News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

Sweeney Todd Character Card #1: Sweeney Todd

By: Dec. 07, 2007
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

Name: Sweeney Todd (a.k.a. Benjamin Barker)
Romantic Interests: Lucy, Mrs. Lovett
Special Skills: Closest Shave on Fleet Street
Favorite Food: A Little Priest
Known Living Relatives: Johanna
Nemesis: Judge Turpin
Famous Quote: "At Last My Right Arm Is Complete Again!"
Alter Ego:
Johnny Depp

Character Bio:
Sweeney Todd is a fictional villain/antihero. A barber and serial killer, the character appears in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century. His weapon of choice is a straight razor, with which he cuts his victim's throats; in some versions of the story his lover, friend, and accomplice, Lovett, bakes the carcasses into meat pies. He started out as a normal man named Benjamen Barker, with a wife and child, but was banished by a crooked judge. After serving his sentence, he returns to seek his revenge.

Click for special multimedia featuring
Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd


Extended Character Info:

Major Stage Productions:
1979 Original Broadway Production: Len Cariou
1980 London Production: Denis Quilley
1980 1st National Tour: George Hearn
1982 2nd National Tour: Ross Petty
1984 Houston Grand Opera Production: Timothy Nolen
1984 New York City Opera Production: Timothy Nolen
1985 London Revival:  Leon Greene
1989 Off-Off-Broadway Revival: Bob Gunton
1989 Broadway Transfer: Bob Gunton
1991 Regional Revival: George Hearn
1992 Paper Mill Production: George Hearn
1993 Royal National Theatre Production: Alun Armstrong
1996 Goodspeed Production: Timothy Nolen
1996 London Revival: Dave Willetts
1999 Reprise! Concert: Kelsey Grammer
2000 London Concert: Len Cariou
2000 New York Concert: George Hearn
2002 Sondheim Festival Production: Brian Stokes Mitchell
2004 New York City Opera Production: Timothy Nolen
2004 London Revival: Paul Hegarty
2005 Broadway Production: Michael Cerveris
2006 National Tour: David Hess / Alexander Gemignani

Songs:
The Ballad of Sweeney Todd
No Place Like London
The Barber and His Wife
Poor Thing
My Friends
Pirelli's Miracle Elixir/The Contest
Pretty Women
Epiphany
A Little Priest
God, That's Good!
Searching
Final Sequence


About Johhny Depp:
Depp recently reprised his Academy Award nominated role of Captain Jack Sparrow in the summer blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The previous effort, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest earned more than $1 billion, making it the third largest grossing movie of all time. He received a Golden Globe nomination, a British Academy of Film and Television Arts nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of Captain Jack in the first film of the trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Depp has earned both critical and popular acclaim for his unique work in a variety of memorable feature films. Most recently, he collaborated with director Tim Burton for the fourth and fift times on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for which Depp received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical, and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride which received a 2005 Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Film. Depp also starred opposite John Malkovich and Samantha Morton in Laurence DUnmore's The Libertine as 17th century poet John Wilmot.

Depp's other screen credits include Finding Neverland, Secret Window, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, From Hell, Blow, Chocolat, Before Night Falls, The Man Who Cried, Sleepy Hollow, The Ninth Gate, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Donnie Brasco, Dead Man, Don Juan DeMarco, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Benny & Joon, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Arizona Dream, Nick of Time.

Depp began his career as a musician, joining a rock group The Kids, which eventually took him to Los Angeles. When the band broke up, he turned to acting, and earned his first major roles in Nightmare on Elm Street and Platoon, before jumping to the small screen in 21 Jump Street, and back to the big scren in Cry-Baby





Videos