AllMovie

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a videotaped staging of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's 1979 Broadway musical. This winner of nine Tony awards was based on Christopher Bond's adaptation of the venerable Victorian melodrama of the same name. The eponymous Mr. Todd (George Hearn), an ill-tempered London barber, pursues the grisly sideline of slashing his enemies' throats, grinding up their bodies, and selling the results in meat pies! This is material for a musical? Yes, and it's terrific. The production is at its best when Angela Lansbury, as Todd's looney mistress, belts forth one of the score's 26 songs. When first offered on the Showtime cable service in 1983, Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street carried home a shelf-full of ACE awards.