1 comments about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

1. Though the book is titled "Sweeney Todd," this is NOT the edition adapted by Christopher Bond, which later served as the basis of a Stephen Sondheim musical.
   
   This paperback edition presents the play "Sweeney Todd" written by George Dibdin Pitt. This book is also edited by Marvin Kaye, himself New York producer/director/theater scholar, and is based on the British 1928 paperbound edition which, according to the introduction, "is rife with flaws that make it unplayable without redaction." It is easy to imagine the deeply flawed condition of the 1928 text as it must have undergone many pirated productions during the 19th century so his editorial principle should be welcome. (Brief notes are attached to the places where he emended the 1928 text, with original words and the reasons for changes. The book also has four pages of "Advice for Staging Sweeny Todd" from Marvin Kaye.)
   
   In this play, as you see, Sweeney Todd appears as totally Victorian theatrical villain, who rejoices in doing what he does without any apparent reasons. He is not the victim of social injustice and his ingenious killings have nothing to do with his revenge. The melodramatic story unfolds very fast with incredible coincidences and theatrical contrivances. This readable four-act play is a strictly Victorian crime melodrama and should be enjoyed as such.
   
   The story, though considerably condensed, is basically the same as the novel versions (at least two versions exist) except several changes inevitable for stage production. Things get a bit confusing (and weak) at Act Four, but the book still offers a fascinating read.
   
   Sadly it seems not many things are known about the playwright George Dibdin Pitt or the contemporary stage productions. According to Wordsworth's "The String of Pearls," original novel about "Sweeney Todd," around the late 1840s (when the original weekly serial novel was published as "Penny Dreadful") and early 1850s , many pirated versions of the play were staged at theaters, so it is impossible to find who really wrote this script first, or when. Still if you're interested in stage, Victorian culture or legend of Sweeney Todd, you will enjoy reading this book.

2 comments about Sweeney Todd - Vocal Selections.

1. After taking a part in this show in the fall of 1998, I fell in love with each character within the show. I desperately wanted the score to the show, but realized that this idea was out of the question because it would cost me (too much money). In theater class, i was searching through scripts and came across this rather thin but thourough script of Sweeney Todd. It's definitely a keeper with all of the rare pictures and drawings that are included in it. Buy it!



2. This does not have a lot of Mrs. L's songs in it.
   Which is why I essentially bought it.

No comments about The String of Pearls: a Romance - the Original Sweeney Todd (Pocket Penguin Classics).

5 comments about Sweeney Todd: The Real Story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

1. I found some of the facts mentioned in the book interesting. Those that had nothing to do with sweeney todd but, the history of London. It was a very slow and painful read. I wish there was a way to return all the wasted time i spent trying to get through this book.



2. 
   It seems that the previous reviwers who slaged this book and author wanted all this deep insightful detailed facts when in fact the author from the begining stated their were very few hard concrete facts !!! I too wanted all sorts of detailed facts but the author stated early on that after years of research on Mr. Todd amd Ms. Lovett there was very little documented information on Sweeney Todd and Ms. Lovett their arrest,her suicide and his hanging !!!
   
   The Author clearly tells what is fact and what is fiction and what is conjecture and leaves it to reader to decide for themselves what is a reasonable conculsion with the information that is available !!! Again the Author just gives you the information he could dig up and by his own admission there is more stories then facts....but there are some facts...he can not be held reasponsable because the actual facts are very little....and he also explains why there is such little information on these two people.
   
   The author does not hold back anything....he gives you all the stories past and current....stage plays or bedtime....and how some of these stories stem from some of the actual accounts that are known about Sweeney Todd and Ms. Lovett....the exploits of Mr. Todd have been sensationalized for entertainment purposes to be sure...but those stories do not change the fact there was in fact a serial killer barber and a psychopath pie maker....how did they met!? No one knows....how long they do these evil deeds...again no one knows....The author tell you that !! He does not give you something thats just not there !!!
   
   So....just read the book...take it for its worth...its not the bible nor does it claim to be....but I liked it....and found it very informative....its all good !!!!!



