Musical theater is not exactly the natural place to find a Horror show. Drama and Comedy come naturally to musica ltheater, but Horror? Not so much. That changed when in the late 20th century, a bold new musical was staged. The story it told had its origins in one of the many Penny Dreadful serials - popular in Victorian London – called “A String of Pearls.” The story told of a murderous barber who had an accomplice who baked his victims’ remains into meat pies. “A String of Pearls” was so popular, it was turned into a stage play before the serial even ran its course and the lead character’s fate was revealed. Over 100 years later, in 1979, titan of the theater, Stephen Sondheim and his book writer, Hugh Wheeler, had a smash success with their Horror musical telling the story of the same Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In 2007, revered director of the Gothic, Tim Burton, adapted it for film. That film, and stage musical, was SWEENEY TODD.
The film begins with Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) arriving in London after fifteen years in exile. He was falsely accused and exiled by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who lusted after Benjamin’s wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly). Upon Benjamin’s return to Fleet Street, he adopts the alias Sweeney Todd and re-opens his barber shop above the meat-pie shop of Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham-Carter). After discovering that his wife swallowed arsenic and his daughter, Johanna (Jayne Wisener) is now the ward of Turpin himself, Todd vows revenge. After brutally dispatching a talented, fake Italian barber named Adolfo Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen), Todd develops a taste for murder and gleefully kills customer after customer – relying on Mrs. Lovett to dispatch the bodies in her now-popular meat pies.
Aside from the wonderful source material - both Sondheim’s and the Penny Dreadful - SWEENEY TODD boasts the signature Gothic style Tim Burton has wielded for his entire career. Victorian London is depicted grimly and unsentimentally while still retaining a playfully Gothic vibe. When the blue and grey color palate employed by cinematographer Dariusz Wolski while focusing on Sweeney gives way to bright lighting and color for our happier and lighter characters, it is a jarring effect that reinforces just how alienated and broken Sweeney really is. He may have returned to London, but he never really came back. When the murders begin, the blood is an almost unbearably bright red – as if the shedding of blood is the only thing real to Sweeney any more. The lurching production design by Dante Ferretti looms over Sweeney like the oppressive weight of the past that London now is to him. The look of this film is simply sublime.
It is the performances that will make or break any musical, however, and SWEENEY TODD delivers there, as well. Johnny Depp, while always reliable as a leading man, is surprisingly able as a musical lead. His voice has a power that one might not expect. Helena Bonham-Carter also does an admirable job. Sacha Baron Cohen is superb in his brief, but hilarious role, and the great Alan Rickman slithers marvelously as our villain. The supporting cast delivers at every turn, as well. This is a cast every bit as worthy as any of the many stage casts put forward for this musical on Broadway.
The film, like the stage show, was a rousing success. The box office take reached well into blockbuster status, and critics were generous in praise of the film – and Johnny Depp’s performance in particular, which earned him an Oscar nomination. The film was also nominated for its costume design and it won for its Art Direction. If the stage show proved that the Horror musical can work if done right, then the film SWEENEY TODD also proves that cinematic audiences and critics will embrace it as well. Let’s hope there are many more to come.
SWEENEY TODD fun facts – Helena Bonham Carter was pregnant at the time of filming. Because the film was shot out of sequence, the size of her breasts change noticeably throughout the movie.
The food stylist for the film, Katherine Tidy, estimated that she made roughly 600 pies for the film.
Sacha Baron Cohen sang the entire musical “Fiddler on the Roof” as his audition for the role of Pirelli.
Sweeney’s look was based on Dave Vanian - singer for the pioneering Goth band, The Damned.
Sweeney – (holding a razor) “At last my arm is complete again!”
Mrs. Lovett - “You see, years ago, something happened up there. Something not very nice.”
Sweeny – “There was a barber and his wife and she was beautiful…”
Pirelli – …and I, the so famous Pirelli, I wish-a to know who has-a the nerve-a to say my elixir is piss! Who says this?