28. A Summary of Mr. Todd's Life For The Purpose of Clearing Things Up For Nadir and Those Who Haven't Seen the Movie.
Erik gestured for them to sit down so all four of them tool a seat on a different marble step as the Phantom began to speak. "15 years ago there was a barber named Benjamin Barker. He had a beautiful wife, Lucy, and a little girl, Johanna. There was a judge, Judge Turpin, who fell in love with Lucy. And so, one day when the family was out together, the Judge took Benjamin Barker away from his wife and child and had him arrested under false charges. Lucy was so distraught, she would sit in her room with Johanna every day, and the Judge would give her flowers and beg her to love him. One day the Beadle Bamford took Lucy to a masked ball at the Judge's house where Judge Turpin raped her. After that she poisoned herself with Arsenic. Judge Turpin adopted Johanna as his own daughter.
"15 years later the barber escaped from prison and returned to London with the help of a young sailor, Anthony Hope. By then he had taken on a new name, Sweeney Todd. Sweeny made his way back to his old shop, on Fleet Street, and went into Mrs. Lovett's pie shop which is directly under his barber shop. Mrs. Lovett tells him how her meat pies are revolting, the worst pies in London, in fact. When Todd asks her if she will rent out the room above her shop she explains to him what happened to Lucy years ago. When she recognizes him as Benjamin Barker he tells her how he is now Sweeney Todd and how he shall have his revenge on the judge. Mrs. Lovett takes him up to his shop and shows him that she kept his seven silver razors. He tells her how they are his friends and she tells him how she had 'always had a fondness for him'.
"Meanwhile, Anthony is walking past the Judge's house when he sees Johanna singing in her window. He falls madly in love with her and vows that he will steal her from the judge, not knowing that Todd is after the same goal.
"On Thursday Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett go to the market together to see Signor Adolfo Pirelli, an Italian barber with a street side shop. Pirelli's servant, Toby, was advertising Pirelli's Miracle Elixir, and Sweeney Todd claims that it is nothing but a fraud concocted of piss and ink. Pirelli appears and Sweeney Todd challenges him to a shaving contest. Todd wins and Pirelli gives him 5 pounds.
"Now we go back to Anthony, who was walking by the Judge's house when Johanna threw him a key out her window. He goes to the barber shop and tells Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett his plans to steal Johanna and asks them if he can hide her at the shop for a few hours while he is getting a coach. They agree and Anthony leaves, then Pirelli comes to the shop. Mrs. Lovett keeps Toby downstairs while Pirelli talks to Todd. Pirelli tries to blackmail Todd into half the barbershop's profits by using the fact that he recognizes Todd as Benjamin Barker. In defense, Sweeney hits Pirelli repeatedly on the head with an iron coffee pot, and when that fails to kill the Italian, he slits his throat and hides the body in his trunk.
"Meanwhile, Judge Turpin and Beadle Bamford are walking together when Turpin tells the Beadle that he is going to marry Johanna to shield her from the world, but she seemed 'reluctant'. The Beadle suggests that he needs a shave and points him to Todd's shop. Sweeney begins to shave the Judge, thinking he is going to get his revenge, when suddenly Anthony bursts in screaming about how he talked to Johanna and made plans to run away together. The Judge storms out of the shop vowing to never come again. Todd, of course, is angry and sends Anthony away.
"Mrs. Lovett comes up to see what happened and Sweeney Todd has an epiphany. He realizes that everyone deserves to die and so decides to take up a new hobby of murdering people." (The worst of habits if you ask me, your wonderful author. Smoking may rot the lungs, drinking may destroy the liver, but killing corrupts the soul. Back to the life story then…) "They then go downstairs to the pie shop to determine what to do with the body. Mrs. Lovett has a brilliant idea and suggests that they put him in a pie. Yummy. It is then settled that Mr. Todd will kill the people that come to his shop, and Mrs. Lovett will turn them into meat pies.
"In other news, Judge Turpin finds Johanna preparing to run away and sends her to Fogg's Asylum.
"Sweeney Todd builds a handy-dandy new chair so that once he has slit a customer's throat he can pull a lever and the chair tips backward, sliding them down a shoot and into the bake house stories below. The plan is working well, but a crazy old homeless woman has noticed the smoke and awful smell coming from Mrs. Lovett's. With business going strong, Mrs. Lovett's pie shop has a grand opening, and the worst pies are now the best pies in London. Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett, have a picnic and Mrs. Lovett informs him that she would like to get married and live by the sea, but Mr. Todd can think of nothing but the Judge. Killing the Judge, that is. Now he's getting even with the world by killing his customers so that they can be turned into delicious pies.
"And, well, that's how we got to where we are now. Umm… did I miss anything, Mr. Todd?"
