Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’: Behind the Bloody Musical Masterpiece

Journalist Pender (The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia) takes a soup-to-nuts look at the 1979 musical Sweeney Todd, arguing that it is “one of the greatest works of onstage horror, comedy, and tragedy.” He explores the history behind the narrative, finding the story’s earliest oral versions in 13th-century Paris, before it was written up in Britain’s penny dreadfuls, serialized by Edward Lloyd in The String of Pearls between 1846 and 1847, and made into multiple stage adaptations, including the 1968 Christopher Bond play that inspired Stephen Sondheim. According to Pender, Sondheim’s characters cut against the “heartwarming or redeemable musical theater” stereotypes “that audiences were used to finding on Broadway stages” and, combined with Sondheim’s cinematic use of underscoring, made the production a revolutionary addition to the genre. The author explores the making of the original Tony-winning Broadway show (including the creation of its “romantic, sophisticated score”), its critical reception (garnering “initially mixed reviews”), and such later adaptations as Tim Burton’s 2007 film starring Johnny Depp. The book’s profusion of trivia and lists of actors, productions, and scores will discourage cover-to-cover reading but please theater aficionados hungry for behind-the-scenes detail. The result is an informative tribute to one of Sondheim’s most memorable productions. (Oct.)