About[]
Mrs. Lovett is the deuteragonist of Sweeney Todd. She's a down-on-her-luck, cheerful, absentminded baker who ends up helping serial killer barber Sweeney Todd dispose of his victims' bodies by baking them into pies and selling them at her failing pie shop/restaurant. She briefly mentions her late husband Albert Lovett, (who is pictured once in a framed photo in the film), whose leg gave out from gout. She never mentions how or when he died.
Lovett tells Todd she's "always had a fondness" for him, which he does not reciprocate. When he returns home from Australia, she lies and tells him his wife committed suicide. To her dismay, he continues to obsess over his wife and the life he once had, either not noticing or ignoring her romantic advances. She wants to start a life with him after they've made a fortune off their pie business and retire to the seaside, where she daydreams about inviting guests to their seaside cottage and killing them ("now and then you could do the guest in" [1]). She continues to lie and manipulate him, until finally, he learns the truth and pushes her into an industrial oven.
Appearance/Portrayals[]
1979 Broadway Production/1980 Tour[]
In both the Broadway production and tour, Mrs. Lovett was a middle-aged, frumpy woman with strawberry blonde hair in two buns. She wears a dark blue apron with floral embroidery over a green sweater with holes in it and a layered black skirts. Her portrayal is described as "equal parts manic and maternal" [2].
2005 Revival[]
In the 2005 revival, Mrs. Lovett wears fishnet stockings, a white dress, a black scarf, and a ruffled black three-quarter-length sleeve jacket. She has red lipstick and straight black hair that is cut into an asymmetrical-bob.
2007 Film[]
The film adaptation's Mrs. Lovett has curly brown hair in pigtails, her looks and complexion is almost as pale and gaunt as Sweeney Todd, and is buxom enough to conceal a coin purse inside of the bodice of her dress. She wears a 1890s-style red, brown, and black work dress for the majority of the film. In some scenes, she's seen wearing lace fingerless gloves and a pillbox fascinator with flowers and feathers. Her dresses get progressively more voluminous and sparkly over the course of the film. [3]. In her imagined seaside fantasy, she is seen wearing a 1910s-style bathing suit and various dresses, including a pink and white dress with a matching polka-dot parasol.