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| “ | ♫Seems an awful waste/ Such a nice, plump frame wot's 'is name has/Had... Has! Nor it can't be traced/Business needs a lift, debts to be erased/Think of it as thrift, as a gift/If you get my drift!♫ | „ |
| ~ Mrs Lovett persuading Sweeney Todd to turn Adolfo Pirelli's corpse into a meat pie in "A Little Priest" |
Nellie Lovett (also known as Mrs. Lovett) is the secondary antagonist of the 1846-1847 story The String of Pearls, and the deuteragonist of the 1979 musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its 2007 film adaptation of the same name.
She is the owner of a bakery who was in league with barber Sweeney Todd in a plot to kill his customers and bake their remains into meat pies. She also secretly wants Todd to herself as her enforced love interest.
Portrayals[]
- In the original 1979 Broadway production, the late Angela Lansbury portrayed Mrs. Lovett, who also portrayed Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance and Mrs. Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate.
- In the 2004 Broadway Revival, Mrs. Lovett was portrayed by Patti LuPone, who also portrayed Yellow Diamond in Steven Universe, Mona Wassermann in Beau Is Afraid, and Joan Ramsey in American Horror Story: Coven.
- In the 2007 film, she was portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, who also played the Red Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter franchise, Dr. Serena Kogan in Terminator: Salvation, Skynet in Terminator: Genisys, Dr. Julia Hoffman in Dark Shadows, and Madame Thénardier in Les Miserables.
- In the 2012 West End revival, she was portrayed by Imelda Staunton, who also played Dolores Umbridge in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Angorra in The Snow Queen and Alexandrina Victoria Hannover in The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!.
- In the 2021 off-Broadway run, she is portrayed by Donna Lynne Champlin, who also portrayed Adolfo Pirelli in the 2005 Broadway revival of the same musical, and Paula Proctor in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
- In the 2023 Broadway revival, she was portrayed by Annaleigh Ashford, who also played Veronica Sawyer in a concert performance of the musical adaptation of Heathers.
History[]
The String of Pearls[]
Mrs. Lovett was involved in Sweeney Todd's scheme to kill his customers by throwing them down a trapdoor and breaking their necks. Mrs. Lovett made their corpses into meat pies and sold them for money.
However, a girl named Johanna Oakley found out about Todd and Lovett's activities after finding her missing lover Mark, who was detained by Todd in baking the corpses. Freeing Mark from captivity, Johanna managed to expose Todd and Lovett's activities. However, Lovett ends up being poisoned to death by Todd, who is later arrested and hanged for his crimes.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street[]
Mrs. Lovett first appeared when Todd returned to London, where she is running a failing meat pie shop; times are so hard and meat so scarce that she has been reduced to killing cats and rodents to fill her pies, which even she says are "the worst pies in London". She tells Todd, who has been unjustly imprisoned for 15 years, that his wife Lucy poisoned herself after being raped by Judge Turpin, who framed him so he could have Lucy to himself, and who has taken in Todd's daughter, Johanna. Todd plans to kill Turpin, and Lovett takes him in as her tenant.
After Todd kills con artist Adolfo Pirelli and pledges to murder as many people as possible after missing a chance to kill Turpin, Mrs. Lovett suggests that they cut up the bodies of his victims and bake them into her meat pies, thus saving her business. She also takes in Pirelli's young assistant, Tobias Ragg, as her unofficially adopted son. Lovett's "new recipe" brings in scores of customers, and she tells a clearly uninterested Todd that she wants to marry him and retire.
When Todd finally slits Turpin's throat, the judge grabs Lovett's dress in his death throes, provoking a terrified scream from her. Todd, who has murdered an insane beggar woman who saw him kill Turpin, rushes to see what is going on and tells her to start the oven to burn his latest victim's body. Before Lovett can do so, however, Todd gets a closer look at the beggar woman's face and realizes, to his horror, that she is Lucy. Lovett explains that Lucy went insane after she poisoned herself, and that she only lied to him about his wife being dead because she loved him. Todd pretends to forgive her and promises to marry her, leaving her overjoyed; once she lets her guard down, however, he throws her into the oven to burn to death. Moments later, Tobias slits Todd's throat as revenge for killing the only mother he has ever known.
Gallery[]
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 Villains
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The String of Pearls Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street TODD by King and Jester | ||