Sweeney Todd – The Victorian Melodrama

The story of Sweeney Todd first appeared on the stage in 1847, in a melodrama at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, in the east end of London. “The String of Pearls”, as it was called, was based on a popular “penny dreadful” serialised story. Theatres like the Britannia at that time had large permanently employed orchestras, and the first Sweeney Todd would have been performed with a score of orchestral music. Come and be shocked, terrified, and amazed; and most important of all: hiss the villain, – the notorious Fiend of Fleet Street!