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"Mutter" (German for mother) is a song by Rammstein on the album of the same name.

Overview[link]

The song was confirmed by Till Lindemann and Richard Kruspe to be a reference to their unhappy childhood relationships with their own mothers. The lyrics tell the story of a child not born from a womb but in an experiment, thus having no true father or mother. The lyrics describe his plan to kill both the mother "who never gave birth to him" and himself, a plan which he proceeds to carry out. However, he still fails to kill himself, instead ending up mutilated and no better off than before. The child begs, possibly prays, for strength, but his dead mother does not answer. The narrative of the song is similar to Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, in that the character takes revenge for his misfortunes on his 'parent', and then ends up no different than he was before the 'parent' died.

The video for Mutter follows the storyline of the song, whereby the character kills his mother and then dumps her body in a river, ending with the character in a cage or dungeon that is set into the ground.

The single includes an instrumental song, 5/4, that was played as intro for live shows since 2000, but wasn't released until 2002.

Live story[link]

It debuted on April 2000 in its demo form, in a concert exclusively for members of the fan area. The only difference between it and the final release was that the demo version was less orchestrated. During the Mutter tour, it was played at every concert, and played in select concerts in the Pledge of Allegiances tour in North America. The song disappeared from Rammstein's shows up to 2011, when it became a staple in the Made in Germany 1995 - 2011 tour.

Track listing[link]

1. Mutter (Radio Edit) - 3:40
2. Mutter (Vocoder Mix) - 4:32
3. 5/4 - 5:30
4. Mutter (Sono's Inkubator Mix) - 7:22

• The 2-track edition included Mutter (Radio Edit) and 5/4.

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (August 2011)

Mutter
Studio album by Rammstein
Released	April 2, 2001
Recorded	Studio Miraval, France, 2000
Genre	Neue Deutsche Härte
Length	45:05
Label	Motor Music
Producer	Jacob Hellner, Rammstein
Rammstein chronology
Live aus Berlin (1999) Mutter (2001) Reise, Reise (2004)
Singles from Mutter
"Sonne" Released: February 12, 2001 "Links 2-3-4" Released: May 14, 2001 "Ich will" Released: September 10, 2001 "Mutter" Released: March 25, 2002 "Feuer frei!" Released: October 14, 2002

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Blender	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[3]
Jam!	(favourable)[4]
NME	[5]
Q
Robert Christgau	[6]
Rolling Stone
The Austin Chronicle	[7]

Mutter (German for "mother") is the third album by German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein. It was released on 2 April 2001 through Motor Music. The cover of the album is of a dead fetus, it was taken by Daniel Fuchs and Geo Fuchs.

Track listing[link]

All tracks written by Rammstein.

1. "Mein Herz brennt" ("My heart burns") – 4:39
2. "Links 2 3 4" ("Left 2-3-4") – 3:36
3. "Sonne" ("Sun") – 4:32
4. "Ich will" ("I want") – 3:37
5. "Feuer frei!" ("Open fire!" Literally 'fire freely' or 'fire at will') – 3:11
6. "Mutter" ("Mother") – 4:32
7. "Spieluhr" ("Music-box") (featuring Khira Li) – 4:46
8. "Zwitter" ("Hermaphrodite") – 4:17
9. "Rein, raus" ("In, out") – 3:09
10. "Adios" (Sp. "Goodbye") – 3:49
11. "Nebel" ("Fog")  – 4:54

There are various editions of Mutter, each with different features:

• The Limited Tour Edition had the same cover, but red with the Rammstein logo embossed on the front. It also had a second CD with the following live tracks:

1. "Ich will" – 3:57
2. "Links 2 3 4" – 4:54
3. "Sonne" – 4:42
4. "Spieluhr" – 5:27

• The Japanese edition had "Halleluja" as a hidden track, found after "Nebel" (there is a two minute intermission of silence).
• Another Japanese edition had "Halleluja" as a 12th track.
• The limited edition had a second CD with just one track, "Hallelujah", and a CD-ROM area featuring the "Sonne" video.
• A 12" vinyl version and a MC version were released, with the same tracklist (Side A = 1–6; B = 7–11)
• The Limited Tour Edition was also released as a double cassette set, with the second cassette containing the live tracks (Side A = 1–2; B = 3–4).

