Lucy’s earlier “Alms” motif. This is a deliberate “clash” (Sond-
heim’s word for it) among reprised segments of earlier songs,
and the purpose of the clash is to accomplish exactly what Phan-
tom of the Operaavoids, a dramatization of the major recogni-
tion on the part of two characters at once.^21
That is the recognition scene, avoided in Phantom and
dramatized through music in Sweeney. Now look at the turning
point of the plot, which occurs at the end of act 1. Sweeney’s
opportunity for taking revenge against Judge Turpin has
slipped by, in the “Pretty Women” sequence we examined in
chapter 1. The turning point occurs as his revenge motive
loses its focus and becomes a desire for indiscriminate murder-
ousness against all men, as retaliation against the oppressive
structure of industrialized London. Mrs. Lovett has no room
for revenge in her heart, but she is a practical woman with
ameat pie business to run. Business is not good, the price
of meat being what it is, so Sweeney’s murderous intention
against the human race becomes in her eyes a way of lowering
the costs of production. This double reversal is dramatized
through an alternation between book and number character-
istic of the musical genre at its best. I refer to the two final
numbers of act 1, Sweeney’s terrific assertion of madness in
“Epiphany” followed by his comic duet with Mrs. Lovett, “A
Little Priest.”
Sweeney’s “Epiphany” is a furious number, with no trace of
humor. The height of savagery is an unrhymed threat on the
men in the audience:
Who, sir? You, sir!
No one’s in the chair—
Come on, come on,
Sweeney’s waiting!
I want you bleeders!
You, sir—anybody!
Gentlemen, now don’t be shy!
Not one man, no,NARRATION AND TECHNOLOGY 171
(^21) For Sondheim’s comment on the music of this episode, see Horowitz,
Sondheim on Music, pp. 146–47.