Sweeney Todd "I'll polish him off". Lloyd published another, lengthier, penny part serial from 1847–48, with 92 episodes. It was then published in book form in 1850 as "The String of Pearls", subtitled "The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance". This expanded version of the story was 732 pages long. A plagiarised version of this book appeared in the United States c. 1852–53 as "Sweeney Todd: or the Ruffian Barber. A Tale of Terror of the Seas and the Mysteries of the City" by "Captain Merry" (a pseudonym for American author Harry Hazel, 1814–89). In 1865 the French novelist Paul H.C.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street That's what the play's about to him; Sweeney Todd is a product of that age. I think it's not. Sweeney Todd is a man bent on personal revenge, the way we all are in one way or another, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the time he lived in, as far as I'm concerned.” When it came to casting, Sondheim thought stage veteran Angela Lansbury would add some needed comedy to the grim tale as the lunatic Cockney shopkeeper, but Lansbury needed to be convinced. She was a star by the late 1970s, and, as she pointed out