Note: Some copies that have "Halleluja" as a hidden track can not be played for unknown reasons. On April 3, 2010 Rammstein posted a video with an official translation of "Halleluja" on their Facebook page, "in light of recent events".^[8]

Personnel[link]

Rammstein

• Till Lindemann – vocals
• Richard Z. Kruspe – electric guitar
• Paul H. Landers – electric guitar
• Oliver "Ollie" Riedel – bass guitar
• Christoph "Doom" Schneider – drums
• Christian "Flake" Lorenz – keyboards

Guest musicians

• Bobo – background vocals (track 11)
• Khira Li Lindemann – vocals (track 7)
• Olsen Involtini – string arrangements (tracks 1, 6, 11)
• Orchestra parts by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, conducted by Gunter Joseck

Production

• Ulf Kruckenberg – engineer
• Dirk Rudolph – sleeve design
• Daniel & Geo Fuchs – photography

Chart positions[link]

References[link]

Three singers-a trio-singing a song while accompanied on a lute played by one of the singers. Das Konzert [The Concert] (c. 1490, Lorenzo Costa).

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing. A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs. The lyrics (words) of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, though they may be religious verses or free prose.

A song may be for a solo singer, a duet, trio, or larger ensemble involving more voices. Songs with more than one voice to a part are considered choral works. Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is between "art songs", "pop songs", and "folk songs". Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.).

A song is a piece of music for accompanied or unaccompanied voice or voices or, "the act or art of singing," but the term is generally not used for large vocal forms including opera and oratorio.^[1] However, the term is, "often found in various figurative and transferred sense (e.g. for the lyrical second subject of a sonata...)."^[1] The noun "song" has the same etymological root as the verb "to sing" and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the word to mean "that which is sung" or "a musical composition suggestive of song." The OED also defines the word to mean "a poem" or "the musical phrases uttered by some birds, whales, and insects, typically forming a recognizable and repeated sequence and used chiefly for territorial defence or for attracting mates." ^[2]

Cultural types[link]

Art songs[link]

Art songs are songs created for performance in their own right, usually with piano accompaniment, although they can also have other types of accompaniment such as an orchestra or string quartet, and are always notated. Generally they have an identified author and composer and require voice training for acceptable performance. German-speaking communities use the term art song ("Kunstlied") to distinguish so-called "serious" compositions from folk song ("Volkslied"). The lyrics are often written by a poet or lyricist and the music separately by a composer. Art songs may be more formally complicated than popular or folk songs, though many early Lieder by the likes of Franz Schubert are in simple strophic form. They are often important to national identity.

Art songs feature in many European cultures, including but not limited to: Russian (romancy), German (Lieder), Italian (canzoni), French (mélodies), Scandinavian (sånger), Portuguese (canções), Spanish (canciones). There are also highly regarded British and American art songs in the English language. Cultures outside of Europe that have a classical music tradition, such as India, may or may not feature art songs. The accompaniment of European art songs is considered as an important part of the composition.

The art song of the period in which they originally flowered is often a duet in which the vocalist and accompanist share in interpretive importance. The pieces were most often written to be performed in a home or salon setting, although today the works enjoy popularity as concert pieces. The emergence of poetry during this era was much of what inspired the creation of these pieces by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and other composers. These composers set poems in their native language. Many works were inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Another method would be to write new music for each stanza to create a unique form; this was through-composed form known in German as durchkomponiert. A combination of both of these techniques in a single setting was called a modified strophic form. Often romantic art songs sharing similar elements were grouped as a song cycle.^[3]

Folk songs[link]

Folk songs are songs of often anonymous origin (or are public domain) that are transmitted orally. They are frequently a major aspect of national or cultural identity. Art songs often approach the status of folk songs when people forget who the author was. Folk songs are also frequently transmitted non-orally (that is, as sheet music), especially in the modern era. Folk songs exist in almost every culture.

Popular songs[link]

Modern popular songs are typically distributed as recordings and are played on the radio, though all other mass media that have audio capabilities are involved. Their relative popularity is inferred from commercially significant sales of recordings, ratings of stations and networks that play them, and ticket sales for concerts by the recording artists. A popular song can become a modern folk song when members of the public who learn to sing it from the recorded version teach their version to others. Popular songs may be called pop songs for short, although pop songs or pop music may instead be considered a more commercially popular genre of popular music as a whole.

