Sweeney Todd "Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays". A scholarly, annotated edition of the original 1846–47 serial was published in volume form in 2007 by the Oxford University Press under the title of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", edited by Robert Mack. The original story of Sweeney Todd quite possibly stems from an older urban legend, originally based on dubious pie-fillings. In Charles Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" (1836–37), the servant Sam Weller says that a pieman used cats "for beefsteak, veal and kidney, 'cording to the demand", and recommends that people should buy pies only "when you know the lady as
Not While I'm Around (Sweeney Todd) "tender and haunting", noting that street urchin Tobias "becomes, for a moment, her surrogate son". Reviewing the 2007 film, "Rolling Stone" wrote "[Helena] Bonham Carter evokes chills in 'Not While I'm Around,' a ballad of devotion she croons to her young apprentice, Toby, just before she arranges his demise". The scoresheet website JW Pepper wrote "This unforgettable ballad from "Sweeney Todd" will create a moment of tenderness in your concert". "The New York Times" wrote (of a regional stage production): "The contrast of lush ballads and menacing circumstances...occurs with 'Pretty Women,' sung by Sweeney and Judge Turpin, and 'Not While