Issue du folklore anglais, « Sweeney Todd » raconte l'histoire morbide d'un barbier, Benjamin Barker, condamné au XIXème siècle à tort au bagne par un juge corrompu en Australie, d'où il s'évade quinze ans plus tard. Décidé à retrouver sa femme et son enfant, il retourne en Angleterre sous le nom de Sweeney Todd, mais découvre que le fameux juge est sur le point d'épouser sa fille ! Désespéré, il plonge peu à peu dans la folie et décide de prendre sa vengeance. Se met alors en place un monstrueux carnage… Avec la collaboration de Madame Lovett, amoureuse de lui depuis toujours, il tranche la gorge de ses clients, pendant qu'elle accommode les corps dans ses fameuses tourtes à la viande.

Dans ce film d'horreur britannique de 1936, un barbier londonien qui tue ses clients pour les dépouiller est prêt à tout pour conquérir la fille d'un riche gouverneur.

In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession.

A general making-of piece featuring principal members of the cast and crew. A brief history of the demon barber is provided, as well as the actors' preparation for their singing roles and glimpses of the set design and general production.

A barber, unjustly sentenced to prison in exile by a lascivious judge, returns to London in 1846 with a new identity and swearing revenge. No one is waiting for him, and he ends up rebuilding his life alongside the pastry chef Mrs. Lovett, who prepares some peculiar meat pies.

In July of 2001, the concert edition of Stephen Sondheim's Broadway masterpiece, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, was presented at San Francisco's famed Davies Symphony Hall, with Patti LuPone and George Hearn starring. The world-class San Francisco Symphony, under the direction of Rob Fisher, provided the accompaniment for this powerful, sold-out concert.

Murder, mayhem and the ultimate revenge. Stephen Sondheim's macabre musical masterpiece comes back to life in this bold new production, starring Bryn Terfel and Academy Award winner Emma Thompson.

Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim at the Adelphi Theatre, West End, London in 2012.

April 2011 at the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris) Stephen Sondheim’s adaptation of the macabre musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.