Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street premiered on Broadway at the Uris Theatre on March 1, 1979, directed by Harold Prince. The published libretto and vocal score appeared from Dodd, Mead (book) and Revelation Music/Tommy Valando (score). The show won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Benjamin Barker, a London barber, is transported to a penal colony on a false charge by Judge Turpin, who covets Barker’s wife. Fifteen years later, Barker returns to London as “Sweeney Todd,” discovers that his wife poisoned herself and his daughter is Turpin’s ward, and begins systematically murdering men in his barber’s chair. Mrs. Lovett, who occupies the shop below, suggests disposing of the bodies by baking them into meat pies — which become enormously popular.
Sondheim’s score is his most through-composed: virtually no spoken dialogue, the music continuous, ranging from operatic ensembles (“The Ballad of Sweeney Todd”) to comic patter songs (“A Little Priest”) to devastating ballads (“Not While I’m Around”). The work has been produced by opera companies as often as by musical theater companies — a testament to its musical ambition and vocal demands.
Collecting Sweeney Todd
First edition libretto (Dodd, Mead, New York, 1979): Hardcover with dust jacket.
Original cast recording (RCA Victor, 1979): Double LP.
Market values:
- First edition libretto, fine/fine: $40–$100
- Original cast LP, sealed: $50–$150
- Signed by Sondheim: $200–$600