Sweeney Todd

Northern Ireland Opera and the Lyric Theatre present Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

But, who and what is Sweeney Todd?

He’s the boogeyman, a one man horror show. Actually a one man, one woman horror show. He kills his customers while his partner, Mrs Lovett, makes their remains into gourmet pies. These guys were first heard of in revolutionary Paris, then made it big in London around 1850. They even had imitators in the Russian city of Perm as recently as 2009.

But there’s another Sweeney, the victim, even the consequence, of a capitalist economy. Profit and corruption rules, and the fulfillment of the rich destroys the lives of the poor. Sweeney is a product of this world, he is its conclusion. For him everyone is collateral.

And there’s our Sweeney. Here to play with you the theatre-goer. Is he innocent or guilty? Are we here to judge? Or to be entertained…By blood and horror.

Watch out, or Sweeney might even put you in the chair.

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Hugh Wheeler
From an adaptation by Christopher Bond
Originally directed by Harold Prince
Original orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick
Originally produced on Broadway by Richard Barr, Charles Woodward, Robert Fryer, Mary Lea Johnston, Martin Richards in association with Dean and Judy Manos
Performed by arrangement with Music Theatre International (Europe) Limited

Audio described performance Thursday 21st February 7.45 p.m.