Sweeney Todd: stage vs screen

Tim Burton's 2007 film of Sweeney Todd, written by John Logan and starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, follows the plot of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's 1979 Broadway musical closely. The big changes are in the score, which Burton cut back hard with Sondheim's approval, and in the final minutes. Here is what differs between the stage show and the screen.

Stage

Broadway musical (1979)

Screen

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

1. No Ballad of Sweeney Todd

The stage show is framed by The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, sung by the company at the start, between scenes, and at the very end. Burton cut it entirely, reasoning that a film could simply show the tale instead of having a chorus describe it. The movie opens with an instrumental title sequence instead.

2. Other songs cut or trimmed

Kiss Me, Parlor Songs, and City on Fire are not in the film, and many of the numbers that remain are shortened. Sondheim reviewed the edited songs and approved the changes. Jonathan Tunick, the show's original orchestrator, reworked the score for an orchestra of 78 musicians, up from 27.

3. Film actors in place of stage singers

Broadway's first Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett were Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury, seasoned musical theatre performers. Burton cast film actors: Depp, who took singing lessons for the part, and Bonham Carter, with Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall as the Beadle, and Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli. Depp won a Golden Globe and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor.

4. Toby is a child

On Broadway in 1979, Tobias was created by Ken Jennings, an adult actor. The film casts a boy, Ed Sanders, so Mrs. Lovett's adoption of Toby and their duet Not While I'm Around play as a bond between a mother figure and a child.

5. A starker ending

Both versions end in the bakehouse: Todd learns the beggar woman he killed was his wife Lucy, waltzes Mrs. Lovett into the oven, and Toby cuts his throat. On stage, Anthony, Johanna, and the police then break in to find a deranged Toby at the meat grinder, and the company returns for a final Ballad. The film ends on Todd bleeding to death over Lucy's body, without showing Anthony or Johanna again.

6. By the Sea becomes a daydream

On stage, Mrs. Lovett sings By the Sea to a distracted Todd as she pictures a quiet retirement together. The film stages it as a fantasy sequence in bright color, showing her imagined seaside life with a glum Todd, a sharp contrast with the film's gray London.

7. A gothic, graphic look

Burton shoots London in near-monochrome grays and saves vivid red for the blood, and he shows the killings far more graphically than a theatre can. The film won the Oscar for Art Direction and the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.

Sweeney Todd movie vs musical: FAQs