Sweeney Todd Study Guide by TheatreWorks Education

TheatreWorks S I L I C O N V A L L E Y FOR SCHOOLS

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

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Table of Contents For Teachers and Students • For Teachers: Using this Study Guide 4 • For Students: The Role of the Audience 5

Exploring the Play • Sweeney Todd Plot Summary 6–8 • Plot Summary: Climbing the Plot Mountain 9 Worksheet: Sweeney Todd Plot Diagram 10 • Sweeney Todd’s Creators 11 • The Origins of Sweeney Todd 12 • Characters and What They Say 13 • Point of View 14 • Writing Lyrics for a Musical 15 • Design a Poster 16 • Setting 17–18 • Director’s Notes 19

Resources Glossary 20 Additional Resources, Sources, and Fun Facts 21 STUDENT/Student Matinee Evaluation TEACHER/Student Matinee Evaluation

SET MODEL BY ANDREA BECHERT

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For Teachers Student matinee performances of Sweeney Todd will be held on October 23 & 30, 2014 at 11:00 am, at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts. The production is approximately two hours and a half hours, including an intermission. The performance will be followed by a discussion with actors from the show. Student audiences are often the most rewarding and demanding audiences that an acting ensemble can face. Since we hope every show at TheatreWorks will be a positive experience for both audience and cast, we ask you to familiarize your students with the theatre etiquette described on the following page.

How to use this Study Guide This guide is arranged in worksheets. Each worksheet or reading may be used independently or in conjunction with others to serve your educational goals. Together, the worksheets prepare students for the workshops, as well as seeing the student matinee of Sweeney Todd produced by TheatreWorks, and for discussing the performance afterwards. Throughout the guide you will see several symbols:

Means “Photocopy Me!” Pages with this symbol are meant to be photocopied and handed directly to students.

Means “English Language Arts.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered to California State English Language Arts standards.

Means “Theatre Arts.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered to California State Theatre Arts standards.

Means “Social Studies.” Pages with this symbol feature lessons that are catered to California State Social Studies standards.

The Role of the Audience All the work that goes into a production would mean nothing if there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t an audience for whom to perform. As the audience, you are also a part of the production, helping the actors onstage tell the story. When the performance is about to begin, the lights will dim. This is a signal for the actors and the audience to put aside concerns and conversation and settle into the world of the play. The performers expect the audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full attention and focus. Performance is a time to think inwardly, not a time to share your thoughts aloud. Talking to neighbors (even in whispers) carries easily to others in the audience and to the actors on stage. It is disruptive and distracting. Food is not allowed in the theatre. Soda, candy, and other snacks are noisy and therefore distracting. Please keep these items on the bus or throw them away before you enter the audience area. Backpacks are also not allowed in the theatre. Walking through the aisles during the performance is extremely disruptive. Actors occasionally use aisles and stairways as exits and entrances. The actors will notice any movement in the performance space. Please use the restroom and take care of all other concerns outside before the show. Cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned off before the performance begins. Do not text during the performance, as it is distracting to the audience members around you.

What to bring with you: Introspection Curiosity Questions Respect An open mind What to leave behind: Judgments Cell phones, etc. Backpacks Food Attitude

DAVID STUDWELL / PHOTO KEVIN BERNE

Sweeney Todd Plot Summary

A delicious prologue sets the scene for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Two men dig a grave six feet deep on the stage until a factory whistle blows. The men lower a body haphazardly into the grave. A woman pours black ashes onto the body from a tin can labeled “flour.” They sing about Sweeney Todd, who eventually rises out of the grave introducing the play: Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd His skin was pale and his eye was odd. He shaved the faces of gentlemen Who never thereafter were heard of again. (“The Ballad of Sweeney Todd”) In the first scene of the musical, two men say goodbye after returning from a long sea voyage. One is Anthony Hope, a young and optimistic first mate, and the other is a dour man in his forties named Sweeney Todd. We learn that Anthony saved Sweeney from drowning on the high seas, and Sweeney is eternally grateful. As they say goodbye, Anthony expresses his enthusiasm for London, and Sweeney warns him that the city is full of greed and corruption (“No Place Like London”). Sweeney tells him the tale of a “foolish barber and his wife,” who were ruined by “a pious vulture of the law” (“The Barber and His Wife”). Before he can go into more detail, Sweeney rushes away.

