The Devil's Barber of Fleet Street A musical thriller / Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim / Book by Hugh Wheeler based on the play of the same name by Christopher Bond German adaptation by Wilfried Steiner and Roman Hinze
After years of serving an unjust prison sentence, the barber Benjamin Barker returns to his home on Fleet Street to find his life in ruins: The unscrupulous Judge Turpin had sent him into exile because he himself first coveted Barker’s wife and now his daughter. Upon his return, Barker resolves to take revenge on the judge. And revenge is a pie best served cold… As the barber Sweeney Todd, Barker starts a small business with the enterprising baker Mrs. Lovett: While he gives his customers a thorough shave, the most delicious pies are baked in her bakery. The only strange thing is that Sweeney Todd’s customers vanish without a trace after their shave. And where does Mrs. Lovett get the delicious meat filling for her baked goods?
In 1973, Stephen Sondheim adapted a chilling horror story into a musical thriller for gourmets that, beyond all its drastic absurdity, also raises the question of how quickly a society can mutate into a collection of cannibals.