<P> The tale became a staple of Victorian melodrama and London urban legend, and has been retold many times since, most notably in the Tony award--winning Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler . </P> <P> Claims that Sweeney Todd was a historical person are strongly disputed by scholars, although possible legendary prototypes exist . </P> <P> In the original version of the tale, Todd is a barber who dispatches his victims by pulling a lever as they sit in his barber chair . His victims fall backward down a revolving trapdoor into the basement of his shop, generally causing them to break their necks or skulls . In case they are alive, Todd goes to the basement and "polishes them off" (slitting their throats with his straight razor). In some adaptations, the murdering process is reversed, with Todd slitting his customers' throats before dispatching them into the basement through the revolving trapdoor . After Todd has robbed his dead victims of their goods, Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime (in some later versions, his friend and / or lover), assists him in disposing of the bodies by baking their flesh into meat pies and selling them to the unsuspecting customers of her pie shop . Todd's barber shop is situated at 186 Fleet Street, London, next to St. Dunstan's church, and is connected to Mrs. Lovett's pie shop in nearby Bell Yard by means of an underground passage . In most versions of the story, he and Mrs. Lovett hire an unwitting orphan boy, Tobias Ragg, to serve the pies to customers . </P> <P> Sweeney Todd first appeared in a story titled The String of Pearls: A Romance . This penny dreadful was published in 18 weekly parts, in Edward Lloyd's The People's Periodical and Family Library, issues 7--24, 21 November 1846 to 20 March 1847 . It was probably written by James Malcolm Rymer, though Thomas Peckett Prest has also been credited with it; possibly each worked on the serial from part to part . Other attributions include Edward P. Hingston, George Macfarren, and Albert Richard Smith . In February / March 1847, before the serial was even completed, George Dibdin Pitt adapted The String of Pearls as a melodrama for the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton . It was in this alternative version of the tale, rather than the original, that Todd acquired his catchphrase: "I'll polish him off". </P>

Surname of woman who owns pie shop in sweeny todd