SWEENEY TODD RESOURCES
The full text of the original penny dreadful story, The String of Pearls’ or, The Barber of Fleet Street, is available with Project Gutenberg.
We invite you to check out wonderful resources created by other inspirational theater companies:
A Noise Within – Sweeney Todd Study Guide
Portland Center Stage – Biography of Stephen Sondheim & Sweeney Todd Timeline
Sources & Further Reading
STEPHEN SONDHEIM
- https://www.npr.org/artists/15871266/stephen-sondheim
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stephen-Sondheim
- https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/11/stephen-sondheim-dies
- https://www.denvercenter.org/news-center/stephen-sondheim-timeline-an-overview-of-the-musical-legend/
- https://www.sondheimguide.com/
HISTORY OF SWEENEY TODD
- http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160502-the-shocking-tale-of-the-penny-dreadful
- https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/penny-dreadfuls
- https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-string-of-pearls-or-the-barber-of-fleet-street#
- https://www.theatermania.com/new-york-city-theater/reviews/sweeney-todd-the-demon-Barber-of-fleet-street_1039.html
- https://www.pbs.org/kqed/demonbarber/play/sweeneytodd.html
19th CENTURY BARBERING
- https://ourworldisbeauty.com/19th-century-barber/
- http://www.brainblogger.com/2011/05/06/from-haircuts-to-hangnails-the-barber-surgeon/
- http://www.dansbarbershop.net/history-of-barbering.html
- https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/bodysphere/when-barbers-were-surgeons-and-surgeons-were-barbers/6391468
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
- https://learnodo-newtonic.com/industrial-revolution-inventions
- https://londontopia.net/history/london-industrial-revolution/
- https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/industrial-revolution
- http://www.softschools.com/timelines/industrial_revolution_timeline/40/
CLASS & RELIGION
- https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/znjnb9q/revision/5
- https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/victorian/religion/
- NPR – Dirty Old London: A History of the Victorians Infamous Filth
- The Guardian – Ghost Stories: Why the Victorians were so Spookily Good at Them
- Victorian Children – Interesting Facts about Victorian Child Labor
- History Extra-Life in 19th Century Slums: Victorian London’s Homes from Hell
- Charles Booth Map of London: Poverty Maps and Police Notebooks
- https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-victorians-religion-and-science
- https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/social-life-in-victorian-england/
CRIME & PUNISHMENT
- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-australian-penal-colony-established
- http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20120126-travelwise-australias-penal-colony-roots
- https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-victorians-and-australian-penal-colonies/
- http://victorian-era.org/victorian-era-justice-system.html
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/crime_01.shtml
- https://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain/articles/victorian-prisons-and-punishments
- https://editions.covecollective.org/content/horrors-botany-bay
- https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/first-fleet-sets-sail-australia/
- https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-victorians-and-australian-penal-colonies/
- https://kingston.norfolkisland.gov.au/explore-the-layers-of-history/second-settlement-1825-1855
ASYLUMS & MENTAL ILLNESS