Lucy Barker is a supporting character in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. She is played by Laura Michelle Kelly.
Biography[]
Lucy had been the wife of local barber Benjamin Barker, and they also had a baby daughter named Johanna. However, one day in 1831, the corrupt Judge Turpin noticed the Barkers wandering around, and Turpin immediately became lustful towards Lucy. In order to get his hands on her, he and his henchman Beadle Bamford falsely convict Benjamin of a crime, and has him exiled to Australia.
Lucy is heartbroken, and becomes a recluse whilst staying faithful to Benjamin by never once leaving home. Judge Turpin continuously pursues her, sending her flowers each day. He sends Bamford to summon her to his home, with Turpin claiming that he "blames himself for her dreadful plight", but at his house, during a masque ball, Turpin drugs Lucy and rapes her.
Shortly after the incident, Lucy attempts to commit suicide by poisoning herself, but fails to do so and is driven insane by the arsenic, which eventually results in her forgetting everyone she was close to and becoming a poor homeless beggar. Turpin, meanwhile, takes Johanna for himself and raises her as his ward.
15 years later in 1846, Benjamin, under the alias of "Sweeny Todd", is released from imprisonment, and finally returns to London. There, he meets Mrs. Lovett, who develops a crush on him, and thus falsely leads Benjamin to believe that Lucy's suicide attempt was successful in order to be with him. During the grand re-opening of Lovett's pie shop, Lucy shows evident distaste for her, calling her a mischevious witch and trying and failing to crash the re-opening.
Death[]
Lucy later breaks into Todd's shop after witnessing Todd enter the shop with Bamford. She tries looking for Bamford in order to warn him of the danger she senses, but since Bamford is already dead, she encounters Todd instead. Todd goes up to her, furious at the unwelcome intrusion, but Lucy all of a sudden begins to recognise him as being her long-lost husband.
Lucy's death.
Todd doesn't recognise her in return, however, and, upon hearing Turpin coming up the stairs, he unknowingly kills her by slitting her throat, and sends her through the trapdoor in the floor.