See also[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Song

• Air (music)
• Animal song: bird song, whale song, zoomusicology
• Aria
• Ballad
• Canticle
• Category:Musical forms
• Hymn
• Instrumental
• Lied
• Madrigal (music)
• Song structure (popular music)
• Vocal music
• Theme song
• Poem and song
• Singing

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Marcello Sorce Keller (1984), "The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research: a Short History", Folklore, XCV, no. 1, 100- 104.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (April 2010)

Leila Forouhar
Background information
Native name	لیلا فروهر
Born	(1959-02-23) 23 February 1959 (age 53) Isfahan, Iran
Genres	Pop music
Occupations	singer, model, actress
Years active	1974–present
Labels	Pars Video Taraneh Records Caltex Records

Leila Forouhar (Persian: لیلا فروهر‎, born 23 February 1954 in Isfahan, Iran) is a singer and actress from Iran. She relocated to Los Angeles after the Iranian Revolution.

Career[link]

Leila is the daughter of the late Iranian actor Jahangir Forouhar, who had already established a solid background in the Iranian entertainment industry by the early 1970s. She speaks of the great influence her father had upon her interviews. She followed her father's career path into movies, beginning with minor roles in various movies that were based mainly on the social issues of the Shah Shah Pahlavi^{[citation needed]}. In time she became known as a child star, and with the release of Soltaneh Ghalbhaa (King of Hearts), her fame had already spread to all three Persian countries Iran, Tajikistan and Dari speaking country Afghanistan. As a teenager, she had begun modeling for top fashion magazines alongside acting, with roles in Ezteraab, Three Sisters and The Thirsty Ones.Leila has more than 47 films.

Move to France[link]

With the outbreak of war with neighboring Iraq, the Iranian movie and music industry was foundering. Initially Forouhar family decided to stay in Tehran in hopes that the conclusion of the war would signify a return to the pre-revolutionary era^{[citation needed]}. With the war drew stretched on, however, Leila decided to leave the country.

During this time, much of the press speculated about Forouhar's possible comeback to singing, but Forouhar did not grant interviews, desiring to remain unobtrusive (assassinations of famous expatriates were common).

Move to the United States[link]

In 1988 Forouhar and her family moved to the United States quickly establishing contact with Los Angeles based Iranian artists who had fled at the outbreak of the revolution. That same year, she released Makhmal-e-Naz and in 1989 Hedieh ("The Gift"), and the song "Ey Dil" ("Oh My Heart") became very popular^{[citation needed]}, rekindling a craze similar to that inspired by "Cheshma-e-Nour" ("Eye of Light")^{[citation needed]}. Releasing an album a year^{[citation needed]}, by the 1990s she re-established her reputation as a popular female vocalist amongst Persian audiences^{[citation needed]}.

In 2005, Leila married a Los Angeles based Iranian-American businessman in a ceremony that included many fellow singers and entertainers with whom she had made albums^{[citation needed]}. Forouhar's nephew is American Muslim reformer Reza Aslan.

New album[link]

In 2012 she published a new album under the name "From my Heart". It is different from her previous albums in featuring a more traditional style.

Discography[link]

Unknown Release

• 1974: Hadis

Avang Records Releases

• 1976: Leila Forouhar 2 (Ham Parvaz)

Caltex Records Releases

• 1991: Hedieh (with Shahram Solati)
• 1992: Shaans
• 1994: Attal Mattal (with Ebi)
• 1995: Tapesh
• 1996: Saraab
• 1997: Love Songs
• 1997: Planet of Harmony
• 1997: Dance Beat
• 1998: Love Story
• 1999: Didar (with Shahram Shabpareh)
• 1999: Yek Samado Do Leila (soundtrack from the play "Yek Samado Do Leila")
• 2000: Tasvir
• 2001: Story of Yours, Story of Mine
• 2003: Live in Concert at the Kodak Theatre
• 2005: A Kiss
• 2008: My Moon
• 2012: From My Heart

Taraneh Record Releases

• 1993: Hamsafar
• 1994: Do Parandeh
• 2012: From My Heart

Pars Video Releases

• 1988: Makhmal-e-Naaz
• 1994: Parandeha (with Mahasti and Shahram Solati)
• 1999: Ghahremanane Vatan (with Andy and Dariush)

