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Sweeney Todd: Fleet Street
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Sweeney Todd made his first appearance in a tale entitled The String of Pearls: A Romance, published in penny part serial form in Edward Lloyd's The People's Periodical and Family Library, issues 7-24, November 21, 1846 to March 20, 1847. This story was probably written by James Malcolm Rymer though Thomas Peckett Prest has ... been credited with it. Other attributions include Edward P. Hingston, George Macfarren and Albert Richard Smith.[6][7]In February/March 1847, before the serial was even completed, The String of Pearls was adapted as a melodrama by George Dibden Pitt for the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton. It was in this alternative version of the tale, rather than the original, that Todd acquired his catchphrase: "I'll polish him off".[8]Another, lengthier, penny part serial was published by Lloyd from 1847/8, with 92 episodes and published in book form in 1850 as The String of Pearls with the subtitle "The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance". This expanded version of the story was 732 pages in length.[9]
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Based on Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical about Sweeney Todd, a man unjustly sent to prison, who vows revenge not only for that cruel punishment but for the devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he returns to reopen his barber shop, he becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who "shaved the heads of gentleman who never thereafter were heard from again."
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In Victorian England, a vengeful Sweeney Todd has just been released from jail for a crime he did not commit. With his dazzlingly demented accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, the "demon barber of Fleet Street" cooks up a hilariously macabre revenge scheme in this crafty, comedic, and captivating musical, which stars Broadway favorites and Tony Award winners Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kiss Me, Kate, Ragtime, King Hedley II) and Christine Baranski (The Real Thing, Rumors, TV's "Cybill"). The show won eight 1979 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and ... captured the 1979 Grammy for best cast album.
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A film review in Weekend on Dec. 21 about “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” referred imprecisely to the story on which the film is based. It was originally serialized in Britain in the 1840s, and was the basis of a play written by Christopher Bond and of Hugh Wheeler’s book for the stage musical. While Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for the musical, from which the film was adapted, the story is not his.
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Forty-five years after the crime spree, Thomas Peckett Prest adapted the story of Sweeney into a serial entitled "The String of Pearls: A Romance" published in The People's Periodical and Family Library. Beginning in November 1846, the story stretched across eighteen episodes in this penny newspaper printed appropriately on Fleet Street. The convoluted plot concerns a string of pearls which disappears along with its bearer in the vicinity of 186 Fleet Street. Miss Joanna Oakley, the intended recipient of the pearls, contacts the police when she fears foul play. Through various clues and horrifying discoveries, the police finally conclude that over the years Sweeney had been killing his customers for the money they had on them. To dispose of their remains, he carried them through underground tunnels to Mrs. Lovett's bakery a few blocks away where they have supplied the stuffing for her meat pies.
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Academy Award nominated screenwriter John Logan ("Gladiator," "The Aviator") has emerged as one the industry's leading film screenwriters over the last decade with credits that include the critically acclaimed "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." His additional credits include "Any Given Sunday," "RKO 281" and "The Last Samurai."
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