The City College of New York
Eat the Rich: Power Corruption and Classism
Through the Score of Sweeny Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
By Stephen Sondheim
Leslie Morales
The murderer with a murderous voice, Sweeney Todd sings his way through London on a journey of revenge as he returns to the city 15 years after being locked away for a crime he did not commit by Judge Turpin, who lusts after his wife, while murdering his costumers left and right. Sweeney teams up with Mrs.Lovett as he carts away the dead bodies to her shop to bring some life back into her dying meat-pie show but waits until the day he can use his razor to kill Turpin. Both Sweeney Todd and Anthony, a young sailor that helps Sweeney travel back to London, are used to highlight the power corruption that brought Sweeney to the prison cell that he was left to rot in for 15 years. In Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sondheim utilizes musical elements, such as the lyrics in the song “There’s No Place like London”, the instruments and vocal parts associated to the individual characters, and its operatic influences to characterize characters such as Sweeney Todd and Anthony and in return uses them as a reflection of classicism and power corruption.
Sondheim uses Anthony’s character as a parallel and comparison to Sweeney to further elaborate on the hardships that Sweeney faces as a result of classism and power corruption. Anthony’s hyperbolic personality is highlighted by his neverending kindness and persistence, setting the stage for Sondheim to juxtapose his actions with his musical presence. From the beginning of the musical, Anthony is seen as a kind and caring character that is willing to do anything for those around him. This is best demonstrated as we hear Anthony say “Whatever brought you to that sorry shipwreck is your affair. And yet, during those many weeks of the voyage home, I have come to think of you as a friend and, if trouble lies ahead for you in London….if you need help—or money …” to Sweeney. Not only does he offer Sweeney the money but he also continues to give the beggar women money on several occasions and doesn’t seem to mind spending money on buying Johanna a gift soon after meeting her. Money is nothing in comparison to love and friendship for Anthony. Even after the beggar lady warns Anthony of the Judge and going to Johanna’s house by saying “but don’t you go trespassing there, young man. Not if you value hide.” he ignored her warning and decided to visit her anyway. Anthony’s persistence in pursuing Johanna and disregard for the danger or consequences he may possibly face demonstrates his overbearing personality. He seems to go to all lengths to do what he pleases and will do so without thinking thoroughly about the possible outcome, negative or positive. In contrast Sweeney has lost this naivety and optimism, best seen in the song “ There’s No Place like London”.
Stephen Sondheim uses the song “There’s no Place like London” to introduce the juxtaposition of the characters Anthony and Sweeney Todd through their character’s specific stylistic music. As Anthony sings, we hear a sweet voice followed by even sweeter and tender symphony of string instruments that accompany him, more specifically the violin. In contrast, when we hear Sweeney sing, his voice is more rough as he sings and is accompanied by louder and a bit more chaotic horn instruments. As Johnny Depp, the actor that takes on the role of Sweeney in the 2007 movie adaptation, simply explains: “ [Sweeney] needed to be, for lack of a better word, slightly more punk rock.”(Gold). Although there are arguments over whether Anthony is to be sung with a tenor or baritone voice part, there is no question that he sings higher notes and more ballad-esque songs in comparison to Sweeney who is a baritone, maybe bass baritone, thorough and through.
[IN REFERENCE TO VIDEO CLIP ONE – The first minute and 38 seconds of the song “No Place Like London” in the Motion Picture Soundtrack of Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street] In this clip, we can specifically hear Anthony’s sweeter voice in comparison to Sweeney and the violins that follow Anthony in comparison to the horns that follow Sweeney in the first four lines as they say “There is no place like London.”
Looking specifically into the lyrics of the song, Anthony sings about London in a pleasant way when singing the phrase “there’s no place like London”. Although having “ sailed the world, beheld its wonders from the Dardanelles to the mountains of Peru” like many can only dream of doing, you see his love and loyalty to London as he continues to simply say “there’s no place like London” and how he feels like he’s at home when he is there. Whereas Sweeney immediately begins to view London gruesomely, and acknowledges how Anthony is young and that, “life has been too kind to [him]”. By specifically stating life has been too kind to him instead of kind to him we see how Sweeney has almost a bitterness towards Anthony as he hasn’t had the same luck. Looking at these lyrics we see especially the disdain Sweeney has towards the world, and London specifically.
There’s a hole in the world
Like a great black pit
And the vermin of the world
Inhabit it
And its mortals aren’t worth
What a pig could spit,
And it goes by the name of London.
At the top of the hole
Sit the privileged few,
Making mock of the vermin
In the lower zoo.
