I Had Him I Had Him and He Will Never Come Again Sweeney Todd

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The original Broadway poster. Did you lot recall it was for kids or something?

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. His skin was pale and his heart was odd. He shaved the faces of gentlemen, Who never thereafter were heard of again. He trod a path that few had trod, Did Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. —from the opening number, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd"

Sweeney Todd (subtitled "The Demon Hairdresser of Fleet Street"), is a highly-regarded musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Information technology is based on the Christopher Bond version of the legendary story of an English language hairdresser who murdered his customers and, with the help of his neighbor Mrs. Lovett, made them into pies. In this version of the story, Todd is out to go revenge on a decadent Judge who sent him to prison on fake charges, raped his married woman, and "adopted" his daughter fifteen years ago. Mrs. Lovett smoothly tries to dissuade him from this goal then that he can settle down with her.

The original Broadway production went up in 1979 at the Uris Theatre. It was directed past Harold Prince and starred Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd and Angela Lansbury equally Mrs. Lovett. It has since been the discipline of many revivals and concerts, and is widely considered Sondheim's masterpiece, and since the latest revival and release of the Tim Burton movie version, it has become even more popular than Into the Woods.

Tropes used in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre) include:

• Accommodation Distillation / Adaptation Expansion: (a little of both) The characters of Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett come from a Victorian "shilling shocker" titled The String of Pearls. It is only in Christopher Bond's modern version, which Sondheim's musical adapts, that Sweeney has a revenge motivation, and Mrs. Lovett has a crush on him.
  • Also in the original story, Tobias is employed from the kickoff past Sweeney Todd, and he had but very passing interaction with Mrs. Lovett (specifically, stopping by to buy a pie). Instead of Anthony, we had Mark Ingestrie, and he and Johanna take a more unambiguously happy ending. Most of the characters from the play and motion-picture show appear, only many have had their roles, relationships, and then on shuffled around, essentially being recast (or using a very, very Alternative Grapheme Interpretation).
  • Sondheim also fixes one or ii weak moments in Bail's version. Now nosotros actually see the lovers meeting for the first fourth dimension instead of merely hearing about it. Too, instead of simply developing a taste for claret, Todd sings "Epiphany" in which his mind snaps after the Guess escapes his clutches and he decides that "nosotros all deserve to die".
• An Aesop: If you seek vengeance, you volition but end upwards becoming as bad equally (if not worse than) the ane who wronged you.
• Alliterative Name: Benjamin Barker, Beadle Bamford.
• Anti-Hero: Sweeney Todd (Blazon IV or V), before "Epiphany" where his mind cracks completely.
• Anti-Villain: Once again, Sweeney Todd himself.
• The Barber: Sweeney'southward stock in trade, both as Benjamin Barker and equally the Demon Hairdresser of Armada Street.
• Bedlam House: Fogg's Asylum, into which Johanna is imprisoned, is a perfect instance of this.
  • At that place's also Lucy Barker, who was sent to the actual Bedlam Firm.
• Big No: Issued by Sweeney when Mrs. Lovett informs him of his wife's rape at the end of "Poor Thing."
  • And again at the cease, when he realizes that the Beggar Adult female whose throat he merely slit was his wife.
• Blackness Comedy: Despite its dark discipline matter, the show is surprisingly funny, especially 'A Petty Priest'.
• Bowdlerise: The Other Wiki has details on the high schoolhouse-advisable version of this show.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • The section in "Epiphany" where Todd turns on (and in some performances, leaps into and menaces) the audience.
  • "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is addressed directly to the audition and contains the following lines:

What happened then? Well, that's the play, And he wouldn't desire us to requite it away ...

• Suspension the Cutie: Toby, Johanna, Lucy, equally well as Todd himself when his proper name was still Benjamin Barker.
• BSOD Vocal: "Epiphany".
• Cassandra Truth: The Beggar Woman tells these all the time.
• The Cast Boaster: Beadle Bamford is normally expected to actually play the harmonium.
  • Not to mention the entire cast of the 2005 Broadway revival - they all played various instruments.
• Companion Cube: Sweeney's razors.
• Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: While searching for Toby in the sewers when he's figured out what's Really in the pies. "Tooooby...Where aaaare y'all..."
• Contrived Proximity: I'one thousand sure that quondam ragamuffin woman has no importance to the story whatsoever...
  • She was hanging around her ain old house and where her daughter lived. However had some memories.
• Cooking Duel: "The Competition"; shaving and tooth-pulling.
• Crapsack World: With one or two possible exceptions, every character is either a Consummate Monster or an Extreme Doormat.