MZM Records Releases

• 1992: Bahaaneh
• 2008: Maahe Man

Other Records Releases

• 2000: Lets party (with Maxim & The Boyz)

single Records Releases

• 1970s: Entezaar
• 1974: Delshoureh
• 1975: Yeki Yepoole Khoroos
• 1977: Zalzalak
• 1992: Amad az rah fasle zibaye bahar
• 1994: Telesm (With Shamaei zadeh)
• 1995: Nefrin (with Mekabiz)
• 1996: Zamin larzid
• 1998: Iran barande mishe
• 2001: Azadeh Irani
• 2002: Mosabbeb
• 2003: Sayad Nojva
• 2006: Music (with 23 singer)
• 2007: Iran Iran (with Omid)
• 2007: The Memories (Dedicated to Mahasti)
• 2009: Bedoon Iran Nemimir
• 2010: Nowrooz
• 2011: Do Parandeh (Remix)

Notable singles[link]

Videography[link]

• Rouzegar (VHS)
• The Return (VHS)
• Flashback (VHS)
• A Kiss (DVD)
• Live in Concert at the Kodak Theatre (DVD)
• 4 DVD Collection #1

Filmography[link]

• Mehmaan
• Soltaneh Ghalbhaa
• Aramesh dar Hozooreh Digaraan
• Baagheh Boloor
• Shabeh Aftabi
• Ezteraab
• Four Sisters
• The Thirsty Ones
• Morad & laleh
• Iman
• The Beauty Sin
• Golden Cage
• The Springtime Connection

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2010)

• (Introduction by artist) Leila Forouhar: Live in Concert at Kodak Theatre (Liner notes). California: Caltex Records. 2003 [DVD 2003]. B0007Y5HNE. 

• "Leila Forouhar, Shohreh, or Helen: Whom Would You Pick as Best?". Tehran Magazine. http://www.tehranmagazine.com/main/pdf.php?archiv=479&page=72-73. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

• "Marriage of Entertainment Star Leila & Essi.". p.62-65 (Tehran Magazine). http://www.tehranmagazine.com/main/Archives_Archive_400_404.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

• "Leila Forouhar: The Beloved Star". p. 72-73 (Tehran Magazine). http://www.tehranmagazine.com/main/Archives_Archive_450_460.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

• "Interview with Leila Forouhar.". 57-59 (Tehran Magazine). http://www.tehranmagazine.com/main/Archives_Archive_275_292.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

• "Leila Forouhar Gives Answers to Sent Questions". BBC Persian. 16 September 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/interactivity/guest/story/2004/09/040911_shr-leil-forouhar.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

• "Leila…A Kiss, A Marriage and Two Years". BBC Persian. 8 April 2005. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2005/04/050408_ag-leila-pics.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

• "Seventh Day". 2 April 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2004/04/040401_ag-7thday.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

• "Seventh Day: Leila Forouhar". BBC Persian. 22 October 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2004/10/041022_ag-leila-forouhar.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

• "Leila's Concerts in Tajikistan". BBC Persian. 15 April 2006. http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/arts/story/2006/04/060415_7thday_bs_leila_tajik.shtml. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 

External links[link]

• Leila Forouhar's Official Website
• Leila Forouhar's Fan Club & News
• Leila Forouhar's Official Fan page (Facebook)
• Leila Forouhar's Videos

Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the murderer of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls (1846–1847) and he was later introduced as an antihero of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptations. Claims that Sweeney Todd was a historical person^[1][2] are strongly disputed by scholars,^[3][4][5] although there are possible legendary prototypes.^[6]

In the original version of the tale, Todd is a barber who dispatches his victims by pulling a lever while they are in his barber chair, which makes them fall backward down a revolving trapdoor into the basement of his shop, generally causing them to break their necks or skulls. Just in case they are alive, he goes to the basement and "polishes them off" (slitting their throats with his straight razor). In some adaptations, the murdering process is reversed, with Todd slitting the throats of his customers before they are dispatched into the basement via the revolving trapdoor. After Todd has robbed his dead victims of their goods, Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime (in some later versions, his friend and/or lover), assists him in disposing of the bodies by baking their flesh into meat pies, and selling them to the unsuspecting customers of her pie shop. Todd's barber shop is situated at 186 Fleet Street, London, next to St. Dunstan's church, and is connected to Mrs. Lovett's pie shop in nearby Bell Yard by means of an underground passage. In most versions of the story, he and Mrs. Lovett hire an unwitting orphan boy, Tobias Ragg, to serve the pies to customers.

