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Director: Tim Burton
Stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a Tony Award-winning musical with a book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical is based on the 19th century legend of Sweeney Todd and specifically upon the 1973 play by Christopher Bond.
Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway at the Uris Theatre on March 1, 1979. The musical played for 577 performances. The story centers on the character of Sweeney Todd, formerly known as Benjamin Barker, who returns from the penal colonies in Australia, where he has spent fifteen years on false charges. When he learns from Mrs. Lovett, whose meat pies are the worst in London, that his wife poisoned herself after being raped by Judge Turpin (the man who wrongly imprisoned him), and that his daughter is the ward of the same Judge Turpin, he vows revenge. The two become conspirators in a dark plot that results in mass murder, booming business for Lovett's shop, and ultimately tragedy.
 Synopsis
Act I Anthony Hope rides a ship into London. Despite Hope's enthusiasm his friend and shipmate Sweeney Todd is grim and uneasy. As they prepare to part, Todd tells a tragic story about a young and naïve barber with a beautiful and virtuous wife and the lustful judge who exiled him to covet her.
Todd finds his old apartment in a building above a meat-pie shop on Fleet Street, where he encounters the shop's proprietress, Mrs. Lovett, who complains about her competition, her own pitiful pies and her hard economic times. She sings the sad tale of the upstairs apartment's previous tenant, a barber named Benjamin Barker, whose wife was raped by the lecherous Judge Turpin and his corrupt cohort, the Beadle. She reveals how the Judge sent Barker to prison on a trumped-up charge; how his unhappy wife poisoned herself and how Barker's infant daughter, Johanna, became a ward of the Judge. Mrs. Lovett quickly realizes that Sweeney is the same barber. She shows Todd up to his former apartment, revealing his collection of sterling silver razors she has kept hidden for years.
In another scene, Anthony Hope notices a girl singing at a window; a half-mad beggar woman tells him that the girl is Johanna, the Judge's ward. Anthony is immediately smitten and pledges to woo her, but the Judge and Beadle threaten him off. Meanwhile in the crowded marketplace, renowned Italian barber Adolfo Pirelli and his drum-beating tout, Tobias, pitch a cure-all for hair loss. Sweeney, after exposing the elixir as fraudulent, challenges Pirelli to a shaving competition and wins. Sweeney invites the Beadle, who acts as the judge of the competition, to visit his parlor for a complimentary shave. Later, as Todd impatiently waits for the Beadle's arrival, Mrs. Lovett urges patience, just as Pirelli appears and reveals that he has learned Todd's true identity and threatens to blackmail Todd. Rather than pay Pirelli off, Todd slits his throat and kills him.
Across town, Judge Turpin is tormented by his lust for his ward Johanna and announces to Beadle that he intends to marry her. Disgusted by the prospect, Anthony and Johanna plot an elopement, while Beadle, accompanying his master, suggests that Turpin visit Todd's barbershop to improve his appearance to better win Johanna's affections. Turpin agrees and visits Todd's shop, where an eager Todd prepares to exact his revenge. Before he can kill Turpin however, Anthony barges in to tell Todd about his planned elopement with Johanna, accidentally informing the outraged Judge, who curses Todd for conspiring against him before storming out of his parlor. Todd, in his fury, descends into utter madness and broadens the target of his vengeance to all of society. Mrs. Lovett concludes that Pirelli's body will not be Todd's last victim and suggests they use the meat of Todd's victims in her pies Act II Mrs. Lovett's pie-shop thrives with its new menu, with enough money to hire Pirelli's old assistant, Tobias. The new system between Todd and Mrs. Lovett allows Todd to kill someone in his parlor and send the body through a chute directly into the basement of the pie-house. Anthony's fortunes are not so bright, as Johanna has disappeared, and over the weeks Todd accustoms himself to the idea that he may never see Johanna again.
Anthony discovers the Judge has committed Johanna to an asylum and with Todd's help infiltrates the asylum as a wigmaker intent on purchasing inmates' hair. Unbeknownst to Anthony, Todd sends a letter to the judge notifying him of Anthony's intent to kidnap Johanna and her professed love for Turpin, hopeful of luring the judge to his shop. Meanwhile in the pie-shop, Tobias begins to suspect that Todd is up to no good, and so Mrs. Lovett locks him in the bakehouse under the pretext of teaching him how to grind meat. As she leaves, she encounters the Beadle, commissioned by the neighbors to investigate the thick black smoke and strange smells from the pie-shop's chimney. Together, he and Mrs. Lovett wait for Todd, who arrives and offers Beadle the promised free shave. In the basement, Tobias is grinding meat when the corpse of Beadle tumbles down the chute. Horrified, he tries to escape but realizes that he is locked in.
Anthony infiltrates the Asylum and frees Johanna, and they both flee to Todd's parlor. Anthony leaves Johanna there to chart their escape when the Beggar Woman appears, and Johanna hides. Todd discovers the Beggar Woman in his parlor as she desperately tries to warn him about Mrs. Lovett. As Judge Turpin arrives, Todd frantically slits the Beggar Woman's throat and sends her down the chute before Turpin can see her. The judge asks for a shave. Todd reveals his identity to the judge and slits his throat. As Todd leaves the parlor to kill Tobias, Johanna emerges from her hiding place. Todd catches her and is about to slit her throat too when he hears Mrs. Lovett screaming from the bakehouse below.
In the bakehouse, Mrs. Lovett struggles with the still-living Judge, who finally dies, before becoming distraught at the sight of the dead Beggar Woman. Todd bursts into the bakehouse and seeing the Beggar Woman in the light, realizes that she is his wife Lucy, whom he believed was dead. Todd furiously accuses Mrs. Lovett of deceiving him. Mrs. Lovett confesses the truth to Sweeney but insists that she never lied, that Lucy had indeed taken poison, but it did not kill her—it drove her insane. Todd calms Mrs. Lovett and begins to waltz with her, proclaiming his love for her, his voice rising in contempt and hatred before waltzing her over to the oven and throwing her inside, latching the door behind her. As the flames consume her, Todd, distraught at the cost of his vengeance, sinks to the floor and cradles his beloved wife in his arms. Tobias enters and stumbles towards the tractable barber, killing him with his own razor.
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