Todd: In all of the whole human race, Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two/ At that place's the one staying put in his proper place / And the one with his foot in the other one'due south face!/ Look at me, Mrs. Lovett — expect at yous!

• Crosscast Role: In the 2005 revival, Pirelli is played by a woman, but as a man.
• Crowd Song: "Pirelli'due south Miracle Elixir". It slowly morphs into an Angry Mob Vocal.
• Cut Song: The Judge's 'Johanna' was cut from the original production because it held up the plot (and is incredibly creepy) just appears on the original cast album and was eventually reinstated. The tooth pulling part of the Contest is also often cut.
• Dangerously Close Shave: 'Nuff said.
• Dead Man'southward Chest: Signore Pirelli's terminal fate.
• Death by Sexual activity: Played straight, subverted, and double subverted. Lucy swallows poison afterwards being raped, and Sweeney wants to kill Turpin for raping her. Notwithstanding neither of them dies immediately. And when all's said and done, it would seem that only the virgins are left alive. Assuming Johanna is at least a technical virgin and that she and Anthony didn't have sex activity during "Kiss Me."
• Muddy Old Human: Judge Turpin is an extremely evil example.
• Dissonant Serenity: Sweeney's part in the Johanna Quartet is this. He murders people in an eerily detached mode, singing a gorgeous vocal.
• Distressed Damsel: Subverted — although her character more often than not fits the trope, in a memorable scene, Anthony rescues Johanna from a madhouse where she is being imprisoned, pointing a gun at the asylum keeper. Later Anthony admits he tin can't shoot, Johanna picks upwardly the gun and kills the asylum keeper.
• Don't Explicate the Joke: "And I'm telling you them pussycats is quick!"
• Double Entendre: "You will be guaranteed, without a penny'south charge...the closest shave you lot will ever know."
  • "We'll serve anyone...meaning *anyone*..."
• Downer Ending
• The Dragon: The Beadle fills this role for Judge Turpin.
• Driven to Suicide: Lucy poisoned herself, co-ordinate to Mrs. Lovett. Except she never said that she died...
  • Some productions may have Sweeney make full this trope after he realizes he killed his married woman. Though arguably information technology'd be assisted suicide. Take the concert product, Sweeney unbuttons his neckband then Toby tin slit his throat easier.
• Drum Roll, Please: Toby does this himself while presenting "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir".
• Due to the Expressionless: Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett engage in the evil version of this.
• Eat the Evidence: Does this really require explanation?
• Swallow the Rich: During "A Footling Priest," Sweeney briefly considers exclusively serving the upper classes in Mrs. Lovett'south pie shop before discarding the thought every bit "discriminating."
• Epic Song: The eponymous Ballad that opens and closes the show fits.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Sweeney is a bass-baritone and Judge Turpin a bass. On the other mitt, the Beadle and Pirelli are both Counter-Tenors.
• Evil Versus Evil: A Nietzsche Wannabe Serial Killer with a razor who has his victims baked into pies with the help of a ruthless Yandere Stepford Smiler, against a Hanging Judge Pervert whose backstory includes raping the series killer'southward married woman, and whose introduction is pretty much a Kick the Dog - he has the title grapheme transported for life so that he could have his wife for himself. His "best friend" sees nothing incorrect with any of this and is quite content to assistance him seduce the daughter, who the estimate has adopted as his own.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Sweeney slits people's throats with a straight razor and has the bodies broiled into pies, simply he won't kill men who have families, which is understandable, since the reason for his Roaring Rampage of Revenge is that he was unjustly taken abroad from his wife and daughter, who were then raped/DrivenToSuicide (well, not exactly) and adopted/implied to be sexually abused past Judge Turpin, respectively. Though it may exist more than Pragmatic Villainy, families hateful witnesses and investigations.
  • The latter explains why it'due south Played for Laughs in the stage version.
• Fauxreigner: Adolfo Pirelli a.k.a. Daniel O'Higgins, and he'south Irish.
• A Fete Worse Than Death: The masked ball in "Poor Thing", which culminates in Judge Turpin raping Sweeney Todd'due south married woman.
• Foreshadowing: And lots of it.
  • And my Lucy lies in ashes... Uh, not QUITE notwithstanding...
  • Why doesn't Mrs. Lovett want the Beggar Woman near Sweeney? She's Lucy.
• Framing Device: In the revival, the events of the play are shown equally being the story Toby tells in the insane asylum.
• From a Certain Indicate of View: The major epiphany of the final scene:

