Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street film started in St. Petersburg's cinemas. Directed by Tim Burton. With Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman. Based on the hit Broadway musical.

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a Tony Award-winning musical with a book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical is based on the 19th century legend of Sweeney Todd and specifically upon the 1973 play The String of Pearls, by Christopher Bond.

Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway at the Uris Theatre on March 1, 1979. It was directed by Harold Prince with musical staging by Larry Fuller, and starred Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd and Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. The musical played for 557 performances.

Plot: The story centres on the character of Sweeney Todd, formerly known as Benjamin Barker, who returns from the penal colonies in Australia, where he has spent fifteen years on false charges. When he learns from Mrs. Lovett, whose meat pies are the worst in London, that his wife poisoned herself after being raped by Judge Turpin (the man who wrongly imprisoned him), and that his daughter is the ward of the same Judge Turpin, he vows revenge. The two become conspirators in a dark plot that results in mass murder, booming business for Lovett's shop, and ultimately tragedy.