Sondheim's Inspiration for 'Sweeney Todd'

In his book "Finishing The Hat", composer Stephen Sondheim reveals that this film, and particularly the score by Bernard Herrmann, led in part to his desire to adapt Christopher Bond's play "Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street" as a musical. He writes that as a move-addicted teenager, he became obsessed with the piano concerto played by the main character, spending hours at the keyboard trying to play the first page of the score, which appears briefly onscreen. His goal in "Sweeney" emulate Herrmann by composing "ceaseless underscoring that would keep the audience in suspense and maybe even scare the hell out of them. It would, in fact, be my tribute to Bernard Herrmann and "Hangover Square".

Pretty interesting!