Mrs. Lovett : "No, no, not lied at all- No, I never lied, said she took a poison--she did, never said that she died."

• Funny Foreigner: Subverted — Signore Pirelli's exaggerated Italian accent and mannerisms are faked; the character is actually an Irishman named Daniel/Davey. This tin can plow into a Double Subversion, depending on how strong the Irish emphasis and mannerisms are presented (see the 1982 videotaped stage performance for an example).
• Become Out!: Sweeney's reaction to Anthony'south very untimely foiling of his outset endeavor to kill Turpin.
• Become Among Mad People: Happens to Johanna.
• Become Mad From the Revelation: Tobias, after he discovers what's in the pies.
• Pilus of Gold: Johanna. "I am in the nighttime beside you, buried sweetly in your yellow hair!"
• Hanging Judge: Judge Turpin.
• Hated Hometown: When Sweeney agrees that "there'due south no place like London," information technology's not praise.
• The Hecate Sisters: Johanna as the maiden, Mrs. Lovett as the mother and the Ragamuffin Woman equally the crone.
• Hero Antagonist: Tobias Ragg.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Sweeney becomes worse than the monsters subsequently "Epiphany".
• Loftier-Pressure Claret: Depending on the product. Tin too be done on-stage, but it's very tricky.
• Human being Resources: The 2 principal characters utilize man mankind in decidedly resourceful ways.
• Hurricane of Puns: The wickedly funny string of allusions to personalities and flavors in the number "A Footling Priest", where the ii figure out how they'll dispose of the body upstairs (and make a tidy profit out of future customers, at the expense of the rival pie shop across the way).
• Hypocritical Sense of humour: "Wouldn't practise in my shop/why the idea'south plenty to brand you lot sick/and I'm telling y'all them pussy cats is quick!"
• "I Am Becoming" Song: "Epiphany", "Johanna Quartet".
• Ignorance Is Bliss: Toby has this at first toward the meat pies he and his new family are selling.
• I Take You Now, My Pretty: Judge Turpin has a serious problem with lust when it comes to pretty women, and ends up doing this to Lucy Barker in the "Poor Affair" scene.
• I'm a Humanitarian: You lot are if y'all consume at Mrs. Lovett's pie shop.
• Informed Bewitchery: Lucy and Johanna.
• The Ingenue: Johanna, at least until some time in the asylum.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: Pat-a-block pat-a-cake baker's man ...
• Irony: Johanna is the but fellow member of her family who goes to an insane aviary, only she's also the only member of her family who hasn't gone insane.
  • That actually depends on how she's played--sometimes she'due south already insane, and sometimes she only goes insane after she'south put in the insane aviary.
  • In pursuit of vengeance for his wife, and wanting his daughter back, Sweeney winds up murdering his wife and almost kills his daughter, who's in disguise.
  • Lucy wound upwards in Bedlam instead of a hospital, so technically Johanna isn't the but 1 of the family to terminate up in a nut-business firm
  • All 3 of the Barkers terminate upward in their one-time room together and none of them are enlightened that the others are in that location.
• "I Desire" Song: Mrs Lovett's "By The Sea" vocal, all about the future she's hoping for.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Lucy Barker
• Kangaroo Courtroom: Guess Turpin's trial of Benjamin Barker is anything but off-white.
• Karmic Decease: Sweeney Todd delivers one to Estimate Turpin out of vengeance and later on suffers another himself by irony.
  • Also, Mrs Lovett is baked to death within her ain oven.
• Kick the Dog: Judge Turpin and the Beadle are dog kicking machines. Senseless acts of evil include:
  • The imprisonment of Benjamin Barker on a faux charge, sending him to a prison house colony for many years (Judge Turpin)
  • Raping Lucy Barker and thus driving her mad (Approximate Turpin)
  • The sentencing of a little boy to death (Judge Turpin)
  • Snapping the cervix of the bird that Anthony had bought for Johanna (the Beadle)
  • Throwing Johanna into Fogg's Asylum for defying Turpin (Approximate Turpin)
  • Pirelli's brutal treatment of poor Toby also qualifies every bit a Kicking the Domestic dog moment.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Sweeney begins his transition into a Serial Killer by killing Adolfo Pirelli.
• Kill'Em All: Were you lot expecting a revenge tragedy to take a happy ending? Sweeney Todd, Estimate Turpin, Lucy, and Mrs. Lovett are all dead. Only Toby, Johanna, and presumably Anthony are all alive. The police force burst into the bakehouse just subsequently Toby has slit Sweeney's throat, and is deliriously repeating Mrs. Lovett's secret of how to brand the pies juicy and tender. "Three times, that'due south the secret.. 3 times through the grinder." This suggests that Toby is on his way to a Clamor Firm. Anthony and Johanna are also there with the police, though their presence is not explained (probably the fact that Johanna just witnessed two grisly murders has to do with information technology, though), and whether or not they get anything resembling a happy ending is left open to interpretation.
• Kill the Ones You lot Love: Sweeney kills Lucy unaware that she is really the ragamuffin.
• Lady Macbeth: Mrs. Lovett is arguably more than evil than Sweeney Todd. Given that while he has the excuse of having endured terrible tragedy and going crazy, she participates in and encourages his mass-murdering for fiscal motives, and information technology was her suggestion to cook the corpses of his victims in the beginning place.
  Then, of form, there's Mrs. Lovett'southward ulterior motive in non telling Sweeney that his wife is alive and is the crazy Ragamuffin Adult female; she lets him think his wife is dead considering of her crush on Sweeney.
• Lampshaded Double Entendre: "If yous get my drift..."
  • "No?" . . . "AH!" "Skillful, you lot got information technology."
• Large Ham:
  • In "A Little Priest", the actor ever arrives overdone...
  • Pirelli, total stop.
  • George He- excuse me, GEORGE HEARN!!!
    • And when paired with Patti LuPone, it gets taken to new levels, very effectively.
  • During A Little Priest, if Sweeney and Lovett aren't completely tearing the business firm down, they're doing it incorrect.
• Final-Second Word Swap: In "The Worst Pies in London":

