For those of you who don't know the plot, Benjamin Barker is a barber in maybe 18000s England with a beautiful wife and baby, but a mean, tyrannical judge and his assistant notice her beauty and try to steal her from him. When she says no repeatedly, they deport Benjamin Barker to do hard labor for life. His wife, Lucy, goes mad and poisons herself. The judge takes in Johanna, the baby, as his own. But Benjamin escapes his camp and is on a raft on the ocean when he is found by Anthony, who will come in to play later. Anthony is young and naive, but sweet. So now Benjamin is back in London with a false name- Sweeney Todd, and he swears to get revenge on the people who drove his wife crazy and took his baby. In the meantime, Anthony sees Johanna singing in her window and falls in love, promising to elope with her. He asks Sweeney if he can hide her in his barber shop, a shop above a meat pie store on Fleet Street. He kills people by slitting their throats with barber equipment. Anyway, Sweeney says yes, but just as he's about to kill the judge, Anthony comes running in talking all about how in love he is with her and how he's going to run away with her. The judge immediately leaves, promising that he'll hide Johanna away where Anthony will never find her and never come back to the barber shop. The idea that he was so close and that the judge will never come back drives Sweeney to madness, and now he promises to kill anyone who comes into the shop for a shave. Mrs. Lovett, owner of the below meat pie shop, who has always had a crush on Sweeney, even when he was Benjamin, has the idea to cook the people into her meat pies. The shop quickly gains popularity because of the new, delicious pies. End of Act One. Seriously.
Okay, this is just a very complicated show, and Act Two would be one big spoiler if I told you, (hint- almost everyone dies) so I'm just going to say- SEE IT. Even if it's not an amazing play like mine, just watch the movie. So good.
The funniest part is, the guy who plays Sweeney is my moms voice student, so I know him. He's a cute, funny, teddy bear-type guy. Nothing like Sweeney. Me and my mom were thinking about how he was going to do the really creepy Sweeney parts, but he definitely pulled it off. I was totally traumatized after that show. My friend Diane saw it and she has recently gotten a haircut, so she was glad she got it before this show. She didn't think she could've after that. I actually loved it so much, I went Friday AND Saturday. Yay! Just thinking about that show gives me the chills, but in a good way.
I actually feel bad for Sweeney. He was just a normal, if not somewhat hot-tempered guy who got ripped away from his wife and kid and sent to do hard labor. He did, too, for FIFTEEN YEARS. Then he finally makes it back and finds out that his wife is dead and his daughter is out of reach. Wouldn't that make you crazy? He's not "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street", he's just a sad, mistreated guy.
Anyway, here's a video of the last scene in the play, the very end. Please remark that most of the people who sing there died at some point in the play. Especially the ones that get up off the floor. Duh.
Sorry it's a little small, I can't figure out how to get it bigger. Here's the link just in case:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfpF-FRBHI0
Aren't the actors in my town amazing?
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