Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a musical with a book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Many consider it to be an opera due to the form and the construct of the show.Based on the 19th century legend of Sweeney Todd, and specifically upon the 1973 play by Christopher Bond, it "tells the tale" of Todd, the former 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, and his daughter is the ward of Judge Turpin, who imprisoned him, he vows revenge. The two become conspirators in a dastardly plot that results in mass murder, booming business for Lovett's shop, and ultimately tragedy.