Project MUSE - Sweeney Todd</italic (original) (raw)

This essay argues that the first three versions of Sweeney Todd from 1846–51 constitute transmedial storytelling, as these adaptations not only retell the story but change or elaborate upon it in ways that persist in subsequent versions. This analysis of Sweeney Todd reveals that the reception practices undergirding the move to transmedia may have been in place as early as the 1840s, when audiences could choose to continue their involvement with a story through a variety of media formats without having to view these versions as being in competition with one another.