3. Even while you are reading this, you realize, that while Sweeney is PROBABLY based on some actual events or person, he really never existed, certainly not to the degree he is protrayed as. The story is good though. You can tell that the author REALLY wants the Sweeney of legend to exist. There was a good historical geography lesson of old London in here with the author's attempt to authenicate Sweeney, but to no avail. We can be GLAD that he didn't though. That was one MEAN serial killer!!!!



4. Well-written and entertaining (as is most of Haining's work), makes a pretty plausible-sounding argument that Sweeney Todd was a serial killer who actually existed, and was not simply a character inspired by a "penny dreadful." I'm not entirely convinced, because some of the "evidence" is impossible to validate, and some of the arguments Haining presents are a bit of a stretch, albeit well presented. Despite the typographical errors, it's an entertaining and interesting read, even if it doesn't leave you completely convinced of Todd's actual existence.



5. Sweeney Todd's crimes struck horror into the hearts of eighteenth century Londoners, and continue to chill and fascinate two hundred years later. According to the legend, Todd was a barber with a grimy shop on Fleet Street. When solitary victims settled into his chair for a shave, the `Demon Barber' would pull a lever that opened the floor beneath the chair and pitched them into the dark cellar below. If the fall did not kill them, he would cut their throats, and then help himself to their valuables. Todd disposed of the bodies with help from accomplice Margery Lovett, who baked their flesh into meat pies that she sold in her Bell Yard shop. The nightmare pair claimed over 160 victims before authorities stepped in and brought their spree to a halt.
   
   The unbelievable victim count, the fantastic revolving chair, and the two centuries that have passed since he cut his last victim's throat have led crime historians to question whether or not Sweeney Todd really existed. Even the flesh-into-pie method of concealing his crimes has a Grimms aura of unreality about it. Peter Haining attempted to set the record straight in this book, which was originally published in 1993, and re-released in 2007 in the wake of the popular film starring Johnny Depp. He doesn't fully succeed.
   
   `Sweeney Todd: the Real Story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street' is a well-written account of both the Demon Barber's deeds and the London that he lived in. But the problem is that Haining does not list his sources. In 1993 footnotes were not the norm outside of academic texts, but authors usually compensated by identifying source material in the book itself i.e. "According to the People's Periodical of November 1, 1846..." We're given a lot of intriguing information that cannot be verified. Haining describes Todd's trial and execution in vivid detail, yet neither event appears in the official records. Discriminating readers are left with a sense of hollow enjoyment. We want to trust such an entertaining book, but we can't.
   
   This could have been a five star book, but the sense of uncertainty it leaves me with forces me to accord only three.

5 comments about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, US & Canada Ed..

1. This is one of the 1800's Sweeney Todd stories, originally titled, "The String of Pearls". It has 39 chapters, and although a good story, different from the Sondheim version. The Johnny Depp movie poster bookcover is very misleading. You can get this story free online because it is in the public domain.



2. Having already watched the movie version and Broadway production, I was ready to delve into the story of Sweeney Todd. Knowing that the versions would be quite different, I also chose to avoid reading the introduction and anything else irrelevant to the actual story (which I might suggest to anyone who wants to read this version as well). In choosing to disregard everything I gathered from the movie and Broadway versions, I was able to fully encompass the story of "The Strong of Pearls: A Romance." I absolutely enjoyed the book and would classify this story with a rating of 4.5 because there were definitely moments in the book that became tedious to get through at times.
   
   The story follows multiple characters' lives that become intertwined when the mysterious disappearances of people continues. There is the nervous Tobias, who is unfortunate enough to work for the cruel Sweeney Todd but smart enough to know that Mr. Todd is performing questionable things. Sweeney Todd, who is wicked, is the barber who takes a liking to expensive items. There are the victims of which Mr. Todd happens to gather their belongings after they visit him which is how the reader becomes familiar with the clever Johanna. Johanna happens to spin the story together and brings multiple characters to the story as well. And somewhere, we learn of Mrs. Lovett who plays the devilish role of constantly flirting with her male customers and never allowing more than one cook! The end was a miraculous surprise to me and would make any reader giggle with pleasure!
   