Mrs. Lovett: Is that just revolting, All greasy and gritty? It looks similar it's molting, And tastes similar-- Well, pity

• Least Rhymable Word: "Locksmith."
• Lethal Chef: Subverted - Mrs. Lovett is this before she starts making pies of homo mankind; she says because she couldn't afford fresh meat she resorted to "finding animals dying in the street". Afterward, her meat pies are delicious (if now lethal in a rather different way).
  • Actually it's implied that some other baker in the neighborhood is using animals: "Mrs. Mooney has a pie shop!/Does a business organisation simply I notice something weird/Lately all her neighbors' cats have disappeared!/Take to hand information technology to her --/Wot I calls/Enterprise/Poppin' pussies into pies!/Wouldn't do in my shop!" It'southward non until the number "A Little Priest" that Mrs. Lovett begins using unusual sources of meat.
  • "And I'm telling you, them pussycats is quick!" Lovett is plenty "enterprising" herself.
    • Except she's not - she'southward too irksome to catch them. "Wouldn't do in my shop/Just the thought of it's enough to make yous sick/And I'chiliad telling you lot, them pussycats is quick." If she was fast enough she'd be using them but crusade she can't her pies are "nix but crusting" and "merely lard and zippo more"
• Like Mother, Like Daughter: A blink-and-y'all'll-miss-information technology example, simply at the beginning of "Kiss Me," Johanna'southward get-go thought of how to avert marrying Turpin is to poisonous substance herself: "I'll swallow poison on Sunday/That's what I'll practise, I'll get some lye..."
• Locked Into Strangeness: Toby, at the finale.
• Lonely Rich Child: Johanna
• The Lost Lenore: Lucy, to Sweeney.
• Love Makes Y'all Crazy: Mrs. Lovett, in spades.
• Loving a Shadow: Sweeney has a variation in regards to his fatherly love of Johanna. His version of the Johanna quartet is basically him wondering what she's similar.
• Lured Into a Trap: The "Poor Affair" sequence has Beadle Bamford luring Lucy Barker to a masked brawl at Judge Turpin's mansion, telling her that the Approximate is remorseful about sending away her hubby, Benjamin Barker, for life on a imitation charge. Turns out he'south anything but remorseful, and has used this equally a means to get her alone and defenseless.
• Lyrical Noise:
  • "A Footling Priest"
  • Besides Mrs. Lovett'south poesy in "Not While I'm Around"; she repeats Toby's protests of love and loyalty, only the creepy, wheedling violin solo underneath makes them sound totally insincere.
• Made From Real Daughter Scouts: "Or we have some shepherd'southward pie, peppered with actual shepherd on peak."
• Mad Love: Depending on the version, Mrs. Lovett's 1-sided obsession with Sweeney can be seen as an case of this trope, specially considering her attempts to go along him from discovering that his wife is still alive.
• Madness Mantra: In a way, the one-time woman Lucy, near the end. "Beadle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle deedle dumpling!"
  • Also Toby at the end of the phase show. "Three times, that's the hugger-mugger, iii times through the grinder."
• Manipulative Bounder:
  • Mrs. Lovett, you're a bloody wonder.
  • As well Todd's scheme in Act 2, where he helps Anthony to rescue Johanna by setting him up every bit a wigmaker's amateur and betrays Anthony to the Approximate in lodge to lure the latter back to his parlour. In particular, the song "The Letter" shows Todd disturbing over the exact words that volition manipulate the Approximate's lust and sense of inadequacy.
• Meaningful Proper name: "Tod(d)" is German for "decease."
  • The optimistic young crewman, Anthony Hope.
  • Mrs. Lovett.
  • Perhaps unintentional: the name "Sweeney" is an anglicized version of the name Suibne, a (legendary) mad rex of Ireland.
  • Tobias Ragg.
    • How and then?
    • A 'Ragg' is something used for the basest tasks, which was how Pirelli treated him.
• Midword Rhyme: "Ladies In Their Sensitivities".

When a daughter'southward emergent Probably it'southward urgent You defer to her gent- —tility, my Lord

• • And once more in the same song!

Pregnant no offense, information technology Happens they resents it Ladies in their sensit- —ivities, my Lord

• Moment Killer: Anthony walks into the barbershop for one of his trademark interruptions right after Mrs. Lovett suggests to Sweeney that they can "have a life together." YMMV, especially if y'all're not a Sweeney/Lovett fan.
• Murder past Cremation Mrs. Lovett.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After realizing that the old beggar woman he killed was Lucy, Sweeney Todd has this reaction, before turning his acrimony towards Mrs. Lovett, who told a fleck of a Jedi Truth.
• Mystery Meat
• Never Trust a Hair Tonic: Pirelli's Phenomenon Elixir... isn't.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: In the songs "Epiphany" and "A Lilliputian Priest", Sweeney justifies his actions based upon the utter corruption of the world. He even states that all Humans Are Bastards who deserve to die.

At that place's a hole in the world, like a great black pit, And information technology's filled with people who are filled with shit And the vermin of the earth inhabit it... But non for long! They all deserve to die!

