A musical thriller / Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim / Book by Hugh Wheeler

After years of serving an unjust prison sentence, the barber Benjamin Barker returns to his home on Fleet Street to find his life in ruins: the unscrupulous Judge Turpin had sent him into exile because he himself first coveted Barker’s wife and now his daughter. Upon his return, Barker resolves to take revenge on the judge. And revenge is a pie best served cold … As the barber Sweeney Todd, Barker sets up a small business with the enterprising baker Mrs Lovett: Whilst he gives his customers a thorough shave, the most delicious pies are being baked in her bakery. The only strange thing is that Sweeney Todd’s customers vanish without a trace after their shave. And where does Mrs Lovett get the delicious meat filling for her baked goods?

In 1973, Stephen Sondheim adapted a chilling horror story into a musical thriller for gourmets, which, beyond all its grotesque eccentricity, also raises the question of how quickly a society can mutate into a collection of cannibals.