‘Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd’:

Adaptation, Revival, and Keeping the Meat Grinder Turning

Abstract

Working with the stage adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979), this article traces the musical’s rejection of the ‘low brow’ Victoriana associated with musical theatre, offering instead a biting Marxist critique that stems from the proto-Marxism of the original penny blood, The String of Pearls (1846-47). The article proposes that this social critique has been systematically repositioned in performance according to the contemporary Zeitgeist and current issues surrounding subsequent revivals, recognising the emergence of an apparent dialogue of revival practice and re-radicalisation.