Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and graphic violence.

Mrs. Lovett’s Pie Shop becomes widely successful, allowing her to expand the shop with an outdoor eating area (“God, That’s Good!”). Mrs. Lovett’s newfound wealth also allows her to buy fancier clothes, which she wears as she works around the shop. Tobias works at the shop as well, waiting tables and barking on the street. The descriptions of Mrs. Lovett’s sumptuous meat pies draw new customers, and the quality of the pies satisfies them. Mrs. Lovett keeps a close eye on the shop, ordering Tobias to chase freeloaders for payment and shoo the beggar woman away.

Todd is anxious about the delivery of a new barbershop chair. When it finally arrives, he calls Mrs. Lovett up to look at it. He modifies the chair to send customers down a trapdoor to Mrs. Lovett’s bakehouse after he slashes their throats. He and Mrs. Lovett agree on a system in which Todd will signal that he is sending someone down by pounding three times on the floor. She will respond with three knocks to indicate that she has received the corpse. They practice this procedure, though Mrs. Lovett is immediately torn away by the increasing demand at her shop. She puts up a “Sold Out” sign when they run out of pies, but then a customer comes to Todd’s parlor, so Mrs. Lovett takes the sign down.

One early morning, Anthony searches for Johanna, whom Turpin locked away, as promised (“Johanna—Act 2 Sequence”). Todd wistfully thinks about his daughter, wondering how much she resembles his wife. He continues to think of her as he kills his first customer of the day. Todd bids Johanna goodbye, resigning himself to the belief that he will never see her again. As Mrs. Lovett throws the body parts of Todd’s first customer into the oven, the beggar woman curses the smoke from the bakehouse chimney, calling it a portent of the devil and a sign that Mrs. Lovett is a witch.

The next day, Todd accepts that even if he doesn’t see Johanna again, he feels joy in knowing what lies ahead for them. He points out a shooting star overhead as if he is with Johanna. Johanna, incarcerated at Fogg’s Asylum, continues to believe that she will marry Anthony. The beggar woman calls the shooting star another sign of witchcraft. She urges the people around her to call the authorities for help, fearing that London will soon go ablaze. Her cries go unheard. Todd welcomes another customer but does not kill him since his wife and child accompany him. Todd tells himself that he will miss Johanna less as each day goes by and again bids her goodbye.

Anthony is passing by Fogg’s Asylum when he hears Johanna singing her song to the birds. He finds out where she is incarcerated and demands to see her. The Beadle approaches Anthony, wondering what he is fussing about. When Anthony calls Turpin the “devil incarnate” and accuses him of being responsible for Johanna’s incarceration, the Beadle threatens to have him arrested. Anthony criticizes the corruption of the law, which provokes the Beadle into calling the police on him. Anthony escapes.

At the end of a day’s work, Mrs. Lovett does her accounting in her back parlor. She praises herself for her industriousness, though she notices that Todd is barely paying any attention to her. Todd is preoccupied with finding another way to reach Turpin. This frustrates Mrs. Lovett, who tries to get him to think of their business partnership instead. She affectionately massages and kisses him, sharing her dream of retiring in a seaside town with Todd (“By the Sea”). Todd indulges her daydream with forced enthusiasm. Mrs. Lovett is open about her desire to marry Todd on the beach, live a domestic life, and run a small inn where they continue their business collaboration. Mrs. Lovett entices Todd to share in her fantasy, but Todd is too single-minded to think of anything else but revenge for his family. Mrs. Lovett urges him to forget about his past and eagerly looks forward to her second marriage.

Anthony comes to Todd to report Johanna’s incarceration at Fogg’s Asylum. Todd is pleased by the report since London’s wigmakers regularly source their hair from people in asylums. Todd hatches a plan to reach out to Mr. Fogg to ask for Johanna’s hair, disguising Anthony as a wigmaker so that he can access her cell. Todd teaches Anthony how to describe various qualities of blonde hair to establish his credibility. A company quintet sings that Todd jumped at the first chance to execute his plan, no longer waiting, as he did last time.