Sweeney Todd Napoleonic Wars as a barber surgeon. In rhyming slang, Sweeney Todd is the Flying Squad (a branch of the UK's Metropolitan Police), which inspired the television series "The Sweeney". 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
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Andrew Glover during the New Zealand tour), David Rogers-Smith as Adolfo Pirelli (replaced by Robert Tucker in New Zealand), Ross Hannaford as Tobias Ragg (replaced by Joel Grainger in New Zealand), Blake Bowden as Anthony Hope (replaced James Benjamin Rodgers in New Zealand), Amelia Berry as Johanna, Dimity Shepherd as the Beggar Woman (replaced by Helen Medlyn in New Zealand), and Jeremy Kleeman as Jonas Fogg. The first opera company to mount "Sweeney Todd" was the Houston Grand Opera in a production directed by Hal Prince, which ran from June 14, 1984 through June 24, 1984 for a total