• No Doubt the Years Take Inverse Me: Sweeney to Turpin, the Trope Namer. Also the Beggar Woman.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Len Cariou in the original production made no attempt at an English accent.
  • Which actually helped acuminate the character'due south isolation from the rest of the bandage, most of whom either were English or affecting Fake Brit accents.
• Obi-Wan Moment: Sweeney'south death.
• Oh Crap:
  • Judge Turpin, upon finally learning only who Sweeney Todd is, just earlier Sweeney takes brutal and final vengeance.
  • As well equally Sweeney himself after Pirelli reveals that he knows him from the old days, with similar results.
• Opening Chorus
• The Ophelia: Johanna in many productions. She's sometimes wearing flowers in her pilus when she's in the asylum.
• Penal Colony: Botany Bay in Australia, where Benjamin was transported for life.
• Perky Female Minion: Mrs. Lovett. In the musical, she is clearly the comic foil to the brooding and vengeful Todd. Makes her Moral Event Horizon(s) all the more jarring.
• Pre-Asskicking/Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "BENJAMIN BARKER!!!"
• Psycho Supporter: Mrs. Lovett's back up of Sweeney's murder sprees and her eagerness to get rid of the corpses in such a disturbed manner make her a prime example of this trope.
• Rape equally Drama: Lucy Barker.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: In the fourth dimension that the play is fix in, at that place is a meat shortage in London, such that those without means oftentimes accept to plow to other avenues to get their meat, such as catching animals off the streets to exist made into pies. Information technology is this situation which leads to Mrs. Lovett'southward idea to serve up Sweeney's victims every bit meat pies. After all...

Sweeney: These are desperate times, Mrs. Lovett, and desperate measures are called for.

• Refuge in Audacity: If he had only murdered his customers, Sweeney would have been reprehensible. By having them made into pies, he is cool.
• Retirony: Arguably, "Past the Sea."
• Revenge: Sweeney Todd is done in the style of a classical revenge tragedy.
• Rule of Threes: There were originally three songs written called "Johanna", one of them sung by Anthony, the 2nd past Judge Turpin and the last by Sweeney.
  • As well, Mrs. Lovett's instructions for making the meat pies:

"Iii times... that'south the clandestine... three times through the grinder..."