Later on Sweeney walks by a pie shop that sits below an empty apartment. Mrs. Lovett runs the pie shop, and proclaims her pies to be the worst pies in London (“Worst Pies in London”). She begs Sweeney to stay awhile and try her awful pies, and tells him how slow her business has been. She tells him about the couple who used to live in the apartment above, a barber and his beautiful wife. We learn that a local judge fell in love with the barber’s wife and falsely convicted the barber of a crime he did not commit. When the barber was sent away to Australia to serve a lifetime jail sentence, the judge lured the desperate wife (and mother to a young daughter) to his house and raped her. The wife eventually poisoned herself with arsenic, but her daughter Johanna was adopted by the judge (“Poor Thing”). Seeing that Sweeney Todd is deeply affected by the story, Mrs. Lovett accuses him of being Benjamin Barker, the very same barber of her story. Sweeney Todd is indeed Benjamin Barker, and he tells her he has returned to seek revenge on the judge, Judge Turpin, and on the Beadle who helped the judge steal his wife, Lucy. Mrs. Lovett then gives Sweeney his set of barber knives that she’s been keeping safe all these years (“My Friends” and “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd Reprise”). Next we meet the beautiful, yellow-haired Johanna who leans out of a window at Judge Turpin’s mansion and watches a bird-seller pedal her wares on the street Continues on the next page

Plot Summary, continued below. She sings to his caged birds, asking them why they sing so sweetly when they cannot fly freely (“Green Finch and Linnet Bird”). Anthony Hope wanders by and catches sight of Johanna, falling in love with her instantly (“Ah, Miss”). He buys her a bird from the bird-seller, and just as he is about to give it to her, Judge Turpin and the Beadle discover the two and threaten Anthony away. The Beadle takes the bird from Anthony and wrings its small neck, forbidding Anthony from ever visiting again. Johanna runs away in fear from Judge Turpin, and Anthony swears to steal her away from the evil judge (“Johanna”). In the next scene, Italian pedlar Adolfo Pirelli proclaims that he has a cure for baldness, and that he gives the best shave in London (“Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir”). His assistant is a young, simple-minded boy named Tobias Ragg who serves Pirelli dutifully. When Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett arrive, Sweeney challenges Pirelli to a competition to determine who gives the best shave in London. Beadle Bamford (Judge Turpin’s right-hand man) presides over the competition and determines Sweeney the winner (“The Contest”). Sweeney, knowing exactly who the Beadle is and how he helped the judge steal his wife, invites him to his shop for a free shave anytime that week. The Beadle gladly accepts, and Sweeney is delighted (“The Ballad of Sweeney Todd Reprise”). Sweeney obsesses over when the Beadle will pay a visit, hoping to kill him as soon as possible, while Mrs. Lovett reassures him that all will go as planned (“Wait”). Pirelli and Tobias pay a visit to the barbershop. As Mrs. Lovett feeds Tobias pie in the shop below, Pirelli tries to blackmail Todd, revealing that he knows that Sweeney Todd is really Benjamin Barker who has escaped from his life-long prison sentence in Australia. Pirelli is actually Daniel O’Higgins, an Irishman who used to be Benjamin Barker’s assistant. Sweeney strangles and slits Pirelli’s throat, stuffing him in a trunk and telling Tobias that his master fled the shop in a hurry (“Pirelli’s Death” and “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd Reprise”). Elsewhere, the Judge tells Beadle Bamford of his intentions to marry his ward Johanna the following

