when he is thwarted for a while, he begins to slash the throats of his customers. This new element of Sweeney Todd being motivated by vengeance was Bond's way of grafting dramatic themes from The Revenger's Tragedy onto George Dibdin Pitt's stage plot.

Portions of a version of the Sweeney Todd story by Neil Gaiman were published in the comics anthology Taboo in the 1980s and 90s. The project was never finished.

In 1998, Ben Kingsley and Joanna Lumley starred in the John Schlesinger-directed The Tale Of Sweeney Todd, a television movie commissioned by Sky for which Kingsley received a Screen Actors Guild Best Actor nomination.

A BBC television drama version with a screenplay written by Joshua St Johnston and starring Ray Winstone and Essie Davis was broadcast on BBC One on 3 January 2006.

[edit] Musical

Main article: Sweeney Todd (musical)

Stephen Sondheim composed the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with book by Hugh Wheeler, based on the Bond play. The character of Margery Lovett was renamed Nellie Lovett for this version of the story. Sondheim called it a "musical thriller" and, due to its sparse non-sung dialogue, "virtually an opera."

This modern example of grand guignol originally appeared on Broadway from March 1, 1979 to June 29, 1980 in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou (George Hearn and Dorothy Loudon took over the lead roles after Cariou and Lansbury left the production). The London West End production starred Denis Quilley and Sheila Hancock. A smaller-scale 1989 revival at Circle in the Square starred Bob Gunton and Beth Fowler under the direction of Susan Schulman and ran from September 14, 1989 to February 25, 1990.

The musical was televised twice. In 1982 a full-scale production featuring the national touring cast aired from Los Angeles and won three Emmys. This version starred Lansbury and George Hearn. The second was a concert version presented on PBS in 2000, starring Hearn and Patti LuPone and directed by Lonny Price. The concert version featured a full symphonic orchestra and chorus, and utilized minimal props and staging.

In 2004 John Doyle directed a revival of the musical at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, which subsequently transferred to the West End's Trafalgar Studios and then the New Ambassadors Theatre. Without an orchestra, the actors themselves played the score. This production marked the first time in nearly ten years that Sondheim had been presented in the commercial West End. The production transferred to Broadway in 2005, with a cast headed by Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris. It closed at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on September 3, 2006 after 349 performances after winning the 2006 Tony Awards for "Best Direction of a Musical" and "Best Orchestrations" (its loss of the award for "Best Revival of a Musical" to The Pajama Game was considered a major upset). In March 2007, a new production opened in Dublin's Gate theatre. In July 2007 it was performed in Royal Festival Hall in London (4 shows).

[edit] Tim Burton's film

Main article: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film)

Tim Burton has directed an adaptation of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd for the big screen. It stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, Sacha Baron Cohen as Signor Adolfo Pirelli, and Laura Michelle Kelly as Lucy Barker (Todd). It is slated for nationwide U.S. release on December 21, 2007. The nationwide UK release date is due to be 25th January 2008.

[Marmee_Noir]

...she bakes them into a pie.....lol.......

Sweeney Todd

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Find out more about navigating Wikipedia and finding information •Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Sweeney Todd (disambiguation).

Sweeney Todd is a fictional villain/antihero. A well known barber and serial killer, the character appears in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century. His weapon of choice is a straight razor, with which he cuts his victim's throats; in some versions of the story his lover, friend, and accomplice, Margery (sometimes Nellie, Shirley or Claudette) Lovett, bakes the carcasses into meat pies.

In two books[1][2], the horror and crime story writer Peter Haining argues that Sweeney Todd was an historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims.[3][4][5]

Contents [hide]

1 Early history

2 Background

3 Adaptations

3.1 Musical

3.2 Tim Burton's film

4 References

5 External links

[edit] Early history

Todd's first appearance could have been in a British penny dreadful called The People's Periodical, in issue 7, dated November 21, 1846. The story in which he appeared was titled "The String of Pearls: A Romance," and was probably written by Thomas Prest,[6] who created a number of other gruesome villains. He tended to base his horror stories on grains of truth, sometimes gaining inspiration from real crime reports in The Times.

