Nothing really better encapsulates the idea of the horror musical better than Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Starting out as a sensationalist penny dreadful short story for the working class of 19th Century Britain to being the toast of 2023 Broadway, there's been very few years since it's new villainous life as a Sondheim black operetta in 1979 where it wasn't in some stage of being staged somewhere in the world in some capacity.
And it shouldn't work. There's no happy ending. There's no catharsis. It's barely a cautionary tale, more of a fable than anything. It is a world broken and dark and mechanical and unforgiving. Taking place alongside the morbid realities of doomed student uprisings ala Les Mis, it's a show that nobody survives intact. And in fact, the lucky ones really don't survive at all.
From star turns to unknown cameos to actors making their mark, the dark fever dream of Sweeney Todd threatens to make you complicit in the wit and black humor and oppressive revenge seeking that is its hallmark. And you'll love every minute of it. As they say in the stage version (though not the film musical) - Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd.