Monday. Meanwhile, Johanna and Anthony meet in her room, and she is a wreck, overwrought with horror at the thought of marrying her adopted father. They make a plan to flee together that night (“Kiss Me”). The Beadle counsels Judge Turpin to get a haircut and a nice shave from the barber Sweeney Todd. He suggests that if Judge Turpin put more effort into his appearance, he might win Johanna’s affections (“Ladies in Their Sensitivities”). The judge thinks this is a splendid idea. The Judge immediately visits Sweeney Todd, who has just that day killed Pirelli. Turpin has no idea that Todd is really Benjamin Barker, the man who he sent to Australia for life on trumped-up charges. Todd is beyond delighted to see his enemy, and they make conversation about women, in particular the judge’s intention to marry Johanna (“Pretty Women”). Just as he readies himself to slit an oblivious Judge Turpin’s throat, Anthony Hope bursts into the shop telling Todd that he plans to elope with Johanna that very night. The judge, recognizing Anthony instantly, leaves in a fury, scolding Todd for keeping company with such ruffians. Devastated at having missed his chance to murder Turpin, Todd proclaims revenge on all of humanity (“Epiphany”). Mrs. Lovett consoles him, suggesting that they begin to bake the dead bodies of Sweeney Todd’s revenge killings into pies. Meat is scarce, and this idea could benefit both Todd and Lovett alike (“A Little Priest”). Act II begins with great cheer as we watch customers swarm Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop, where she’s created an outdoor eating garden. People love the new taste of her pies (“God, That’s Good!”). Little do they know that the pies contain the remains of human beings whom Sweeney Todd has killed. Tobias Ragg now works for Mrs. Lovett as a server and assistant. Though Mrs. Lovett is delighted by her success, Sweeney Todd still obsesses over how to find his daughter and how to kill Judge Turpin. Meanwhile, Anthony wanders London searching for Johanna, who no longer lives at Judge Turpin’s mansion. We learn that she is in Fogg’s Asylum, a madhouse for lunatics. Judge Turpin has sent her there in order to imprison her and keep her from Anthony (“Johanna—Quartet”). Continues on the next page

Plot Summary, continued A beggar woman begins to suspect something foul and immoral is going on at Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop. We see the big ovens, the chute, and the meat grinder in the basement of the shop, and we see the thick black smoke that emanates from the chimney. The beggar woman tries to warn passers-by of the dark things inside the shop (City on Fire). Mrs. Lovett hopes to convince Todd that they should marry and travel to the seaside. Anthony arrives and tells Todd that Johanna is locked up in Fogg’s Asylum, and the two devise a plan to have Anthony pose as a wigmaker and pretend to buy hair from the asylum’s inmates (“Wigmaker Sequence”). Todd, however, secretly sends a letter to the Judge informing him of Anthony’s plot to break Johanna free from the asylum, hoping to win the judge’s trust and lure him to the barbershop once more (“The Letter”). Tobias, simple-minded and young though he is, tells Mrs. Lovett that he thinks Todd is up to no good. He offers to protect her from the barber. Mrs. Lovett soothes and tries to dismiss his worries (“Not While I’m Around”). When Tobias notices that Mrs. Lovett has Pirelli’s coin purse, he begins to suspect even more that something is not right. Mrs. Lovett leads him to the basement, showing him the ovens and the meat grinder, and locks him down there. Upstairs, she discovers Beadle Bamford waiting for her, hoping to investigate the foul smell from the chimney and the dark dealings that passers-by suspect. She entertains him as they wait for Todd, and when Todd arrives, the Beadle is offered a free shave and his throat is slit. Todd and Mrs. Lovett go to the basement to kill Tobias.

At the asylum, Mr. Fogg tries to stop Anthony from taking Johanna. When Anthony cannot shoot Mr. Fogg, Johanna does. They flee as all of the lunatics flood the streets. While Todd and Mrs. Lovett search for Tobias in the bakehouse basement, Anthony arrives with Johanna (disguised as a sailor). Johanna hides in the trunk to wait for Anthony to find them a coach, and the beggar woman bursts into the barbershop, screaming for the Beadle. Todd returns to find the beggar woman, and, knowing Judge Turpin is due to arrive, he promptly slits her throat and sends her down the chute (“Beggar Woman’s Lullaby”). He then cheerfully ushers Judge Turpin in, seats him in the barber chair, and reveals his true identity before slitting his throat and sending him down the chute (“The Judge’s Return”). As Todd is about to return to the basement, he sees Johanna climb out of the trunk, and because she is disguised as a sailor, he doesn’t recognize her. He nearly slits her throat, but then hears Mrs. Lovett scream below and goes to help her. Johanna flees, and Mrs. Lovett struggles to finish killing the half-dead Judge. After she does, she pulls the beggar woman’s body toward the oven as Todd arrives. He suddenly recognizes the beggar woman to be Lucy, his wife, whom Mrs. Lovett said had committed suicide many years before. He pretends to forgive Mrs. Lovett, waltzes with her, and then throws her into the fiery oven. Tobias, now completely insane, emerges from the shadows of the basement and slits Sweeney Todd’s throat as Todd cradles his dead wife. Johanna, Anthony, and the police arrive to find a bloody and grim scene.