   It's unfortunate that the reviews are casting this story in a bad light and I would like to again mention that this is NOT the Sondheim version people are learning to appreciate firstly. With regards to the asterisks, I simply ignored them for the sake of not wasting time. Should you have already seen the movie/Broadway production, I would recommend you disregard any of that information; it will not be useful to you and makes reading the story more pleasurable. With that said I do hope people enjoy the story and not criticize the fact that it is not the movie version Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter made so infamous.



3. "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," a book by Robert L. Mack, who's evidently an expert on the subject of Sweeney Todd, as he's also author of The Wonderful and Surprising History of Sweeney Todd: The Life and Times of an Urban Legend, comes to us as a rather odd tie-in with the recent major movie on the subject, Tim Burton's, starring Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. And, it does tie in with the subject of the infamous Sweeney Todd, in fact. Just not in the way a reader might anticipate.
   
   For the author has edited the earliest-known major literary treatment of the subject. That happens to be an anonymously-written Victorian-era British "penny dreadful," published as an 18-part serial that ran from November 21, 1846 to March 20, 1847, called, "The String of Pearls: A Romance." And the very modern horror tale of the murderous barber and his partner in crime, the cannibalistic Mrs. Margery Lovett, who owned a meat pie shop, is but a subplot in a fusty, melodramatic, rather conventional tale of the romance of Johanna Oakley and Mark Ingestrie.
   
   However, as the writer Mack points out in his very interesting introduction, before the serial had even been completely published, the story of the barber and the pie shop owner had already been lifted from it and used for a wildly popular stage play that would be followed by many more such throughout the Victorian era. And these, of course, were followed by the 1979, multi-award winning, landmark Broadway musical production, by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, that was the basis for Burton's recent movie musical. Mack also tells us that, though there is some slight documentation that a somewhat similar crime might have been committed in 18th century Paris, the story of Sweeney Todd might, at that time, be considered more a rural legend than an urban one: apparently many countrymen, in the big smoke of London for the day, selling livestock or whatever, scared themselves to sleep with tales of a big city barber who would murder them for their money.
   
   The tale itself, which owes a lot, around the edges, to the Charles Dickens' novel also being serialized at the time, is fun to read, although the story is, certainly, told Victorian-style, and therefore won't be to everyone's taste. But the reader can, to a degree, share in the author's thrill of discovery, as Todd and Mrs. Lovett walk right out of this silly romance, into our imaginations, and onto the world stage. Mack has also footnoted the book for its modern-day readers: as several other reviewers have complained, the footnotes are somewhat inconveniently located at the back of the book, rather than on the page, and vary from the informative, to the self-explanatory, to the extraneous.
   
   But it helps to know, in understanding the emergence of these early 19th century icons of horror, that London at the time was a place we'd consider fairly horrible today, stinking, dirty, and unsanitary. And the Fleet Street area, as I mentioned in my review of the recent movie, was particularly bad. Before it was covered over, the Fleet River had become so polluted that it burned, and became known as the Fleet Ditch, an open sewer. The network of underground caverns used by the sinister pair to conduct their business was undoubtedly what remained of that troubled body of water.
   
   All in all, it's got to be highly interesting for those who like to know the background of what they're seeing.



4. This book was in my opinion marketed under false pretenses. I did enjoy it, but like a lot of people quickly realized this was not the story we saw in the movies.
   It's a chopped and edited story from over a hundred years ago, so right there the structure was hard to identify with. I've read plenty of classics, but I feel that this book was purposely misleading, especially for people who aren't used to this type of stylized writing.
   The original story was called 'The String of Pearls'. The relationships between the characters weren't even the same, and I felt that although the story itself was good, I couldn't identify with it.
   
   K.K. Jolliffe



5. AMAZING MOVIE! if you like JD, musicals, morbid subjects or all of the above its awesome, great direction and cinematography. catchy songs too!

1 comments about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barner Of Fleet Street: The String Of Pearls.

