Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

While I enjoyed Burton’s version of Sweeney Todd it does not compare to the stage version starring George Hearn and Angela Lansbury. One reason of course being the movie does not have the first song “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” which is both a great song and a great opening number. However, the biggest reason is that much of the humor of the musical was taken out of the film version. In the movie Sweeney is a much darker character that comes across as being relentlessly driven forward by his anger, despair, and resentfulness. He takes no joy in his work or in his victims being turned into food, just continuous killing person after person until his true targets shows up. There is little of the dark comedy that makes up the original Sweeney Todd musical written by Stephen Sondheim.

            In the stage version Sweeney truly likes what he does. You can see this when he becomes upset that he cannot kill one customer because he brought his daughter with him. It is obvious that he is happy and in a good mood when he receives a customer. When Mrs. Lovett proposes her plan, Sweeney laughs and smiles. Even though his ultimate goal is revenge, Sweeney is actually enjoying the ride.