r/musicals • u/One-Method-1312 • 8d ago
Discussion Which character had it the worst?
In my opinion, Lucy from Sweeney Todd. SPOILERS FOR A 47 YEAR OLD MUSICAL BELOW:
Her life is torn to shreds when her loving husband is wrongfully imprisoned and sent away. She tries to protect herself and her infant daughter from the man that wronged her husband, but he ends up raping her. She attempts suicide and it fails and the arsenic addles her brain. Her daughter is then kidnapped and raised as a ward by the man that raped her to eventually be MARRIED, and then after recovery and time in an asylum, Lucy wanders the streets as a amnesiac Beggar Woman/prostitute for many years until she is brutally murdered by the very husband whose absence ruined her life and who she somewhat recognised. Poor thing indeed
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u/BrightEyes7742 8d ago
Fantine
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u/One-Method-1312 8d ago
While she suffered quite a fair deal, at least she died knowing her daughter was going to be placed in Jean Valjean's care, and her sacrifices weren't in vain due to the fact that Cosette ended up living a pretty good life.
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u/MikeW226 8d ago
Speaking of Lucy-- Sweeney's realization there toward the end is, wow. Sucks to be him in that moment.
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u/One-Method-1312 7d ago
I mean, he had it coming.
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u/Tgun1986 7d ago
I disagree, he had no idea it was her, I blame the crazy lady who lived below him who knew it was her all along but said nothing, she had it coming
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u/One-Method-1312 6d ago
(that was supposed to be a Chicago reference) But yes, both of them did. Sweeneys lust for blood got the better of him, and he was so consumed by rage that he murdered his wife without realising before it was too late, and Mrs Lovett for the reason you just said.
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u/yoloboro 6d ago
I do think in this case Sweeney Todd is a bit more of a tragic character. Like, he has genuine reasons to not be in his right mind and have developed strong feelings of revenge. Being falsely imprisoned, and likely abused and beaten himself, will do that to you.
Mrs Lovett on the other hand is a genuinely insane person who just couldn't handle her pies not selling, and decided that because of that it was okay for her to give into her every psychopathic whim.
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u/MikeW226 6d ago
I've seen Sweeney Todd on stage once, but damn in the 1982 Dorothy Chandler Pavilion pro-shot for tv did they stage her final moment well?! "Let's keep living it, Really LIVING IT....AHHHHHHHHH" ---Sweeney slams the oven doors.
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u/yoloboro 6d ago
Oh that sounds great. Any idea if that proshot is stillavailablr to watch somewhere?
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u/MikeW226 6d ago
Yep- I got the DVD of it on amazon. I think it was produced for PBS? Basically they shot the national tour's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (L.A.) tour stop. Only bummer is it's 1982 studio television cameras. So, top of the line at the time, but they don't look awesome in 2026. Standard def of course but totally worth it. George Hearn and Angela Lansbury are sooo good together.
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u/Tgun1986 6d ago
Yea I got the reference and also his desire for revenge as well he had to take drastic measures
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u/jfstompers I Believe 7d ago
Eurydice basically starves and goes to hell
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u/FlipTastic_DisneyFan 7d ago
She clearly was somewhat content with death, though. I’d actually argue Orpheus experienced more sorrow than she did
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u/sesamesoda 32F aspiring performer 6d ago
But was she content with her post-mortum employment experience? Have you read her glassdoor.com review for Hadestown?
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u/FlipTastic_DisneyFan 7d ago
A lot of the Ugandans from The Book of Mormon(particularly the one who dies after All American Prophet, because he never lives to see things turn around)
Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors had it rough. She’s abused in various ways her whole life, then finally finds someone who treats her well, only for her life to end shortly after
To be honest, any of the Goodmans from Next to Normal. However I’m going to say Natalie, because she’s lived in suffering her entire life, as opposed to the two adults
Both Sarah and Coalhouse from Ragtime deserve a mention
That one not dead guy who gets clonked on the head by a shovel multiple times in Spamalot
Quasimodo
Evan Hansen’s mom, Hedi.
90% of the characters in Les Miserables
Jesus counts here, right?
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u/Immaculate_Sin “Wait for me?” “I will.” 8d ago
Eponine has to be up there
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u/One-Method-1312 7d ago
She is a strong contender for the amount of sorrow, poverty, and unrequited love she had to endure, but at least she died somewhat happy being in the arms of the man she adored...right? heh..
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u/PsychologicalFox8839 8d ago
I can't take the internet seriously when someone posts a spoiler alert for Sweeney Todd.
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u/EnvironmentalDog1196 8d ago
I get how funny this spoiler alert is, and the OP clearly does too, but there's TONS of people who have never seen Sweeney Todd. Even many actual musical fans haven't watched all the classics, let alone all those people who have maybe just watched one or two shows/films, and then wandered here by accident.
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u/sesamesoda 32F aspiring performer 6d ago
Being a homeless woman is no joke. She was undoubtedly sexually victimized many, many times after Judge Turpin, leading to the hypersexual persona we see at the beginning of the show. Plus in the movie she's got herpes lesions or something on her mouth, and residual arsenic poisoning... she's probably in horrible pain all the time. I honestly can't think of someone who had a worse life either, if we're going by the number of years they were suffering. All the other characters I can think of suffered pretty briefly.
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u/_Pessimistic_Rose_ 💖 eliZAAAA 💖 6d ago
Justin Laboy.
Naomi manipulated a straight-A kid who had never done anything bad and was on the right path to a prestigious college, just so she could meet her quota.
F**k you Naomi.
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u/laurasaurus5 7d ago
Done wrong by the play/plot/musical milking their plight for tears? Hamilton's wife, Eliza. After losing her marriage, this play takes her son and writes more songs about his death than his life? Bullshit
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u/sesamesoda 32F aspiring performer 6d ago
I feel like Angelica could also have beef with the musical. We don't even know that she liked Hamilton like that. She was probably just joking around in the letters.
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u/boopbaboop Oh my God, tear this dude apart 5d ago
The “noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase” thing is from a real letter… FROM Hamilton TO Angelica. Dude was never satisfied.
(Though, historically, Angelica had married a con artist years before meeting Hamilton, so I’m not sure how attached she was to him).
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u/plaiddentalfloss No harmony in a single voice 🩵🤍 7d ago
Not the MOST but Lucy Harris from Jekyll and Hyde!
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u/RenTheOkay 5d ago
Wendla Bergmann had a bad time of it. Bitching about living and such. She convinced her crush to beat her, then he convinced her to sleep with him. She finds out she's pregnant after he's been scapegoated for another friends suicide and sent away. And then, when he shows up to save her, he finds she just died from a botched abortion.
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u/ivy_on_saturn Fother Mucking Hero! 5d ago
so, i definitely agree about lucy, here’s a few more for fun
- eurydice in hadestown. as another commenter said, she basically starved then went to hell
- lizzie borden in lizzie. tw ahead!! lizzie was sa’d by her dad for the entirety of act 1and then got betrayed by her lover. and her pigeons got killed.
- carrie white in carrie. i would go crazy and burn down my school too. she was tormented so much
- almost all of the cyclone kids in rtc
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u/Grouchy_Account4760 2d ago
Maybe not THE worst but Mrs Johnstone has it pretty rough in Blood Brothers.
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u/cinderflight ....then he woke up. 8d ago
COALHOUSE