Plot Summary: Climbing the Plot Mountain A lot happens in Sweeney Todd. Just when you think Sweeney is about to get his revenge on Judge Turpin in the barber chair the first time, Anthony arrives and the Judge flees. What follows is a series of unexpected twists and turns. Read the plot summary and then, using the Plot Mountain Diagram on the next page, identify the events that correspond with the Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.

Three Big Questions 1. Why do you think the creators decided to include a Prologue that tells us the story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street before the story begins? What do you think is the purpose of this prologue? What would the story be like if the prologue were not included? 2. What do you think would have happened if Sweeney Todd had been able to kill Judge Turpin in the barber chair the first time? Do you think he would have been satisfied with his revenge, or do you think he would have continued to kill? 3. Is Sweeney Todd a villain or a hero? Are we meant to support him or to disapprove of his actions?

3. ________________________________________________________

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External Conflict:

Internal Conflict:

Setting—Place:

Setting—Time:

Antagonist:

Protagonist:

Exposition

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2. ____________________________________________________

Irony:

Foreshadowing:

Symbolism:

Climax

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Resolution

13. ____________________________

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A ct io n

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Fa lli ng

Author’s Theme:

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Sweeney Todd Plot Diagram

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Ris i n gA c tio n

Sweeney Todd’s Creators Composer and Lyricist Stephen Sondheim Stephen Sondheim was born on March 22, 1930 in New York City. He is considered to be one of the most influential voices in modern American musical theater. Sondheim has won the Tony Award seven times and has been nominated another six times. At a young age Sondheim was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rogers, two giants of American musical theater responsible for hits like Oklahoma! and Carousel. After working as a lyricist on the musicals Gypsy and West Side Story in the 1950s, Sondheim’s fame grew. Notably, he had the double talent of being able to compose music AND write lyrics. Sondheim’s work was not always as popular as it is today. In fact critics were quite tough on him, because his musicals were very different from the more upbeat, cheerful trends in musical theater. In a 2013 piece about Sondheim in New York Magazine, Frank Rich wrote, “Steve’s response to box-office failure was not to pander to a Broadway audience but to be more adventurous with each successive work.” Sondheim chose to compose music and write lyrics that defied conventional American musical theater. He helped redefine the possibilities for what musical theater can be. In a New York Times interview with Frank Rich, Sondheim said, The kind of writing that I do in the musical theater, for which I’m both praised and condemned, has to do with its individuality, I think. It has to do with the fact that it’s not like others. I started to become aware of it with Company, which is where I first got to start my own voice loud and clear. And the anger and condemnation and snottiness and sneering that I got with Company quite startled me. Because I’d been dismissed before, which is not the same thing […] because it’s so much better to be disliked than ignored.” Critics and audiences didn’t always like Sondheim’s unconventional style, but Sondheim found a way to stay true to his artistic vision. “I’ve never been popular,” he’s said, even as his musicals have been produced and continue to be produced again and again, all over the world. In a popular interview with The Paris Review, Sondheim reveals an additional inspiration for creating Sweeney Todd:

When I was fifteen years old I saw a movie called Hangover Square, another epiphany in my life. It was a moody, romantic, gothic thriller […] about a composer in London in 1900 who was ahead of his time. And whenever he heard a high note he went crazy and ran around murdering people. It had an absolutely brilliant score by Bernard Herrmann, centered around a onemovement piano concerto. I wanted to pay homage to him with this show, because I had realized that in order to scare people, which is what Sweeney Todd is about, the only way you can do it, considering that the horrors out on the street are so much greater than anything you can do on stage, is to keep music going all the time. […] So Sweeney Todd not only has a lot of singing, it has a lot of underscoring. It’s infused with music to keep the audience in a state of tension, to make them forget they’re in a theater, and to prevent them from separating themselves from the action.”

