playbill vip

By the time Stephen Sondheim composed Sweeney Todd in 1978–79, creating both music and lyrics, audiences were prepared to be unsettled by his choice of content and means of conveying it. For twenty years he had been serving up musical-theater works that could only be described as ground- breaking. 

The work was based on a 1973 play (also titled Sweeney Todd ) by Christopher Bond, which Sondheim had seen that year in London. Bond’s play was derived from a melodrama by George Dibdin-Pitt titled The String of Pearls, or the Fiend of Fleet Street, which had premiered in 1847 at London’s Brittania Theatre, a venue given to sensational entertainment. Pitt’s play owed much to previous works — the 1846 serial novel The String of Pearls, A Romance, by Thomas Peckett Prest, and the article “A Terrible Story of the Rue de la Harpe,” published in an 1825 edition of Tell-Tale Magazine (based on a still earlier account, in French, in Joseph Fouché’s "Archives de la Police").

Harold Prince was reluctant when approached to direct the original production, remarking, “I found the nature of the material so hard to live with, because I couldn’t find it inside myself. The show is, of course, about revenge, and I do not have a vengeful nature.” Ultimately Prince came to realize that Sweeney Todd was also a love story with broader themes, despite its grim setting and sordid circumstances: the corruption, cynicism and poverty of mid-nineteenth century London, made famous by the novels of Charles Dickens.  In keeping with this realization, Prince chose to enlarge the story, which affected various aspects of the production and staging.  

Sweeney Todd won nine New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards and the Tony Award for Best Musical, in addition to individual Tonys for Sondheim (for the score), Hugh Wheeler (book), Harold Prince (director), and Angela Lansbury (actress, for her interpretation of Mrs. Lovett).

The question has been raised, "Is Sweeney Todd a musical or an opera?”  Posing such a question has its uses, for naming and categorizing things — be it opera, musical, oratorio, or symphony - does help us make sense of the world. But some works defy categorization.  In Sweeny Todd Sondheim has created a work of powerful and lasting theater.  His initial intent may have been to shock and challenge audiences, but in that process, and in works that followed Sweeny Todd, he continues to expand the genre of musical theater itself. 

In the words of director, Lonny Price: Sweeney Todd is what Stephen Sondheim calls “a musical horror.” Defined alternately as an opera, a musical, and an operetta, to me, it is one of the best and most satisfying dramatic pieces ever written. Flawless in conception, construction, and execution, it’s a completely satisfying piece of theater filled with soaring, gorgeous melodies, dark and wonderful humor, and, at its core, a frightingly human story. Although it works just fine in small, chamber productions, I like it big and loud and scary: a large scream on a large canvas.

The show is about obsession, and revenge, and it is born of a society that increasingly disenfranchises its weaker members. Hence, they revert to their “animal selves” and become violent. The story takes place in Victorian England, but I see it as a cautionary tale for our times.  There’s no place I’d rather be than in a room with Mr. Sondheim’s work.  I’m glad to share that experience with you tonight, and hope you get as much fun out of being around this material and these performers as I have. Enjoy the show!