• Sanity Slippage Song: "Epiphany." Love gods, "Epiphany."
• Scare Chord: SWING YOUR RAZOR Wide, SWEENEY! Concord IT TO THE SKY!
  • The beginning two verses were sung with only the singer illuminated. During the music between the 2d verse and the above line, the entire phase was dark and the entire cast assembled in ranks. The line starts; cue every spotlight in the firm going on and Scare Chord. Truly amazing.
• Scenery Porn: The stage version generally has to use a double-level set and depending on the available resources information technology can get more than elaborate from there. On the other hand, John Doyle'southward 2004 staging in London (later transferred to Broadway) was a minimalist version that had only 10 actors who played instruments when they were not singing themselves, and only suggested its settings.
  • Also, the concert version performed in New York and San Francisco had no sets whatsoever, the actors performed on platforms surrounded by the orchestra.
• The Hole-and-corner of Long Pork Pies
• Serial Killer: Sweeney himself, as well as his "A String of Pearls" incarnation.
• Sex Is Evil: According to Judge Turpin.
• Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny: Various theater versions of this musical have various takes on this. Some brand him a more than clear-cut example past highlighting his self-loathing, while others make him a more ane-dimensional Complete Monster.
• Slashed Pharynx: Well, it is Sweeney Todd.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Pessimism: Todd is contrasted with the immature sailor Anthony Hope, who is a romantic idealist.
  • Information technology should be noted that Anthony Promise is notwithstanding alive at the end. Whether this is good or bad is dependent on where you fall on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism.
• Serpent Oil Salesman: Pirelli
• Then Beautiful Information technology's a Curse: All of the Barkers. Lucy's beauty is what caused the Judge's attraction to her and kickstarted the plot. The aforementioned applies to Johanna in one case she grows older and the Approximate sets his sights on her. Meanwhile, Todd may take been able to reunite with Lucy (or at least not have killed her) if he hadn't attracted Mrs. Lovett.
• Sociopathic Hero: 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 kickoff.
• Soundtrack Noise: 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 executed example in the "Johanna" sequence nigh the outset of Human activity II, where Sweeney'due south steady, gentle, romantic theme is at odds with the atrocities he is simultaneously committing, showing how disassociated he has get.
• Spanner in the Works: The story would have been a lot shorter if Anthony hadn't apparently competed in a "say something incriminating equally quickly every bit possible" competition.
• Stalker with a Crush: Anthony, to Johanna.
  • A example for Mrs. Lovett existence ane of these can be made with respect to Todd. She waited 15 years for him and never knew him whatever more than in passing. She also outright confesses she'south been watching him. Which is pretty squicky fifty-fifty if she is played by a grotesquely attractive Helena Bonham Carter.
• Stalking Is Honey: Anthony'due south infatuation with Johanna and Mrs. Lovett's obsession with Sweeney Todd can both come across like this. Judge Turpin appears this way at offset, only this is horribly subverted when a few minutes afterward it's revealed that he rapes Lucy afterward seemingly attempting to court her.
• Stepford Smiler: Mrs. Lovett is an example of the facade being the true personality with a fleck of Yandere thrown in, always virtually ever cheerful and kindly, but having no qualms about chopping up and cooking Todd's victims, motivated by obsessive love for Sweeney Todd and a desire to improve her economic standing.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Johanna after the escape from Fogg's Asylum.
