Signature’s Director of Artistic Development, Anika Chapin, uses her background as a dramaturg to break down the penultimate song in Act I of Sweeney Todd, “Epiphany.” In this installment of Signature’s Into the Words Series, Chapin takes you through Sweeney’s musical and mental undoing, and uses song analysis to explain the layers of melody, lyric, orchestration, and text that chart Sweeney’s transformation from revenge to mania.
Follow along as Chapin explains how protagonist, revenge-driven Benjamin Barker, becomes the indiscriminately violent, demon barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd.