The epic revenge theme of The Bride. The barbershop skills of Edward Scissorhands. The musical acumen of Nathan Detroit.

It's not a dream, it's the wonderfully nightmarish and macabely hilarious world of "Sweeney Todd," one of the finest musicals ever set to stage. And 22 years after the stage version was seen on television for the first time, the murderous fun makes its way to DVD.

For people who see musicals as cheery and jubilant celebrations of fanfare, "Sweeney Todd" is a revelation. The opening images reveal a stage portraying a dreary London port and the characters' makeup jobs done to the height of paleness, creating a supernatural feel to the play.

The less-than-living atmosphere is best defined by Sweeney Todd (George Hearn) himself. Todd, nee Benjamin Barker, is just returning to London after escaping his term in prison, courtesy of falsified charges from Judge Turpin (Edmund Lyndeck).

Sweeney, already looking ghost-like, gets thrown even further from reality when he finds out his wife has died and his daughter is in line to marry Turpin. Todd finds hope, and his old shaving kit, in Mrs. Lovett (Angela Lansbury), who runs the meat pie shop downstairs.

Lansbury is a joy to watch in her pre-"Murder She Wrote" days as she laments her lack of baking skills with the pitifully funny "Worst Pies in London" and inspires Todd to return to his profession and also exact revenge on Turpin and his cronies.

Sweeney is able to fly under the radar for a while perfecting the craft of killing customers, which leads to a steady stream of meat for Mrs. Lovett's pies. The dark comedy during the middle of the play turns what most theatrical efforts use as fodder into gold. Stephen Sondheim's songwriting genius shines in this section with "God, That's Good" and "A Little Priest," the twin odes to the addition of humans to pastry. The subject may be a reprehensible concept, but the wordplay of Sondheim's catchy and dark humor-ladened songs and the interplay of Hearn's vigor and Lansbury's feline-like playfulness create a memorable middle for the musical.

But Sondheim's score, Christopher Bond's book and the direction of fellow Broadway legend Hal Prince keep "Sweeney" from getting too cutesy. The lightness of those songs are more than balanced when the play gets down to its brass tacks: Todd's long-awaited revenge. And Hearn conveys absolute madness into lines such as "now my hand is complete" when brandishing his razor and his despair about the world and his situation in general during the different iterations of "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd."

Todd creates a few more meat pies before the play's manic last scene. Bodies drop left and right in an energy-bursting finale that's packed with revelations, twists and graphic violence that will remove any stigmas with musical violence stemming from "West Side Story's" highly stylized knife fights.

The flaws in this version are short and forgivable (the romance between Todd's daughter and a sailor most noticeably) as "Sweeney Todd" stands as one of the most complete and fulfilling musical experiences committed to stage. Hearn is an absolute powerhouse in the title role with a strong, bellowing voice and Lansbury is surprisingly perfect as the scheming Mrs. Lovett.

The 22 year-old film of the stage version looks appropriate on DVD with the images made clearer than the earlier VHS version, but not lightening up the play as to reduce the creepiness. And the sound has been remastered and sounds absolutely gorgeous.

The only drawback is a total lack of special features, especially disappointing considering all the principles are still alive. But simply having this masterfully funny and dramatic musical available on DVD is a special enough reward for theater lovers.

"Sweeney Todd": A

DVD contains no extra features,”Matthew T. Olson”

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