[edit] Background

It is sometimes claimed that the Sweeney Todd story is based upon fact, but no reliable evidence of this has ever been found. According to the tale, Todd was tried at the Old Bailey and hanged at Tyburn in January 1802, in front of a large crowd. However, no record of the trial can be found in the Old Bailey sessions papers or the Newgate Calendar, nor are there any contemporary press reports either of the trial or of the hanging. As early as 1878 a contributor to Notes and Queries noted this absence of authentic non-fictional sources.[7] Peter Haining, while arguing for historical reality, does not offer verifiable specifics.[2]

An episode in the legend of Saint Nicholas may represent a yet earlier version. This episode, which likely developed in the eleventh century, sees three clerks seeking accommodations for the night. In the night, their host murders them and, on the advice of his wife, decides to dispose of the evidence by baking the clerks into meat pies. The saint eventually resurrects the young scholars.

The cannibalistic trait of the story goes back as far as the myth of Pelops, while the moralistic symbolism of eating one's fellow man appears in social satire such as Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. The myth's imagery of meat pies made from people is almost certainly an allusion to the finale of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and the original Roman tale on which it was based. There is thought to have been a Jacobin barber who cut the throats of his customers during the French Revolution, though for politics rather than profit. Likewise, the 15th-century Scottish figure Sawney Bean led a family of thieves who are believed to have feasted on their victims. It may be relevant that 'Sweeney' could be considered a typically Irish name, just as 'Sawney' is a Scottish one; ethnic prejudice could underlie both legends.

[edit] Adaptations

The String of Pearls was adapted as a melodrama in 1847 by George Dibdin Pitt and opened at the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton, with the title Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and billed as 'founded on fact'. It was something of a success, and the story spread by word of mouth and took on the quality of an urban legend. Various versions of the tale were staples of the British theatre for the rest of the century.

In 1936 a film version of the Victorian melodrama was made, called Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, starring Tod Slaughter in the title role.

"Sweeney Todd, The Barber" is a song which assumes its audience knows the stage version and claims that such a character in real life was even more remarkable. Stanley Holloway, who recorded it in 1956, attributed it to R. P. Weston, a song writer active from 1906 to 1934.

The duo known as the Two Ronnies produced a musical sketch called "Teeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Queer Street" with Ronnie Corbett in the title role. The sketch features the barber cutting throats with a razor and then pulling a lever to send his victims into the baker's shop below.

A version of Sweeney Todd's story is told in the 1970 horror film Bloodthirsty Butchers, directed by Andy Milligan.

The British playwright Christopher Bond wrote a 1973 play titled Sweeney Todd. This version of the story was the first to give Todd a motive other than pure greed: He is a wrongfully imprisoned barber named Benjamin Barker who returns to London after fifteen years in Australia under the name Sweeney Todd to find that the judge responsible for his imprisonment has raped and murdered his young wife. He swears revenge, but when he is thwarted for a while, he begins to slash the throats of his customers. This new element of Sweeney Todd being motivated by vengeance was Bond's way of grafting dramatic themes from The Revenger's Tragedy onto George Dibdin Pitt's stage plot.

Portions of a version of the Sweeney Todd story by Neil Gaiman were published in the comics anthology Taboo in the 1980s and 90s. The project was never finished.

In 1998, Ben Kingsley and Joanna Lumley starred in the John Schlesinger-directed The Tale Of Sweeney Todd, a television movie commissioned by Sky for which Kingsley received a Screen Actors Guild Best Actor nomination.

A BBC television drama version with a screenplay written by Joshua St Johnston and starring Ray Winstone and Essie Davis was broadcast on BBC One on 3 January 2006.

[edit] Musical

Main article: Sweeney Todd (musical)

Stephen Sondheim composed the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with book by Hugh Wheeler, based on the Bond play. The character of Margery Lovett was renamed Nellie Lovett for this version of the story. Sondheim called it a "musical thriller" and, due to its sparse non-sung dialogue, "virtually an opera."

This modern example of grand guignol originally appeared on Broadway from March 1, 1979 to June 29, 1980 in a production directed by Harold Prince and starring Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou (George Hearn and Dorothy Loudon took over the lead roles after Cariou and Lansbury left the production). The London West End production starred Denis Quilley and Sheila Hancock. A smaller-scale 1989 revival at Circle in the Square starred Bob Gunton and Beth Fowler under the direction of Susan Schulman and ran from September 14, 1989 to February 25, 1990.