Librettist Hugh Wheeler The book (or script) of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was written by Hugh Wheeler, an English writer, poet, and librettist who spent most of his life in America and who became an American citizen in 1942. Born in 1912 in Hampstead, England, Wheeler wrote many plays, stories, and approximately 30 books during his life. He won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times: in 1973 for A Little Night Music (music and lyrics by Sondheim), in 1974 for Candide (lyrics by Leonard Bernstein and Sondheim), and in 1979 for Sweeney Todd (music and lyrics by Sondheim).

The Origins of Sweeney Todd Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler based Sweeney Todd on a play by British playwright Christopher Bond, published in 1973. His play premiered at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London. Bond updated a very popular urban legend that had been circulating for over 150 years. The story of Sweeney Todd began as a legend about a barber and a pie shop owner who robbed the wealthy. Christopher Bond made Todd a more sympathetic character by giving him a motivation to kill— a judge who had wrongfully accused him of a crime in order to steal his wife. Over the years Sweeney Todd has been the subject of short stories, books, plays, operas, ballets, silent films, musicals, and films. Early versions of the legend are found in stories like “Martin Chuzzlewit” by Charles Dickens or “The String of Pearls: A Romance,” a penny dreadful (a serialized British publication that cost a penny) by Thomas Pecket Prest and James Malcolm Rymer. The motivation for Todd’s immoral actions have changed from version to version, but the core elements of the story—the corruption of Victorian London and the division between social classes—remain the same.

Characters and What They Say Sweeney Todd is full of rich and vivid characters. Below is a list of the major characters in the musical and a few lyrics that they sing. For each character, write three to five sentences describing him or her as though you were writing to a friend who has never seen Sweeney Todd, or as though you were pitching the musical to a producer who doesn’t know the story. How would you describe the words they use when they sing, the images each character conjures up?

Sweeney Todd/Benjamin Barker There’s a hole in the world Like a great black pit And the vermin of the world Inhabit it And its morals aren’t worth What a pig could spit And it goes by the name of London Mrs. Lovett These are probably the worst pies in London. I know why nobody cares to take them— I should know, I make them. But good? No, The worst pies in London— Even that’s polite. Anthony Hope I feel you, Johanna, And one day, I’ll steal you. Till I’m with you then, I’m with you there, Sweetly buried in your yellow hair… Johanna Barker Green finch and linnet bird, Nightingale, blackbird, How is it you sing? How can you jubilate, Sitting in cages, Never taking wing?

Judge Turpin What we do for pretty women! Blowing out their candles Or combing out their hair— Then they leave— Even when they leave you And vanish, they somehow Can still remain There with you there… Tobias Ragg Demons are prowling Everywhere Nowadays. I’ll send ‘em howling. I don’t care— I got ways. No one’s gonna hurt you, No one’s gonna dare... Beadle Bamford (The Beadle) Excuse me, my lord. May I request, my lord, Permission, my lord, to speak? Forgive me if I suggest, my lord, You’re looking less than your best, my lord, There’s powder upon your vest, my lord, And stubble upon your cheek. And ladies, my lord, are weak. Beggar Woman There! There! Somebody, somebody look up there! Didn’t I tell you? Smell that air! City on fire! Quick, sir! Run and tell! Warn ‘em all of the witch’s spell!

