Tobias Ragg, also known as Toby, is the former assistant of Signor Adolfo Pirelli and assistant to Mrs. Lovett after the murder of Pirelli. Tobias' first appearance is him trying to sell Pirelli's Miracle Elixir, a scam ran by Signor Adolfo Pirelli to sell piss and ink as a cure for baldness. Sweeney Todd exposes the scam to a crowd.
Mrs. Lovett and Toby
Several days later, Pirelli visit Todd to expose him as Benjamin Barker, while Tobias stays down in Mrs. Lovett's shop. Mrs. Lovett treats Tobias to a meat pie. Due to the fact Pirelli has recognized Todd and attempted to blackmail him, Todd attacks Pirelli and strangles him, dumping his body into an empty trunk just before Tobias enters looking for his master, saying that he has an appointment with his tailor. Todd tells Tobias that Pirelli has been called away, and sends him back down to Mrs. Lovett, tempting him with the offer of another pie and gin, and once the door has shut behind Toby, Todd opens the trunk and finally finishes off his former boss by slitting his throat.
After the disappearance of Pirelli, Tobias becomes Mrs. Lovett's assistant, helping her with her meat pies. All the while, he grows close to her and becomes increasingly suspicious of Todd. He hints to Mrs. Lovett of his concerns with the song "Not While I'm Around." When she takes out a purse to give him a penny to go and buy candy, he recognizes it as having belonged to Pirelli, and tells her that they must go tell somebody, because that confirms his fear that Todd murdered his master.
Worried that he knows too much, Mrs. Lovett locks Toby in the bakehouse under the pretext of teaching him how to grind meat. While there, he discovers a piece of hair from a "black cow" and a crusty musty toe in a pie he is eating (that man did not wash his feet). Just then, the bloody corpse of the Beadle, recently killed by Todd, tumbles down the chute. Horrified, Tobias tries to escape but realizes that he is locked in.
Ed Sanders (Toby in the Tim Burton Film)
Todd and Mrs. Lovett later search the cellars for Toby, who by then has vanished into the catacombs. At the end, Todd realizes that he has murdered his own wife Lucy, whom he did not recognize, as she appeared to be a mad beggar woman. After finding out that Mrs. Lovett had lied to him about his wife being dead, he throws her into the oven. At this point, Tobias emerges from the shadows, now driven completely insane, and picks up Todd's fallen razor and fatally slashes Todd's throat. As Anthony, Johanna and some constables burst into the bakehouse, Toby drops the razor and, unmindful of the others, begins to turn the handle for the meat grinder in a mindless parody of his duties for Mrs. Lovett.
However, in the film version, Toby does not appear to be caught or to have gone insane. It is implied that he ultimately escapes, but we don’t know whether he escaped with Anthony and Joanna or escaped on his own.
The United States has announced that a new drama television program is currently in production to give the story of Sweeney Todd a new life from a new point of view. The story will feature each of the existing characters, but with the added twist of the tale being told from Mrs Lovett's point of view. FOX 8 believes that the story will be similar to the current show airing in both Australia and America, "The Good Wife" where it portrays the life of a woman behind a powerful known figure in the world. Production managers have stated that they would also like to rearrange the story a little bit, in the perspective of what would happen if Mrs Lovett began to disagree with the actions she and Sweeney Todd were taking. Currently no title has been declared. The character of Toby would once again become Tobias and instead would have a family that lived close to Mrs Lovett's shop. however his family would be killed in a factory fire and leave Tobias to beg on the streets. His friendship with Mrs Lovett keeps him alive as she feeds him one of her pies every day to keep him healthy. As the series progresses, Mrs Lovett ultimately changes her mind about feeding him the pies, knowing of their ingredients, and instead plans to adopt him for safe keeping. Her plans however are hindered because he found out her secret.
Performers * Ken Jennings originated the role of Tobias on Broadway in 1979. * Neil Patrick Harris played Tobias in the 2001 concert version of the musical. * Manoel Felciano played Tobias in the 2005 revival of the musical. * Edward Sanders played Tobias in the 2007 film. * Gaten Matarazzo played Tobias in the 2023 Broadway Revival, followed by Joe Locke in 2024.