Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the Victorian penny dreadful serial "The String of Pearls" (1846–47). The tale became a staple of Victorian melodrama and London urban legend, and has been retold many times since, most notably in the Tony award–winning by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler. Claims that Sweeney Todd was a historical person are strongly disputed by scholars, although possible legendary prototypes exist. In the original version of the tale, Todd is a barber who dispatches his victims by pulling a lever as they sit in his barber chair.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street horror themes, such as "The Phantom of the Opera" (1986), "Jekyll & Hyde" (1997), "Little Shop of Horrors" (1982) and "Dance of the Vampires" (1997), which used the description of the trend, "grusical", as its commercial label. Theatre critic and author Martin Gottfried wrote on this subject: "Does so much singing make it an opera? Opera is not just a matter of everything being sung. There is an operatic kind of music, of singing, of staging. There are opera audiences, and there is an opera sensibility. There are opera "houses". "Sweeney Todd" has its occasional operatic moments, but its music