Attend the tale...

For those who may have lived under a rock, or not kept up with the times and popular movie releases, you may not be aware that Tim Burton’s latest creation, the adaptation of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, will be let loose as of December 21st – just in time for Christmas.

If you aren’t already aware of the background of the story, or if you simply don’t like musicals and have shied away from Sweeney Todd because it is in that genre, I assure you, you are missing out. After all, as Johnny Depp pointed out when signing onto the project “How many chances do you get at a musical about a serial killer?”

The character of Sweeney Todd, at least the one re-created by Stephen Sondheim, is the epitome of the anti-hero. Not only is he wronged by society repeatedly, he gives way to letting go his own humanity and the sheen of civility that keeps most all human beings in check, subsequently following through with base human instincts of revenge and personal justice.

The basic premise of the story is simple. A young successful barber, Benjamin Barker by name, is married to a lovely young woman named Lucy. They have a small child, barely a year old, and life is good. However, a judge covets Barker’s wife from afar and hatches a plan with his sergeant (known as the Beatle) to arrest Barker on trumped up charges and deporting him to Australia for life. As this leaves Lucy without a protector and with a one-year old child also to take care of, the judge hopes that this will cause Lucy to turn to him for assistance – which he will give, in the way of marriage. One thing leads to another and when we next see anything, it’s a much changed, harsher-looking, darker Barker, now sailing home under then name Sweeney Todd, attempting to find his lost wife and child and somehow get his life back in order… As well as contemplating getting even with the judge.

It is discovered that Lucy is nowhere to be found, and his child is being raised by the judge himself as his ward. It is then that Todd’s mind, fragile as it was when he arrived back in London, shatters. Not only was he taken from his life by corrupt forces, but when he comes back to attempt to reclaim it somehow, he finds it impossible – and the corrupt judge has taken his daughter from him as well, and raised her almost as his own.

Todd decides then and there that he will exact full revenge on the judge and the Beatle, and make sure that anyone getting in his way of doing so will suffer the same fate. Obviously, this is not a happily ever after musical, but instead one that will fulfill an audience’s lust for blood, vengeance and an insane justice.

There are interesting side quirks to Todd, throughout the play. He slides from almost pure madness, to cold calculation, to almost perfect sanity, depending on his mood and the situation. There are also times when dark humor bubbles up and takes over, causing the audience to groan with bad puns and laugh with his witty comebacks. While we can see that he no longer has the mental capacity to function in society properly, we cannot help but sympathize with the situation: how many of us have wanted to simply let go of our personal self-limiting based on right and wrong and simply go after someone for what they’ve done to us, real or imagined?

Sweeney Todd is, as I mentioned, not a happily-ever-after play. Not even close. Happily-ever-after would be that he was saved at the last minute prior to being shipped off in the first place, rejoined with his family, and the judge, found to be corrupt, was placed on the boat in Todd’s spot.

Another happily-ever-after scene would be him coming back after being shipped off, finding that his wife and daughter had somehow managed to make their way through the years waiting for him, and finding that the judge had been executed for repeated corruption.

No, instead, he knows instinctively that his decision to seek revenge upon both the judge and the Beatle will not end happily – it will have satisfaction, but no happiness. Todd carries with him an air of resigned acceptance that, once he has fulfilled his revenge, he will die, most likely horribly.

It is an interesting character, and one that I have repeatedly enjoyed watching bloom across the screen and stage each time. I cannot wait to see Johnny Depp and Tim Burton’s adaptation of it. The previews look insanely wonderful, and I will be there opening night come hell or high water…

“Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd…
He served a dark and a vengeful god…
What happened next, well that’s the play
And he wouldn’t want us to give it away!
Not Sweeney!
Not Sweeney Todd!
The Demon barber of Fleet… Street!”