Point of View In 3-5 sentences, tell the story of Sweeney Todd from the perspective of the following characters:

Johanna:

____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Mrs. Lovett:

Anthony Hope: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Judge Turpin:

Writing Lyrics for a Musical “One of the hardest things about writing lyrics is to make the lyrics sit on the music in such a way that you’re not aware there was a writer there, and it sounds natural. Well, that means things like inflection, the elongation of syllables. Now I’m talking about a certain kind of songwriting. You know, opera librettists and opera composers will take a word and do a whole melisma on it, because it’s not about the language. It’s about the voice and the music. But if you’re dealing with a musical in which you’re trying to tell a story that is like a play, and particularly if you’re trying to tell a contemporary one, or something from the last 50 years, it’s got to sound like a speech. And in order not to sound so songlike that you lose the scene.” —Stephen Sondheim

The Sondheim Musical Toolkit Counterpoint: When two or more melodies are sung or played together at the same time. They weave in and out of each other, maintaining their individual structures, but blend into harmonies at key moments. Harmonies : When notes are blended together in a pleasing way, often to create a chord Leitmotif: Merriam Webster defines a “leitmotif” as “an associated melodic phrase or figure that accompanies the reappearance of an idea, person, or situation especially in a Wagnerian music drama.” We hear a leitmotif in “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” a song that is reprised again and again throughout the musical. The Dies Irae: A medieval religious chant originating as early as the 1200s that spoke of the Day of Judgment. We hear remnants of this music tradition in “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” when the chorus sings, “Swing your razor wide, Sweeney!/ Hold it to the skies!”

Design a Poster In the space below, design a poster for the musical Sweeney Todd. What images would you include? Which characters would you show? What would you want audiences to know about the musical before they saw the show? Would you include any lyrics or quotes on the poster?

Setting The original production of Sweeney Todd was set in the mid–1800s, when England was experiencing the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was a historical period starting in the 1700s when inventions like the steam engine changed the way countries made money and conducted business. Farming-driven economies in rural areas were steadily replaced by industry and technology in cities. Inventions like the steam engine, light bulbs, the telegraph, and more caused businesses and factories to boom in cities like London. Goods could be manufactured and transported at a rate never seen before. Unforunately, during this time poverty was rampant, and the strict class system divided England into the wealthy upper classes, the working classes, and the poor. However, Director Robert Kelley and TheatreWorks designers have decided to try something different. They’ve set this production of Sweeney Todd in 1940s London, during the Blitz of World War II. Britain fought in World War II as part of the Allied Forces from 1939 to 1945. In the summer of 1940, the Germans invaded France and prepared to subdue Britain for good by destroying airfields and all aspects of the Royal Air Force (RAF). By accident, German bombers intending to bomb Royal Air Force facilities near London lost track of where they were and dropped bombs on central London on August 24th. Churchill, the Prime Minister of England, then ordered an air attack on Berlin the next day. This took Germany by surprise, as Berlin had never been bombed before. Hitler delivered an enraged speech, saying, “...When the British Air Force drops two or three or four thousand kilograms of bombs, then we will in one night drop 150-, 230-, 300or 400,000 kilograms. When they declare that they will increase their attacks on our cities, then we will raze their cities to the ground. We will stop the handiwork of those night air pirates, so help us God!” On September 7th, Hitler ordered German air strikes all over London. From 4pm until 4am until the next morning, German bombers dropped thousands of bombs, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing approximately 448

Firefighters tackle a blaze after a London air raid.

people died in one night. London was bombed every day for the next two months, and continued to be bombed until May of 1941, eight months later. At that point, Hitler ordered his bomber planes back to Germany to prepare for the invasion of Russia. This violent and traumatic period in Britain’s history is known as The Blitz, short for Blitzkrieg, the German word for “lightning war.” During this time 40,000 British citizens died and thousands more were injured, and over a million homes were destroyed. During the War, Britain imported 60% of its food from other countries. Germany, in the hopes of demoralizing Britain, used its U-Boats to attack ships carrying food products to England. As a result, food supplies were low, and Britain had to issue food rations to its citizens. Things like sugar, eggs, meat, and coffee were scarce. Additionally, during the Blitz, Londoners often took shelter in Underground Tube stations or below factories where makeshift beds and toilets were assembled. Life was really difficult and Londoners lived in constant fear. Though they are two distinct periods in Britain’s history, the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s and the Blitz of the 1940s impacted London’s citizens in similar ways. Poverty, hunger, and a lack of resources shook the city during both moments of history. Continues on the next page

Setting, continued By the Numbers During the eight-month Blitz of 1940-1941 Britain:

• 18,000 tons of explosives were dropped on •

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London. 18,629 men, 16,201 women, 5,028 children, and over 600 unknown British people died during these eight months. The Blitz left 375,000 Brits homeless. Approximately one third of London was destroyed. When Patemoster Row (a center of the British publishing industry) was destroyed, five million books were also destroyed. Despite the damage to homes, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, St. Thomas’s Hospital, Buckingham Palace, the House of Commons, Lambeth Palace, churches, schools, museums, and more, several relics from ancient Roman times were discovered beneath the rubble. For example, a Roman wall under Cripplegate was found in the aftermath.

