Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1979 musical thriller with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. The musical is based on the 1973 play "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" by Christopher Bond. "Sweeney Todd" opened on Broadway in 1979 and in the West End in 1980. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Olivier Award for Best New Musical. It has since had numerous revivals as well as a . The character of Sweeney Todd had its origins
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street of the story. In the play, Sweeney Todd’s mental collapse and the subsequent plan for Lovett's meat pies take place in less than half a page of dialogue, much too quickly to convey the full psychological impact, in the view of scholar Larry A. Brown. Sondheim's version more carefully reveals the developing ideas in Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett's demented minds. Sondheim has often said that his "Sweeney Todd" was about obsession – and close friends seemed to instinctually agree. When Sondheim first played songs from an early version of the show for Judy Prince (wife of the show's director),