This complex piece by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and Hugh Wheeler (book) is based on Christopher Bond’s retelling of the Victorian pennydreadful “The String of Pearls”. In Victorian England, a vengeful Sweeney Todd has just returned to London having escaped from imprisonment in Australia for a crime he did not commit. With his dazzlingly demented accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, the “Demon Barber of Fleet Street” cooks up a macabre revenge scheme in this crafty, comedic, and captivating musical. The characters possess a moral ambiguity that gives them a depth and richness more readily associated with straight drama than the black and white world of musical theatre, and the production personifies the very essence and function of good theatre - to challenge and entertain us.
We are grateful to the Prince Phillip Trust Fund for their support with this production.