OH MY GOD. This is the most fucking brilliant thing I have ever seen.
It’s not just the lyrics. There are musical callbacks to Sweeney Todd all through it, Lin-Manuel’s makeup and voice, the staging callbacks, RENEE’S HAIR, my inner musical theater geek is SCREAMING.
I am not over this. If you want to FULLY get the brilliance here, you need to watch these. The opening number of the 82 production:
And “Epiphany”, one of the big Act I closers (technically “A Little Priest” closes the act, but this is a HUGE number, and Lin uses it a LOT in their version).
And seriously, if your only familarity with Sweeney Todd comes from that HORRIBLE Johnny Depp atrocity, do yourself a favor and find the 1982 version because it is amazing. This is like, formative Broadway shit for me, one of the first shows I was ever exposed to (yay cable tv).
Where the fuck are all the Sweeny Todd/Hannibal AUs. There’s literally an entire song consisting of nothing but cannibalism and food puns.
But who would Will be in this? I can maybe see Toby, since he was the only one actually smart enough to not trust Todd, but it would probably have to be Lovett if you still wanted something moderately ship-worthy and not completely gross.
I’d have to cast Will as Todd actually. Todd was all about revenge murder, which I can see Will being into. But the one who actually cooks and suggested eating people was Mrs. Lovett, so SHE’S Hannibal.
Hannibal knew Will from afar when Will was married, but of course Judge Turpin still does his nasty and has Will taken away. In this case it’s not Hannibal who manipulates Will into becoming a murder-bunny, it’s Fate.
So then Hannibal is living a plain, unassuming life as a meat-pie maker (and possibly doing murder on the side) until revenge-hot Will comes along and Hannibal goes “oh, OH I like what fate has done to this one… NOW we can play…”
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Valjean: After I suffered 19 years at Toulon, a sentence totally disproportionate to my crime…
Sweeney: After I suffered 15 years in Australia, a sentence given despite my never committing a crime…
Valjean: I thought I’d lost all faith in humanity.
Sweeney: I thought I’d lost all faith in humanity.
Valjean: And just when it seemed like I could finally start anew…
Sweeney: And just when it seemed like I could finally fulfill my goals…
Valjean: I was thrown into emotional turmoil at the world’s kindness.
Sweeney: I was thrown into emotional turmoil at the world’s bad timing.
Valjean: Now I’m hit by an epiphany.
Sweeney: Now I’m hit by an epiphany.
Valjean: I have to become a better person.
Sweeney: I have to kill motherfucking EVERYONE.