The musical was televised twice. In 1982 a full-scale production featuring the national touring cast aired from Los Angeles and won three Emmys. This version starred Lansbury and George Hearn. The second was a concert version presented on PBS in 2000, starring Hearn and Patti LuPone and directed by Lonny Price. The concert version featured a full symphonic orchestra and chorus, and utilized minimal props and staging.

In 2004 John Doyle directed a revival of the musical at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, which subsequently transferred to the West End's Trafalgar Studios and then the New Ambassadors Theatre. Without an orchestra, the actors themselves played the score. This production marked the first time in nearly ten years that Sondheim had been presented in the commercial West End. The production transferred to Broadway in 2005, with a cast headed by Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris. It closed at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on September 3, 2006 after 349 performances after winning the 2006 Tony Awards for "Best Direction of a Musical" and "Best Orchestrations" (its loss of the award for "Best Revival of a Musical" to The Pajama Game was considered a major upset). In March 2007, a new production opened in Dublin's Gate theatre. In July 2007 it was performed in Royal Festival Hall in London (4 shows).

[edit] Tim Burton's film

Main article: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007 film)

Tim Burton has directed an adaptation of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd for the big screen. It stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, Sacha Baron Cohen as Signor Adolfo Pirelli, and Laura Michelle Kelly as Lucy Barker (Todd). It is slated for nationwide U.S. release on December 21, 2007. The nationwide UK release date is due to be 25th January 2008.

Wow, very interesting.. I knew there was always the fact ~vs~ fiction argument but never realized that it possibly had it's roots all the way back to the 11th century.. Yay for digging up the info.. Thanks for posting it!

[Homicidalheathen]

Oh...My...God. That fucking rocked! Blood splatter on the camera! So much red for Chirstmas!

This was the best Christmas movie besides nightmare before for me.

Sasha looks so....um frilly.......

The costumes and makeup were so goth.

Really hit a chord with me as I am a hairstylist who is operetically trained (vocally)

Hell even my kids admit opera can be cool now.

I will dream about Johnny tonight. Well done.

[bean]

The eternal and I just saw it. I thought it was awesome, though I was a bit put off by the musical portions of it (I hate musicals with a passion). By the end of the movie, the greatness of it made me kind of forget that there was singing.

The other entertaining part was the crowd that was in the theater to see the movie. Obnoxious high school scenester types that looked like they just came from a Fall Out Boy concert (gag). A lot of them were complaining about the movie after. I think some of the chicks were excited that Johnny Depp was in it (like, omg, Johnny Depp is like, so hot OMG!!!) and then were disappointed that it was a dark movie.

Awesome movie, annoying crowd.

[Nienna]

Wow! I loved it! I was in Sweeney Todd back in High School so it was extra geeky for me. Perfect rendition of the musical without the annoying added in spoken parts they always do in movies.

[saechalyn]

want to see want to see, dammit!!

[TygerLili]

I saw it yesterday. I thought it was quite good, but I must say it seemed a little too similar to so many other Tim Burtonesque projects I've seen Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter in. Not that I don't like both actors, but it would have been nice to see some new blood.

[Nienna]

I saw it yesterday. I thought it was quite good, but I must say it seemed a little too similar to so many other Tim Burtonesque projects I've seen Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter in. Not that I don't like both actors, but it would have been nice to see some new blood.

I know what you mean, but the Burton / Depp / Bonham-Carter trilogy is just MAGIC!! I'll watch the three tof them make movies together happily the rest of my life.

[know_buddy_kares]

Fuck me!!!

I just saw the preview for the movie.. It IS the Sondheim musical....!!!

I am not sure how I am gonna feel about this.... Sweeney Todd is one of my all time favorite shows.

I am thinking that I am gonna like it.... it looks good.

I'm pretty sure if there's only one person who can pull it off, it's going to be Depp... or maybe Bruce Campbell... but he can do anything as long as zombies are added in the movie!

[hunhee]

ahh.. such a good musical.. such a good movie.. i'd see it again, and plan to actually own it on DVD.. Maybe I'll get it in Blu-Ray