1. This is the Penny Dreadful story that was first published in the 1840's.
   It includes the much loved characters Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovette.
   Anyone who only knows the story of Sweeney Todd from the famous musical will notice that this story is quite different. There are a lot more sub-plots included in the novel and a lot more characters. The story is also includes Johannah a lot more than the musical.
   It is still a great story and any Sweeney Todd fan will enjoy the first story written about him. It's great to know where the story started and that it has lasted this long.

5 comments about Four by Sondheim (A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum).

1. This book is amazing. It has almost everything that you could want in a book like this. What does it include do you ask? WELL! It includes the scripts to A Funny Thing happened on the way to the Forum, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Tood, and Sunday in the Park With George. In addition to that it also has Original Hirschfeld drawings, Lyrics to cut songs and where they would go in the script, Costume Designs, Production Photos, Cast Lists from Original, Touring and Revival Casts, and also the discography for each of the shows. My only question... Where is volume two??? I would like to see the following shows put into a collaborative edition like this: Into the Woods, Assassins, Company and Follies. WOOO Amazing and entertaining. Recommend this to all musical lovers everywhere!



2. The scrips are just like what you would get if you cot just one. more than 600 pages of pure script. I love it!



3. A great book to have. Along with the already excellent scripts fro the four shows, a nice touch is the introduction to each show by someone intimiately involved with it. As an orchestrator, I particularly enjoyed reading Jonathan Tunick's introduction to 'A Little Night Music.'



4. This is a fabulous collection of scripts for four of Sondheim's musicals. I especially like the forward for each script explaining how the writers developed each script. Several shows also include songs that were dropped during the development of the show or during rehearsals or tryouts. As a Broadway fan, I tend to think of these musicals as fixed and complete, and it is enlightening to see the writers treating the material as highly modifiable, and treating songs as expendable if they don't properly advance the story or have the desired effect on the audience.



5. If you're involved with musical theater these four titles are a must for your reference library. If you love these shows and want to revisit your favorite moments, this is a great way to do it. And at this price you sure can't beat what you get.

5 comments about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Applause Musical Library).

1. Great collection, with the right keys and all music for show. Including the cut 'judge's song.'



2. I became upsessed with this show when I saw the DVD with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn. Now I am so happy to have the enire show in my lap. It arrived today, and it already has an honored spot in my script library (right next to Hairspray)



3. I received the wrong item from Amazon, though I was billed for this one. Instead of the all-inclusive book ($100), I received the 30 page "musical selections" book ($12). It seems that the wrong label was affixed to the item. Even though Amazon took it back, be careful. Try to make sure that you are going to receive the correct item.



4. This is the script of the play by Christopher Bond, which the Sondheim musical is based on. I enjoyed reading it quite a bit, as a theater enthusiast. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves the musical and would like to read a slightly different vision of the story. To me, Todd's character seems very different in the play than in the musical. An entertaining read.



5. The $100 price tag is well worth the money to obtain this score for the original Broadway production. Although the movie version will stand alone on it's own merits, and the last New York revival went to some strange lengths to rework the staging for it's own ends, it is always best to see the original form. Having performed the role of Sweeney twice, myself, it is great to be able to own my own version of the score!

5 comments about Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood.

1. I have been following Mr. Herr's work for years and I truly appreciate this edition of Varney the Vampire. If you are new to the genre, this is a great place to start!



2. Ignore all the talk about Dracula in other reviews, that book and this one are two uniquely different entities. Legends about vampires existed outside of Transylvania, and even Europe for that matter, long before the Victorians tightened their first bodice. My impression of this book is that the writing is closer to Robert E. Howard in its great forward momentum; another apt comparison might be to the movie serials of the '30s-'50s. Thrills and more thrills! The style may be a little underwhelming, but if you can read Ann Radcliffe you can certainly read this. And incidentally, I think the ungrammatical and linguistically oafish reviews for this book are very appropriate for a book written at top speed and with little editorial supervision. Take a trip back in time to a very different world - read this book!



3. I very much enjoyed this book. The victorian style creates a great atmosphere for the antics of a vampire who wins the readers sympathy even as he drains his female victims. The editors notes are at the bottom of the pages for easy reference, like having a friend reading with you. Thank you Curt for such a good presentation of must read vampire fiction.



