Johanna (character)
| Johanna Barker | |
|---|---|
.jpg)
Jayne Wisener as Johanna
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| Portrayed by |
Sarah Rice (original 1979 Broadway cast) Betsy Joslyn (1982 tour) Lisa Vroman (2001 concert) Lauren Molina (2005 Broadway revival) Lauren Molina (2007-2008 Canada and U.S. National Tour) Jayne Wisener (2007 film) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Spouse(s) |
Anthony Hope (1979 Sondheim musical and 2007 Tim Burton musical adaptation) Mark Ingestrie (Original story) |
Anthony Hope (1979 Sondheim musical and 2007 Tim Burton musical adaptation)
Johanna is a fictional character appearing in the story of Sweeney Todd. In the original version of the tale, the penny dreadful The String of Pearls (1846–7), her name is Johanna Oakley and she is no relation of Todd. In the popular musical adaptation by Stephen Sondheim, inspired by Christopher Bond's play Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1973), she is referred to simply as Johanna and is portrayed as the daughter of Benjamin "Sweeney Todd" Barker and his wife, Lucy. In this version she is the ward of Judge Turpin, the man who falsely convicted her father and raped her mother.
In The String of Pearls Johanna Oakley is the lover of a sailor named Mark Ingestrie, who seems to have gone missing at sea. One of his shipmates, Lieutenant Thornhill, comes to London with this sad news and also brings a gift of a string of pearls for Johanna from Mark. Thornhill, himself, however, also goes missing - last seen entering Sweeney Todd's establishment. One of Thornhill's seafaring friends, Colonel Jeffery, is alerted to the disappearance of Thornhill by the latter's faithful dog, Hector, and investigates his whereabouts. He is joined by Johanna who wants to know what happened to her lover, Mark Ingestrie. Johanna's suspicions of Sweeney Todd's involvement lead her to the desperate and dangerous expedient of dressing up as a boy and entering Todd's employment, after his last assistant, Tobias Ragg, has been incarcerated in a madhouse. Soon the full grisly horror of Todd's activities are discovered and the dismembered remains of hundreds of his victims found in the crypt underneath St Dunstan's church. Meanwhile it is discovered that Johanna's lover, Mark Ingestrie, is not dead, but has come to London in reduced circumstances and has been imprisoned in the cellars beneath Mrs. Lovett's pie shop and put to work as the cook. Threatened with being killed and made into a meat-pie himself, he eventually escapes and makes the startling announcement to customers that "Mrs Lovett's pies are made of human flesh!". Mark then marries Johanna and they live happily ever after.
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Wikipedia