Tobias "Toby" Ragg is a fictional character who appears in various adaptations of the story Sweeney Todd. In the penny dreadfulThe String of Pearls, Tobias Ragg is the apprentice of Sweeney Todd – a barber who murders his customers. Sweeney Todd has him committed to a lunatic asylum after Tobias finds proof of Todd's guilt and decides to contact the police. He eventually escapes, is involved in Todd's arrest, and as the story ends goes into the service of Johanna's husband-to-be Mark Ingestrie. Tobias Ragg was also the young apprentice of Todd in the 1936 film version of '. In the Stephen Sondheim musical ', Toby is the apprentice of Signor Adolfo Pirelli, a barber who was once an apprentice of Todd. Pirelli pretends to be Italian, and sells some fake potions for hair, made of "piss and ink". Toby is taken in by Mrs. Lovett after Todd kills Pirelli, who threatened to blackmail him. Toby becomes deeply attached to Mrs. Lovett, thinking of her as a surrogate mother. However, when he discovers that Todd has been killing customers for Mrs. Lovett to bake into meat pies, he goes insane with horror and shock. After seeing Todd kill Mrs. Lovett, a vengeful Toby emerges from the sewers, where he was hiding, and slashes Todd's throat with his own razor. In the stage musical, Toby is portrayed as a mentally handicapped adult; Ken Jennings, who originated the Broadway role, was 31 on opening night, and Neil Patrick Harris was 27. In the 2007 movie, he is a child, portrayed by 14-year-old Ed Sanders. The end of his story is slightly different in this version, as Todd holds up his head to be willingly slit by Toby, and the child just leaves, possibly keeping his grasp on sanity intact. In the 2013 novel Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tobias is a minor character, a young orphan wrongly imprisoned for murder and rape, later freed by Inspector Baxter.
Performers
John Singer played Tobias in the 1936 film version of .
Len Jones played Tobias in the 1970 television adaptation of the George Dibdin Pitt play on Mystery and Imagination.
Ken Jennings originated the role of Tobias in the original Broadway performance of Sondheim's musical in 1979.
Michael Staniforth played Tobias in the 1980 London Production.
Joseph Taylor originated the role of Tobias in the 2017 Off-Broadway revival, followed by John-Michael Lyles and Zachary Noah Piser.
Songs
In the musical Tobias Ragg has only one solo number, "Not While I'm Around", which he sings to Mrs. Lovett. He does sing various other songs with other characters, including:
