Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)/WMG

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Sweeney didn't want to be a barber in the first place

He wanted to be a lumberjack. Leaping from tree to tree as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia . . . The giant redwood, the larch, the fir, the mighty scots pine. The smell of fresh-cut timber! The crash of mighty trees! With his best Girlie by his side, they'd sing, sing, sing!

Todd: I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay. I sleep all night and I work all day. MOUNTIES: He's a lumberjack, and he's okay. He sleeps all night and he works all day. Todd: I cut down trees. I eat my lunch. I go to the lavatory. On Wednesdays I go shoppin' And have buttered scones for tea. MOUNTIES: He cuts down trees. He eats his lunch. He goes to the lavatory. On Wednesdays he goes shoppin' And has buttered scones for tea. He's a lumberjack, and he's okay. He sleeps all night and he works all day. Todd: I cut down trees. I skip and jump. I like to press wild flowers. I put on women's clothing And hang around in bars. MOUNTIES: He cuts down trees. He skips and jumps. He likes to press wild flowers. He puts on women's clothing And hangs around in bars?! He's a lumberjack, and he's okay. He sleeps all night and he works all day. Todd: I cut down trees. I wear high heels, Suspendies, and a bra. I wish I'd been a girlie, Just like my dear Papa. MOUNTIES: He cuts down trees. He wears high heels, Suspendies, and a bra?! [talking] What's this? Wants to be a girlie?! Oh, My! And I thought you were so rugged! Poofter! [singing] He's a lumberjack, and he's okay. He sleeps all night and he works all day. He's a lumberjack, and he's okaaaaay. He sleeps all night and he works all day.

• ... That is the most bizarre thing I've ever read.
• You were right!
• Or perhaps instead of buttered scones he has shepherd's pie.

The stage revival (which was staged as Toby's story in the asylum) was directed by the Marquis de Sade.

The revival had the play being told by Toby while in an asylum, with the other characters being performed by inmates. As we know from the play Marat/Sade, this is the sort of thing the Marquis did when he was put away, directing the other patients in various plays. In addition to directing, in this case he also made many changes to the script - the original story was probably a wholesome romance where a man lost at sea must win back his family who have presumed him dead for many years, with the help of the kindly baker woman who lived next door.

The Toby from the concert performance (played by Neil Patrick Harris) is an alternate universe version of Doctor Horrible.

Not only do they look the same, but both shared a similar sweet but neurotic personality, both were hopeless romantics, and both became crazed and murderous after the woman they love was killed by her boyfriend.

• Or Billy is his Identical Grandson.

Benjamin Barker's birth name was Todd Sweeney.

He changed it when he went to London to make his fortune and find the girl of his dreams. After his severe disillusionment, losing both, he changed his name back to a reversal of the name that best represented his former youthful naivete.

• • Actually, is it ever clarified anywhere why he'd pick that as a particular pseudonym?
    • I've only seen it explained in fanfic. Theories include (a) his mother's maiden name was Sweeney or Todd, (b) Lucy's maiden name was Sweeney or Todd, (c) he had childhood friends with those names, (d) he had fellow prisoners with those names, and (e) he picked Todd because Tod is German for death and he wanted to be threatening and stuff. I've also heard that the name Sweeney could reflect anti-Irish sentiment on the part of the penny dreadful authors/urban myth spreaders. Personally, I think he used the names of his first pet (Sweeney the goldfish) and the first street where he lived (Todd Lane).
      • B-but "Tod" isn't pronounced that way! (Not like a quasi-Victorian English native could tell.) I'd buy the anti-Irish sentiment theory, and/or the fellow prisoners one. (This troper's roleplaying partner took the cellmates theory and ran with it... by having at least one of them be a crazy prison rapist. Fun tiems.)
        • I've heard the anti-Irish theory also with an interesting twist. I have no idea where I heard this, but the argument is Sweeney is just as stereotypically Irish name as Sawney is to Scots. Thus, it alludes to Sawney Bean, the subject of another urban legend who supposedly ran a family of cannibals.
          • Sawney Bean is mentioned in the special features in the DVD of Tim Burton's version, and it seemed quite obvious that there was a connection there by way of names. Derived from it's Irish spelling, "Suibne" was also an epithet meaning "pleasant", so adding that to the German "Tod"...(This troper was the roleplay partner with the crazy rapist cellmate theory) Though I'm fond of the goldfish idea. Pleasant deadly goldfish.
          • So Sweeney Todd is Ben Baker's "Pornstar Name"?
            • Damn straight it is. And now, fetch the brain bleach.
    • "Sweeney" was Victorian slang for "Irish barber." It was a slur at first, but they (as a group) then reclaimed it, so by the time Benjamin Barker came back, it simply meant "barber." So, really, he only chose the name Todd.
    • Most likely whoever Benjamin Barker was based on in reality never chose the name Sweeney Todd, rather it was a nickname the people who spread the horror story gave him.

Johanna's on a direct trajectory to craziness herself.

• There's the likelihood of some mental illness from her father's side of the family, fifteen years being taken care of by a corrupt judge with an unwholesome interest in her innocence, a spate in that most comforting of places, the nineteenth century madhouse, an attempt on her life, and the discovery of a serial killer. Who was her dad, who killed her mom, who herself was a mentally ill beggar and prostitute for those fifteen years. And of course, the discovery of a Torture Cellar filled with bits of people in meat grinders. Just the fact that she goes off with Anthony doesn't insure their happy ending lasts. Given just how little time she spent with him, she probably would have jumped on any chance to get out of the Judge's care.

Toby was developing an Oedipal Complex.

This one pretty much goes without explaining.

Sweeney Todd is not Benjamen Barker.

The two men met on the ship to Australia and were dumped off in the wilderness together as prisoners often were. Once there, Barker caught some sort of deadly disease and passed away after telling Todd about his family and his razors and his need for revenge. Todd, being an insane murderer anyway, decides that he could avenge Barker's family for him, and then goes to London to do just that.

• Also, they look just enough alike that the already crazy Mrs. Lovett can immediately draw the conclusion that he's Barker.
  • Pirelli recognized the razors, and Todd practically forced Turpin to realize that he was Barker.

The story isn't true, being told by an Unreliable Narrator

In the revival, the play is being show as the story Toby tells when confined in an asylum after the events of the play. In this case, it's possible that Toby killed the customers himself, and invented Todd as an alternate personality he now can't tell the difference between. Alternately, Todd existed and killed people, but was just a motiveless sociopath; Toby invented a tragic backstory for him because he couldn't stand the idea of so many people (including the woman he loved) being killed for no reason.

The Reason Lucy was at the Dock...

For the rest of the play, the Beggar Woman haunts Fleet Street and the street in front of Judge Turpin's house - understandable, as those are sights of great emotional importance to her. One is her old home, the other is the sight of her worst trauma. But why is she at the Dock? Why just that one day? She told herself - or Mrs. Lovett told her, to soothe her - that her husband wasn't deported for life, but just for fifteen years. Even in her madness, she clung to that idea. So when fifteen years had passed, she started waiting at the docks for him to return. When she saw Todd, she recognized him vaguely, and followed him "home."

• Or she was there cause docks are a good place for prostitutes to find work. She did follow Sweeney home after she recognized him, but really, she was just looking at the prisoner ship because she figured most of them hadn't seen all too many women in Botany Bay.

Pirelli threw the challenge Todd presented to him.

As soon as he recognized Todd's/Barker's blades he knew in order to get Todd into a false sense of security by dismissing him as a minor threat. If he had actually tried he could have beaten Todd, having watched his technique for quite some time so he had learnt the tricks of the trade. Once he had given Todd the five pounds that was his bet he knew he would be getting it back as soon as he was able to extort Todd for half of his income for the rest of his life.

Mrs. Lovett poisoned Lucy herself.

To get Sweeney Todd. She always had a feeling he'd come back. And She HAD to get rid of the bystander, she just TOLD Todd that so she'd still have favor in his eyes.

• In the light of the guess immediately above, this means that Mrs. Lovett was envious of everything Lucy had that she didn't, family- and probably lifestyle-wise, not just Benjamin.

Benjamin Barker wasn't just a barber...

(going with the Burton film version of both Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street & Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]...on the side, he was a candy-maker. He figured that he could make extra money pulling the teeth of those who indulged in too much of his chocolate. Plus, he worked to make his relationship with Toby to mirror that of his relationship with Charlie.

Benjamin Barker/Sweeney Todd was an Assassin.

His cover was that of a barber, and he tended to use the razors he had for his cover as weapons during his assassination missions. He wasn't transported to Australia on a trumped up charge, but rather because of a series of high profile assassinations, or at least attempts. His wits were snapped when he was in Australia, and when he came back was stark raving mad. So, what happens when an Assassin goes mad? Bloodbath.

Mrs. Lovett is the reason Lucy wound up in Bedlam.

Think about it: in "Poor Thing" she describes Lucy as being a "Silly little nit/had her chance/with the world on a string." So we know she's jealous of Lucy, coveted Benjamin, and pretty much thinks that Lucy should have just done the dirty with the Judge to appease him ("But did she come down from her tower?/Sat up there and sulked by the hour"). So she also thinks that Lucy thought herself too good for such a thing.

In "Final Scene" Lucy tells Todd to beware of Mrs. Lovett, "She with no pity in her heart." She's constantly calling Mrs. Lovett evil. And Mrs. Lovett says that Lucy "Should've been in a hospital/Wound up in Bedlam instead!" If Mrs. Lovett was taking care of Lucy (or at least Johanna, as she knows that all Lucy's done is lie in bed for weeks) then who else could have sent Lucy to Bedlam?

• Judge Turpin arrives on the scene hopeful Lucy has finally come to her senses. Instead he discovers she is now raving mad and no longer of use to him. He orders Beadle Bamford to take Lucy to Bedlam and repossess all of the Barkers belongings. However, recognizing a resemblance between the young Joanna and her mother he decides to adopt her as a ward until she comes of age...

Mrs Lovett stands idly by and protects only Benjamin's razors hopeful that with the wife and child out of the way if he ever returns she can have him for herself.

The razors are Artifacts Of Doom.

• The razors either cause the people around them to become evil, attract trouble, or has a thirst for blood. Possibly all three. First, the razors corrupt Daniel Higgins, causing him to become a child-beating con man. Without any power to get Benjamin to commit evil acts, it brings Lucy to the Judge's attention. After being stuffed into hiding, it corrupts Mrs. Lovett until she becomes a manipulative, lovesick woman. When Barker returns, its power grows with each life it cuts down. However, when Sweeney kills the Judge, he declares that the razor can finally rest, said razor panics. It gets Sweeney to kill Mrs. Lovett before using already-corrupted Toby to kill Sweeney, possibly repeating the process later on.