Texts
Sweeney Todd, or A String of Pearls
Editor: Robert Mack
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 3, 2007)
This is a very early version, in novel form - or more accurately, in the penny-dreadful genre, that was used as the basis for the plays that followed. It was first published, as a serial, in 1846 - 47.
There are a great many characters (and settings) in this version that disappear as the story of Sweeney Todd evolves.
Sweeney Todd
Publisher: Wildside Press (December 13, 2004)
Sweeney Todd becomes a play. Dibden Pitt's version, edited by Marvin Kaye.
Several other authors had attempted play versions but these were not well received.
Christopher Bond's version of Sweeney Todd: A Melodrama (1973) became the basis for Sondheim and Wheeler's musical version.
Following standard melodramatic conventions, George Dibdin-Pitt's play of the Sweeney tale contains shocks, thrills and several false endings. Constantly lurking about and cackling, the demon barber eludes capture and escapes at the brink of doom on nine different occasions. (PBS:Sweeney Todd)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Applause Musical Library)
Publisher: Applause Books (May 1, 2000)
Based on Christopher Bond's retelling of the Victorian pennydreadful The String of Pearls, (which was itself a retelling of a British myth, possibly rooted in truth) this musical (with a book by Hugh Wheeler) tells the tale of Sweeney Todd, a murderous barber, and his partner in crime, Nellie Lovett, a baker who disposes of the bodies by baking them into her pies. Meanwhile, Anthony Hope, a sailor who saved Todd's life, falls in love with Todd's estranged daughter, Johanna, who is being brought up as the ward of the twisted Judge Turpin. Includes the songs "Not While I'm Around," "Pretty Women," and "A Little Priest." (Sondheim.com)
Movie Versions
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Broadway) (Keepcase) (1983)
Actors: Tod Slaughter, Stella Rho, John Singer, Eve Lister, Bruce Seton
Directors: George King
Originally Released: 1936
DVD Release: 2004
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Broadway) (Keepcase) (1983)
Actors: Angela Lansbury, George Hearn
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Release Date: April 15, 2008
Run Time: 140 minutes
(N.B. you must be signed into youTube in order to see this video - it has been flagged as adult content.)
Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Actors: Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Edward Sanders, Timothy Spall
Director: Tim Burton
Studio: Dreamworks Video
DVD Release Date: April 1, 2008
Run Time: 116 minutes
This is the most recent rendition of Sweeney Todd - and the one most people are perhaps most likely to be familiar with. Me, I found it very, very dark - I prefer the Sondheim musical with Lansbury.