I Find Sweeney Todd Cathartic

I do.

It’s kind of weird.

Picture a man singing as he holds a gory razor, slashing the throats of unsuspecting gentlemen. Picture a flock of hungry Londoners greedily eating their fellow man (in the form of pies.)

People usually find catharsis in finger-painting, yoga, or a good cry.

But a musical about butchering people and turning them into pies provides me with psychological relief. When I listen to the soundtrack, my soul kicks off its work shoes and says, “Ah. That’s the stuff.”

At first I found this catharsis perplexing, but I know now that Sweeney Todd isn’t stroking a latent serial killer in me.

For me, the catharsis in Sweeney Todd comes from a unique aspect of the show: its complete lack of answers.

Here is a show that digs deep into the filth of humanity. Rape, madness, murder, cannibalism. It has all the gore you could ever wish for. The story is steeped in hopelessness and misery and betrayal, and yet it’s beautifully and even hilariously portrayed.

Despite its display of human-horrors, however, the musical provides no answers. It takes us deep into the human condition, deep into the human question of “why us?” and then says nothing.