The tale surrounding the character became a staple of Victorian melodrama. Later it was the subject of a 1959 ballet by English composer Sir Malcolm Arnold and, in 1979, a Tony award-winning Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim. Sweeney Todd has also been featured in several films, the most recent being 2007's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, based on the 1979 musical.

Literary history[link]

Sweeney Todd first appeared in a story entitled The String of Pearls: A Romance. This penny dreadful was published in 18 weekly parts, in Edward Lloyd's The People's Periods and Family Library, issues 7-24, 21 November 1846 to 20 March 1847. It was probably written by James Malcolm Rymer, though Thomas Peckett Prest has also been credited with it; it is likely that each worked on the serial from part to part. Other attributions include Edward P. Hingston, George Macfarren and Albert Richard Smith.^[6][7] In February/March 1847, before the serial was even completed, The String of Pearls was adapted as a melodrama by George Dibden Pitt for the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton. It was in this alternative version of the tale, rather than the original, that Todd acquired his catchphrase: "I'll polish him off".^[6] Neil Gaiman, in a promotional "penny dreadful", identified a number of earlier texts that feed into the Todd story, some dating back to at least the late 17th century.^{[citation needed]}

Another, lengthier, penny part serial was published by Lloyd from 1847/8, with 92 episodes and published in book form in 1850 as The String of Pearls with the subtitle "The Barber of Fleet Street. A Domestic Romance". This expanded version of the story was 732 pages long.^[6] A plagiarised version of this appeared in America c. 1852–53 as Sweeney Todd: or the Ruffian Barber. A Tale of Terror of the Seas and the Mysteries of the City by "Captain Merry" (a pseudonym for American author Harry Hazel (1814–89)).^[6]

In 1875, Frederick Hazleton's c. 1865 dramatic adaptation Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet Street: or the String of Pearls (see below) was published as Vol 102 of Lacy's Acting Edition of Plays.^[6]

A scholarly, annotated edition of the original 1846–47 serial was published in volume form in 2007 by the Oxford University Press under the title of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, edited by Robert Mack.

Alleged historical basis[link]

The original story of Sweeney Todd was quite possibly based on an older urban legend, originally based on dubious pie-fillings.^[6] In Charles Dickens's Pickwick Papers (1836/7), the servant Sam Weller says that a pieman used cats 'for beefsteak, veal and kidney, 'cording to the demand', and recommends that people should buy pies only 'when you know the lady as made it, and is quite sure it ain't kitten.'^[8] Dickens then developed this in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-4) published two years before the appearance of Sweeney Todd in The String of Pearls (1846-7), a character called Tom Pinch is grateful that his own "evil genius did not lead him into the dens of any of those preparers of cannibalic pastry, who are represented in many country legends as doing a lively retail business in the metropolis".^[9] A similar story, which first appeared in an 1824 publication called The Tell Tale, reported how a barber and wig-maker of the Rue de la Harpe in Paris cut his customers' throats, relieved them of their valuables and then had their bodies made into meat pies, utilising the services of a pastry cook, whose establishment was on the same street.^[6][7]

Claims that Sweeney Todd was a real person were first made in the introduction to the 1850 (expanded) edition of The String of Pearls and have persisted to the present day.^[6] In two books,^[1][2] Peter Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800. Nevertheless, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims.^[3][4][5] A check of the website Old Bailey at^[10] for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong on 10 July 1782 on the isle of Gorée, West Africa, and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802.^{[original research?][10]}

A late (1890s) reference to the urban legend of the murdering barber can be found in the poem by the Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson - The Man from Ironbark.

On stage, screen and audio[link]