• That Man Is Dead: "Information technology'due south Todd now. Sweeney Todd. And he will have his revenge."
• That Reminds Me of a Song: The Beadle'southward "Parlour Songs". The fact that he is spending so much fourth dimension singing is relevant to the plot, merely the content of the songs is not.
• There Are 2 Kinds of People in the World: "There'due south the ane staying put in his proper place and the one with his foot in the other one's face."
• Tragic Dream: She may be a Complete Monster, but Lovett's enthusiastic dream of marrying Todd and living a blissful life in a seaside Stepford Suburbia is never going to happen. As everything starts falling autonomously she seems to grow desperate to cling to this.
• The Ugly Guy'due south Hot Girl: Sweeney Todd and Johanna. Justified Trope as fifteen years in prison house would not exercise wonders in the looks department.
• Victoria's Hush-hush Compartment: Mrs. Lovett puts Pirelli's purse in hers.
• Villain Protagonist: Mr. Todd himself.
• Villain Vocal: Almost every other song, but especially "Epiphany."
• "The Villain Sucks" Vocal: "Poor Matter," which describes Judge Turpin's nearly despicable act.
• Villainous Breakdown / BSOD: "Epiphany." Dear gods, "Epiphany." As well, Sweeney seems to descend into an even deeper circle of insanity hell after he finds out he killed his own wife.
  • And a The Villain Protagonist Sucks song with "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" itself, of course.
• Villainous Crush: Guess Turpin for both Lucy and Johanna.
• Vox Types: Pretty much every vocalism type is represented:
  • Johanna - soprano
  • Beggar Adult female - mezzo-soprano/belter
  • Mrs. Lovett - mezzo-soprano or contralto
  • Beadle Bamford - tenor/counter-tenor
  • Pirelli - tenor
  • Tobias - tenor
  • Anthony - lyric baritone or tenor
  • Sweeney Todd - bass-baritone
  • Judge Turpin - bass
• Weapon of Choice: Sweeney's razors.
• Broad-Eyed Idealist: Anthony Hope sees evil simply when information technology's being rubbed in his confront (example: any interaction he has with the Beadle). Even then, he believes that good will win.
• Wife Husbandry: Judge Turpin attempts this in regards to Johanna. Information technology fails.
• Willing Suspension of Disbelief: We are asked to have that a serial killer tin operate so openly for and so long earlier people realize that very few customers of Todd's are ever seen again after their appointments. Nonetheless, it seems that the plan is just to dispose of visiting foreigners and other people who have no close acquaintances in the urban center, which makes it slightly more believable.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Sweeney Todd himself.
• Incorrect Genre Savvy: Anthony believes himself to exist 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 upwardly with the Judge and knows how awful he is.
  • Similarly, in different ways, both Toby and Mrs. Lovett seem to recall of themselves as being in a more conventional Victorian rags to riches story, with Lovett planning a ameliorate life away from the metropolis, and Toby assertive 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 style of operation.
• Yandere: Mrs. Lovett.
• Yank the Canis familiaris'southward Chain: At the very end, Todd finally tells Mrs. Lovett everything she'south been longing for him to tell her throughout the play, while dancing with her. And then he throws her in the oven and lets her burn down to death.
• You Never Asked: Mrs. Lovett told Todd that his wife poisoned herself while he was gone, simply didn't mention that Lucy was still live, just had gone crazy and go a street beggar. Lovett keeping this fact from Todd caused him to kill his wife.

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Source: https://tropedia.fandom.com/wiki/Sweeney_Todd:_The_Demon_Barber_of_Fleet_Street_(theatre)

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