As writer Hilton Als highlights in the article “A Wondrous Production of Sweeney Todd”, Sweeney “wants to undo time, or the devastation that time has wreaked on his heart, but no one can go back, not really. On some level, Anthony represents the optimism that Sweeney wants not to reclaim but to soil.” as he looks at Anthony and asks “How can he extend his hand in vulnerable gratitude again” after seeing vulnerability gets him nowhere. You can feel Sweeney’s pain as he uses word such as vermin to describe those, including himself, that are below the rich privileged and how they are mocked and in a zoo. In the true fashion of a melodrama as Lutfi Hamadi highlights in “The Main Dramatic Features of Melodrama: A Dramatic Study of Maria Martin and Sweeney Todd And Their Traces In Modern Soap Operas”, Sondheim uses Anthony and Sweeney as a comparison “to reflect the strict moral code of the period, [because] the central theme of melodrama was that of morality facing villainy, [which] revolved around the basic conflict between virtue and vice.” as depicted in this song (Hamadi, 124). The entire song offers a comparison off the bat of how differently Anthony views the world in comparison to Sweeney, which sets the stage for the play as it foreshadows and hints toward Sweeney having a dark past of some sort that taints the way he views the world.
Sweeney Todd was bitter from his years of agony as expressed in “There’s no place like London”, but “Epiphany” is where we see Sweeney’s emotions spill over and the effects of power corruption. After finally slashing the Judge’s throat. But even after enacting his revenge on the judge Sweeney says the only real escape from the classism and power corruption that ensues from capitalism is death which is seen when he sings the lyrics “(‘…the lives of the wicked should be – / Made brief. / For the rest of us, death / Will be a relief – / We all deserve to die)”. Although manic, this is where we see a new side to Sweeney as paige Zalman further analyzes,“Todd becomes even more of an empathetic and vulnerable character, in spite of his murderous tendencies.” (Zalman, 67) Zalman describes the ways in which through the score of the show we see Todd’s vulnerability as he seems to become more empathetic in spite of him being a murder which is an example of vice, his murderous tendicies, and virture, Todd’s empathetic side coming through melodramas feature and the effect power corruption has on its victims.
Leah Richards highlights the parallels between Sweeney Todd and those left behind in the lower class by pointing out how he is a product of his time. “Crone considers almost exclusively the combined threats to the poor and working classes of urban anonymity and the various machines, literal and figurative, of industrial capitalism, arguing that Sweeney Todd is a product of his time, a mass murderer whose crimes ‘formed a frightening parallel with the condition of the faceless, poor, urban mass’ (Richards, 74)”. By describing Sweeney Todd as a product of his time, Richards offers a viewpoint of Todd being a reflection of the ways in which power corruption effects its victims, in this case driving a person to murder and insanity. By introducing capitalism as a threat to the poor and working class we see how power corrupts due to how in capitalistic societies, such as our own, are governed and controlled by the elite and upper class. The elite and upper class that always includes our leaders and those in powerful positions that can range from the president to senator, or police officer and judge as it does in Sweeney Todd. Sweeney specifically relates to being at the mercy of those in power as he was sent to prison for a crime he hadn’t committed for 15 years due to the Judge abusing his power in order to go for his wife in which he was absolutely infatuated with.
In conclusion, Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim is a show that explores the ways in which power corrupts and classism affects the streets of London. With the built up anger that bubbled inside those 15 years he was wrongfully imprisoned, Sweeney Todd seeks revenge as he slashes the throats of his customers and sends them off to partner in crime Mrs.Lovett as she turns them into meat-pies to sell. By using the lyrics in the song “There’s No Place like London”, the instruments and vocal parts associated with the individual characters, and its operatic influences to characterize characters such as Sweeney Todd and Anthony, Sondheim uses them as a reflection of classicism and power corruption.
Bibliography
Als, Hilton. “A Wondrous Production of ‘Sweeney Todd.’” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/a-wondrous-production-of-sweeney-todd.
Gold, Sylviane. “Demon Barber, Meat Pies and All, Sings on Screen.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Nov. 2007, https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/movies/moviesspecial/04gold.html?searchResultPosition=28.
Hamadi, L. “The Main Dramatic Features of Melodrama: A Dramatic Study of Maria Martin and Sweeney Todd And Their Traces In Modern Soap Operas”. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, Vol. 13, no. 26, Sept. 2017, p. 122, doi:10.19044/esj.2017.v13n26p122.
McGill, Craig M. “It Might Have Been Sophisticated Film Music�: The Role of the Orchestra in Stage and Screen Versions of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” Studies in musical theatre 8.1 (2014): 5–26. Web.
Zalman, Paige. “Operatic Borrowing in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.” American Music, vol 37 no.1, 2019, p 58-76. Project MUSE
Richards, Leah. “Class, Crime, and Cannibalism in the String of Pearls; or, the Demon Barber as Bourgeois Bogeyman.” Journal of Working-Class Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2020, pp. 118–131., https://doi.org/10.13001/jwcs.v5i1.6261.