• The String of Pearls (1847) a melodrama by George Dibden Pitt. It opened at Hoxton's Britannia Theatre, and billed as "founded on fact". It was something of a success, and the story spread by word of mouth and took on the quality of an urban legend. Various versions of the tale were staples of the British theatre for the rest of the century.
• Sweeney Todd, the Barber of Fleet Street: or the String of Pearls (c. 1865), a dramatic adaption written by Frederick Hazleton which premiered at the Old Bower Saloon, Stangate Street, Lambeth.^[6]
• "Sweeney Todd, The Barber", a song which assumes its audience knows the stage version and claims that such a character existed in real life. Stanley Holloway, who recorded it in 1956, attributed it to R. P. Weston, a songwriter active from 1906 to 1934.
• Sweeney Todd (1926), the first film version of the story, starring G.A. Baughan in the title role. The film is now lost.
• Sweeney Todd (1928) a silent film starring Moore Marriott as Sweeney Todd and Iris Darbyshire as Mrs. Lovett. This is the first surviving film adaptation.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936), a film version of the Victorian melodrama starring Tod Slaughter as Sweeney Todd and Stella Rho as Mrs. "Lovatt".
• "The Strange Case of the Demon Barber" (8 January 1946), an adaptation of the Sweeney Todd story featured in an episode of the radio drama The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In this interpretation, an actor playing the character on stage begins to believe he is committing similar murders while sleepwalking, while Holmes and Watson uncover something different that may prove his sanity.
• In 1947, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's CBC Stage Series broadcast a radio adaptation of the Pitt play starring Mavor Moore as Todd, Jane Mallett as Mrs. Lovett, John Drainie as Tobias, Lloyd Bochner as Mark Ingesterie and Arden Kaye as Johanna Oakley. The production was adapted by Ronald Hamilton and directed by Andrew Allan, with original music composed by Lucio Agostini.
• Sweeney Todd (1959), a ballet version performed by the Royal Ballet with music by Malcolm Arnold. The choreography was directed by John Cranko.
• Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970), a horror film with John Miranda as Sweeney Todd and Jane Helay as Maggie Lovett, directed by Andy Milligan.
• "Sweeney Todd" (1970), an episode of the ITV series Mystery and Imagination starring Freddie Jones as Sweeney Todd and Heather Canning as Nellie Lovett. In this adaptation, written by Vincent Tilsey and directed by Reginald Collin, the title character is portrayed as insane rather than evil. Lewis Fiander played Mark Ingesterie with Mel Martin as the heroine Charlotte and Len Jones as Tobias.
• Sweeney Todd (1973), an hour-long TV production by the CBC Television series The Purple Playhouse with Barry Morse as Todd. This was again Pitt's version of the play.
• Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1973), a play by the British playwright Christopher Bond. This version of the story was the first to give Todd a more sympathetic motive: he is a wrongfully imprisoned barber who returns to London after 15 years in an Australian penal colony under the new name Sweeney Todd, only to find that the judge responsible for his imprisonment has raped his young wife and driven her to suicide, and adopted his daughter. He at first plans to kill the judge, but when his prey escapes, he swears revenge on the whole world and begins to slash the throats of his customers. The character's new, tragic backstory was Bond's way of grafting dramatic themes from The Revenger's Tragedy onto Pitt's stage plot.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. A Musical Thriller (1979), the acclaimed musical adaptation of Bond's play by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler starring Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd (here christened Benjamin Barker) and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. George Hearn and Dorothy Loudon later succeeded Cariou and Lansbury in the lead roles. In 1982, the musical was televised on The Entertainment Channel, starring Hearn and Lansbury, and directed by Terry Hughes and Harold Prince. It was produced by RKO Pictures and RKO/Nederlander Productions.
• The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998), a television movie directed by John Schlesinger, commissioned by British Sky Broadcasting for which Ben Kingsley received a Screen Actors Guild Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of the title role. Joanna Lumley portrayed Mrs. Lovett.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert (2001), a filmed concert version of Sondheim's musical, stars George Hearn as Sweeney Todd/Benjamin Barker, Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett, Timothy Nolen as Judge Turpin and Neil Patrick Harris as Tobias.
• In Jersey Girl (2004) Ollie Trinke (Ben Affleck) and his on screen daughter sing "God, That's Good!!" from the Sondheim version for her school play, accompanied by Liv Tyler.
• The second episode of the BBC Radio comedy series 1835, entitled "Haircut, Sir?", written by Jim Poyser and broadcast in June 2004 had aimless aristocrat Viscount Belport (Paul Rider) and his servant Ned (Jason Done) joining the police force under Sir Robert Peel and encountering demon barber Sweeney Todd (Jonathan Keeble) on their first case.
• A Broadway revival of the Sondheim musical, directed by John Doyle, was mounted at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in 2005. The ten-person cast, who played their own instruments in new orchestrations, consisted of John Arbo (Jonas Fogg; bass player), Donna Lynne Champlin (Pirelli; piano, accordion, flute), Alexander Gemignani (The Beadle; piano, trumpet), Mark Jacoby (Judge Turpin; trumpet, percussion), Diana DiMarzio (Beggar Woman/Lucy Barker; clarinet), Benjamin Magnuson (Anthony Hope; cello, piano), Lauren Molina (Johanna Barker; cello), Manoel Felciano (Tobias; violin, clarinet, piano), Patti LuPone (Mrs. Lovett; tuba, percussion), and Michael Cerveris (Sweeney Todd; guitar). Cerveris, LuPone, and Felciano were all nominated for Tony Awards; the show itself was nominated for Best Revival, and won Tonys for Best Direction and Best Orchestration.
• Sweeney Todd (2006), a BBC television drama version with a screenplay written by Joshua St Johnston and starring Ray Winstone in the title role and Essie Davis as Mrs Lovett.
• Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls: an Audio Melodrama in Three Despicable Acts (2007), an audio play by Yuri Rasovsky, won three 2008 Audie Awards for best audio drama, best original work and for achievement in production.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) a film directed by Tim Burton, adapted from Sondheim's musical. It stars Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, and Ed Sanders as Toby. The cast also includes Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli and Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford, Turpin's henchman. The film received two Golden Globe Awards - one for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical (Johnny Depp), and one for Best Picture, Comedy or Musical. The film was also nominated for three Academy Awards, winning for Art Direction.
• "Demon Sweeney Todd", a song written by the NWOBHM band, Saxon in their album Into The Labyrinth released in 2009
• Sweeney Todd Musical, a 2009 musical rendition by the Repertory Philippines group, starring Audie Gemora in the title role, and Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo as Mrs. Lovett. Gerard Salonga of Filharmonika conducted the orchestra. It was directed by Baby Barredo and Michael Williams.
• Oh My Meat Pie, an episode in the 12th season of Good Eats, an educational cooking show on The Food Network starring Alton Brown. Brown plays his great-grandfather who stumbles upon a pie shop in London run by Mrs. Lovett; they are frequently visited by her neighbor, Mr. Todd, a barber. At one point, Lovett provides Brown with a large tub of ground meat for his recipe of shepherd's pie and is evasive about what type of meat it is.
• "Andy's Play", the third episode in the 7th season of The Office, centers around Andy Bernard's role in a local musical production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
• "Major League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", the seventh episode in the 5th season of Robot Chicken, SpongeBob discovers that Mr. Krabs is killing other sea creatures and baking them into pastries. SpongeBob plays the role of Mark Ingestrie, while Mr. Krabs plays the role of Sweeney Todd.
• Inspired by Sweeney Todd's slaughter and sale of human flesh, the Danish motion picture "The Green Butchers", starring Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas, also features cannibalistic slaughter and sale of meat leading to a booming business mainly based on the human meat, in this instance sold as marinated chicken.
• "Waiting to Exhale", the second episode of the 2nd season of the television series Dexter. When Dexter Morgan asks his colleague Vince Masuka where the best place to hide a corpse is, he ends his extensive answer with "Hell, even meat pies".

Comics[link]

The character of Sweeney Todd is presented as a villain in Marc Andreyko's Manhunter series, where he appears as a ghost which possesses men (causing them to resemble him) and murders women. A supporting character, Obsidian, is shown to be a fan of Sondheim's musical.

Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli were to have created a Sweeney Todd adaptation for Taboo, published by Steve Bissette and Tundra, but only completed a prologue.

Classical Comics, a UK publisher creating graphic novel adaptations of classical literature, has produced a full colour paperback Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Sweeney Todd (176 pages, November 2010, Original Text, ISBN 978-1-906332-79-2, Quick Text, ISBN 978-1-906332-80-8, forthcoming) with script adaptation by Sean M. Wilson, linework by Declan Shalvey; colouring by Jason Cardy & Kat Nicholson and lettering by Jim Campbell.

Rhyming slang[link]

In rhyming slang, Sweeney Todd is the Flying Squad (a branch of the UK's Metropolitan Police), hence the television series The Sweeney.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street edited by Robert Mack (2007). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-922933-3
• Robert Mack (2008) The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend. Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-9791-8
• Rothman, Irving N. "Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (1979). In The Barber in Modern Jewish Culture (2008). 365-76. ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-5072-1

External links[link]

• The String of Pearls etext of the 1846/47 penny dreadful that first featured Sweeney Todd
• BBC Radio 4 Extra - 1835: 2. Haircut, Sir?