"Frankly, you should attend the tale of Sweeney Todd" ... that was the verdict of York Press arts critic Charles Hutchinson on the second show in Pick Me Up Theatre's Summer Sondheim season

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Sweeney returns to London as a convict from Australia seeking revenge against those who separated him from his wife and child.

He meets Mrs Lovett, who owns a shop that sells "the worst pies in London", and recognises him by his real name Benjamin Barker. She tells him his wife poisoned herself and his daughter is now the ward of the warped judge who sentenced him. 

Intent on revenge, he sets up his barber business above Mrs Lovett’s shop and the two hit on the idea of turning his clients into ingredients for Mrs Lovett's pies.

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The original Broadway production of Sweeney Todd and many since have been epic in scale but Sondheim's orginial vision was for a much smaller 'chamber' piece: "I wanted it to be done as a small piece because I wanted to scare people."

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Pick Me Up went back to Sondheim's original intentions and staged the show in the intimate

John Cooper Studio Theatre at 41 Monkgate in York – which was transformed by director Robert