Fleet Street Fleet Street is an actual street in the center of London, right next to the Thames River. It is named after the Fleet River, one of London’s largest underground rivers that was once used to transport goods around England. As a result, Fleet Street served as a port or merchant harbor for a much of London’s history. We know the Thames to be the big central river of London, but centuries ago there were approximately 21 smaller rivers that fed into the Thames and that shaped the geography of this major city. These smaller rivers became canals and sewer systems for London, and were eventually paved over or turned into storm drains in order to create more room for London’s booming population. The Fleet River was one of the smelliest and most disgusting of these canals. In 1710, the famous writer Jonathan Swift described the Fleet as being full of “the sweepings from butchers’ stalls, dung, guts and blood.” In his satirical poem, “The Dunciad,” famous poet Alexander Pope wrote about the kingdom of England, “to where Fleet Ditch, with disemboguing streams,/ Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to the Thames.” What a fitting setting for Sweeney Todd. In the early days of London (the 1200s, 1300s), Fleet Street connected the old city of London to Westminster, its political center. Many famous literary figures like John Milton and John Dryden either lived on Fleet Street or spent lots of time in pubs there. Fleet Street also served as the home to many London newspapers for centuries until they moved elsewhere in the 1980s.

Director’s Notes by Robert Kelley Astonishing experiences bear repeating. As we celebrate TheatreWorks’ 45th Anniversary, the astonishing Sweeney Todd joins a small list of plays and musicals that we have found worthy of a second production. Not surprising, the list includes several masterworks by Shakespeare and a wealth of Sondheim classics, from A Little Night Music and Pacific Overtures to Into the Woods. Since we first produced the then-controversial Sweeney Todd in 1992, it has become an international phenomenon, a highlight at opera companies around the world, a recurring Broadway regular, and a blockbuster film. With all that attention elsewhere, why Sweeney redux? Why now? Among its intertwined themes, Sweeney Todd is about humanity’s fascination with evil and its corollary, violence. Some part of us thrives on conflict; some genetic trait encourages us to force our point of view (or culture, or religion) upon another. When that instinct leads to violence it becomes the fodder of our nightly news: a punch in an elevator, a gunshot in the back, a village destroyed, a country overrun. We are at once repelled and transfixed. And that’s how I see Sweeney Todd, played out against a background of violence, a background of war. Our first production was in 1992, prompted by the bombings of Baghdad displayed nightly on national TV. It was set in London, 1916, the year the first bomb was ever dropped from an airplane on a city. That was then. Now, a sea of wars engulfs the world again. The advent of evil seems ever greater, our involvement ever deeper, whether our boots are on the ground or under a desk as we guide drones to distant human targets. I’ve long wondered how my parents felt about World War II, about a single culture seeking to dominate all, about the decision to use the atomic

bomb, about the appalling premise of “ethnic cleansing.” I wish I’d asked, for what seemed beyond belief then seems commonplace today, when anyone can download a beheading on his or her phone, tablet, or even wristwatch. In our inter-connected world of instant communication, we are inevitably drawn into what once seemed distant disputes, increasingly threatened by conflicts we can neither resolve nor escape. My reaction to such a world is Sweeney Todd. It is a play about the darkest corners of human existence. It’s also about our ways of dealing with evil: countering it with virtue, disarming it with humor, crushing it with force, or transforming it into art. Picasso’s Guernica, Mathew Brady’s Civil War photographs, Spielberg’s haunting Schindler’s List—Sweeney Todd belongs among these unforgettable transmutations of evil. This time out we’re in 1940 amidst the defining war of our time, as Londoners “carry on” even when forced underground by the nightly bombings of The Blitz. Often that subterranean world included entertainers, perhaps even entire theatre companies determined to continue rehearsal for an upcoming production—a production of Sweeney Todd. Slashing through the 1848 serial novel A String of Pearls, the first Sweeney was a maniac on the loose, and each installment proved more shocking than the last. By the time Sondheim turned Sweeney into the greatest villain of the musical theatre, the demon barber had become a complex everyman driven beyond reason by the injustices of the British court and class system. That we understand him, as well as his entrepreneurial cohort Mrs. Lovett, makes the face of evil fascinatingly human, even as we condemn it as thoroughly inhumane. With two such unforgettable, almost lovable protagonists to engage us, Sondheim shows evil’s slippery slope, its rationale, even its comic side marching in tandem with its tragedy. This is humanity, for better or for worse, its poles of good and evil intertwined until some resolution is found at last, some victory declared. Or perhaps it’s just an armistice, temporarily reached, aware that there’s always more to come.

Glossary Beadle: A law enforcement or educational officer Tonsorial Parlor: A barbershop Upward mobility: The ability for someone of lower socio-economic means to gain wealth and social status in a particular society Transportation: The act of sending a criminal to serve out his sentence in another country or colony; in Sweeney Todd/Benjamin Barkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case, Australia Botany Bay: A bay in modern day Sydney, Australia famous for being home to transported English prisoners in the 19th century Librettist: The book writer or the person who writes the script for a musical Asylum/Madhouse: A prison or home for people who were considered to be insane Slums: Poor, over-crowded apartments in an urban environment Industrial Revolution: A period of great economic and social change in the 18th and 19th centuries originating in England that saw inventions like the steam power and that caused economies to shift from agriculture to industrial Penny Dreadfuls: Short, serialized stories of the Victorian age, filled with gruesome, often fantastical elements; published in periodicals that cost a penny each Grand Guignol: A type of French theater popular at the end of the 1800s that featured horror and violence Esplanade: An open area for walking Lavabo: A makeshift sink, a bowl with water for washing hands and implements; sometimes attached to a spigot Muslin: A type of light fabric Plymouth: A city on the south coast of England, about 190 miles southwest of London

Additional Resources “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit” by Charles Dickens http://www.gutenberg.org/files/968/968-h/968-h.htm “The String of Pearls” (The original penny dreadful featuring Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street) http://www.victorianlondon.org/mysteries/sweeney_todd-00.htm Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a 2007 film directed by Tim Burton, featuring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

Sources http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/stephen-sondheim-2013-12/index4.html http://www.thefloc.org/files/FLOC_SWEENEY_Study_Guide.pdf http://partners.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000312mag-sondheim.html http://www.thefloc.org/files/FLOC_SWEENEY_Study_Guide.pdf http://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/28/obituaries/hugh-wheeler-award-winning-playwright.html http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1283/the-art-of-the-musical-stephen-sondheim http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution

Fun Facts Stephen Sondheim went to military school when he was ten years old. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/son0int-1 Stephen Sondheim loves puzzles and word games. He used to write crossword puzzles for New York Mazine. http://nymag.com/anniversary/40th/crosswords/45747/ Sondheim liked to use yellow-lined paper and Blackwing pencils when he worked. They don’t make these kinds of pencils anymore. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/son0int-7

Student Matinees/STUDENT Feedback Name____________________________________Grade_____________School_________________________________________ Performance Tasks based CA State theatre arts standards Select and complete one of the following activities:

Rewrite the ending of the play. How would you like to see it end? Why?

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Write a review of the play or an actor.

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Identify and describe how this production might affect the values and behavior of the audience members who have seen it.

Write about any careers you learned about in attending this production (example: stage hands, set designers, actors, etc.).

Assessment Survey No

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Really Yes

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I would like to do this sort of project again

I will remember what I learned

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Finish the following statements: The most important thing I learned from this play was: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Besides getting out of school, the best thing about attending this student matinee is: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Learning through the theatre is different from my regular class because: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ If I could change something about attending a student matinee, I would: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm going to use what I learned, saw, or experienced by: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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