4. it's so bad that the writer forgets the names of some of the characters, or he forgets the events of previous chapters, or he is forgets certain characters all together for chapters. but that doesn't mean that its not a good story. it has many bad points, such as being long winded or the books title-varney! really!- but it is a good story. and the notes are very helpful in explaining what the writer seems to have forgotten and getting a great idea as to the origins of the modern vampire vs. the old vampires. i would say that this was a really good buy.



5. It's good to see an affordable edition of this "classic"--'cause it's not that good, unless you REALLY like all things vampiric. Meandering, incoherent, self-contradictory, and lacking characterization, but fun for occasional dips into the pool of blood. Buy it. Why not? Just don't expect Dracula or anything.

4 comments about Sweeney Todd- Movie Selections- Piano,Vocal.

1. When I saw Sweeney Todd, I tried to find sheet music for it. I was able to find both the original "Vocal Selections" book (the one with the white cover and drawing) and the full score/piano reduction version at local libraries. I was sadly disappointed by both. The original Vocal Selections book has stripped down versions of the songs that were probably rushed out to cash in on the success of the musical. "Epiphany", the song I was most interested in, is notably missing. And some of the music sounds disappointing and flat to me in its original keys (e.g., F minor in "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd").
   
   The full score, aside from being extremely bulky, has a lot of extraneous music designed to stretch out the length of the original. Quite a bit of it is little more than filler. I tried playing the Final Scene as it was in the movie, but in the score it is dragged out and broken up by filler material. And the accompaniment seems a little thin in places, as the musical was written for a small Broadway pit orchestra.
   
   The new book (Sweeney Todd: Movie Selections) is exactly what I was looking for: All the major songs from the film; in their entirety (including interspersed dialogue, intros and outros); in the exact same keys as in the film; and with a full, lush piano accompaniment reduced from the newly enlarged orchestral score. The only minor drawback is that, while the cover says "Piano - Vocal - Chords", I can't find any chords printed in my copy. Seeing as I'm playing it on a piano (and not a guitar), this isn't a problem for me.
   
   The book contains the following songs:
   
   - No Place Like London
   - The Worst Pies in London
   - Poor Thing
   - My Friends
   - Green Finch and Linnet Bird
   - Johanna (Anthony)
   - Pirelli's Miracle Elixir
   - The Contest
   - Wait
   - Pretty Women
   - Epiphany
   - A Little Priest
   - Johanna (Anthony, Todd, Beggar Woman)
   - God, That's Good!
   - By The Sea
   - Not While I'm Around
   
   I would have liked to see the Final Scene in the book as well, but as it stands it's great the way it is. If your first exposure to "Sweeney Todd" was the movie, and you don't have any attachment to the original musical, this is the sheet music book to get.



2. For a bit of background, I've played piano for over 10 years and have over 15 Broadway musical piano/vocal sheet music books.
   
   This Sweeney Todd delivers on all counts. The music is not for a beginner, for sure, but would be appropriate for intermediate to difficult players. The piano part is not shortchanged to get vocals, as it so often is; the vocal part is full of the beautiful rhythms. Another nice touch is that the monologue into the songs are included at the top of the music-I've never seen that before.
   
   However, there is one problem. To get the movie down, some of the middles of songs have been cut. One noticeable cut, which happens to be my favorite song, is "Kiss Me" (performed by Johanna and Antony, and then Todd in the 2nd). If your only exposure has been the movie, though, you will find it exactly as seen.



3. This was a gift for an 11 yr old girl who loves her keyboard. It is her favorite at this time.



4. FOUR AND 1/2 STARS.....
   
   Sweeney Todd is a masterpiece musical by Stephen Sondhiem, and one shouldn't miss out on playing this music on the piano. This only thing that brought this rating down a half of a star is that there are too many pages for the binding Alfred chose. The book will not stay open without tons of work on the performer's part, but it is worth it. Also, some notes absolutely have to be cut out because this orchestration to piano transcription doesn't seem to take into effect the limits of the human hand....but with some creativity, one should be able to do this music justice, and you should buy this book if you like Sweeney Todd!!