Jessica McManness
American Musical Theater
Mr. Holdren
19 October 2014
An Analysis of Sweeney Todd and His Mental Collapse The curtain first rose for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street on Broadway in 1979 (“Sondheim”). Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics with Hugh Wheeler responsible for the book (“Sondheim”). The musical tells the story of a barber named Benjamin Barker, a man with a beautiful wife and daughter who is banished from London by the lustful Judge Turpin. After 15 long years, he returns to London on a ship with young sailor, Anthony Hope, in the hopes of finding them. The tale goes on to show Sweeney’s mental decline as he struggles to avenge the life stolen from him, his wife’s suicide, and his daughter’s …show more content…
After the return of his razors, there’s an important glimpse of both feeling and foreshadowing in “My Friends”. In regard to the emotion behind the song, these knives are poetic symbols of the life he once had, or the only friends he has left from that time in his life (Burns). Because of that connection, this song comes off a bit eerie and the viewer is left already questioning his mental state, “How he smiles in the light / my faithful friend / I know you’ve been locked / out of sight / all these years, like me (Sondheim).” And finally towards the end of the scene, he sings his initial intent to avenge his loved ones deaths, “Friends / You shall drip rubies / You’ll soon drip precious… rubies (Sondheim).” Sweeney is already being set up for the massive mental break …show more content…
The song “City on Fire” builds the crazed and chaotic energy towards a hugely impactful ending. Sweeney is in his shop, waiting for Judge Turpin to come inquire after Johanna. The beggar woman comes in and once again asks him, “Don’t I know you sir (Sondheim)?” In his rush and anxious excitement over the judge coming up to see him, he kills the woman. However, hers is the only death that is not marked by a shrill whistle or screech, because she (his wife) was already dead to him. It leads the viewer to feel pity for Todd and wonder what would have happened had he not made the choices he did. The judge comes in and they sing a couple lines of “Pretty Women” when Sweeney finally tells him his true identity, “I suppose / The face of a barber / The face of a prisoner in the dock / Is not a particularly memorable one / Benjamin Barker (Sondheim)!” He kills the judge and gets his ‘ultimate revenge’. This moment he had been building towards is powerful in itself, and no words are necessary. In the final sequence of the musical, a particular line from “A Little Priest” is once again brought up by Sweeney. Previously mentioned