Mrs Lovett cheerfully admits that she bakes the worst pies in London. But when Sweeney Todd opens a “tonsorial parlour” above her shop and starts giving his customers a closer shave than they’d bargained for, there is suddenly a steady supply of fresh meat. Business booms. Shame about the stench.

Stephen Sondheim’s masterful musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with a book by Hugh Wheeler, opened on Broadway in 1979. But with its complex score, matched by razor-sharp lyrics and a narrative that zeroes in on the egregious social injustices in Victorian England, the gothic thriller has not only been staged by musical producers but also by numerous opera companies, including Opera Australia.

Ben Mingay and Antoinette Halloran in Sweeney Todd, Sydney Opera House, 2023. Photo © Daniel Boud

This production, directed by Stuart Maunder, was created for Victorian Opera and New Zealand Opera. Originally staged in Melbourne in 2015 with Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Sweeney and Antoinette Halloran as Mrs Lovett, it has since toured to Perth and Adelaide, and around New Zealand.

The Sydney Opera House is now presenting Maunder’s production at the Drama Theatre,...