Olivier-Winning Shockheaded Peter to Play Off-Broadway's Little Shubert Theatre

By Andrew Gans
30 Nov 2004

Shockheaded Peter, the winner of the 2002 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, will play Off-Broadway's Little Shubert Theatre in 2005.

Created by Julian Bleach, Anthony Cairns, Tamzin Griffin, Jo Pocock and Graeme Gilmour, Shockheaded Peter features 11 original songs written and performed by The Tiger Lillies, a trio from London's underground. The production, which was briefly seen at New York's Victory Theatre in 1999, will return to Off-Broadway Feb. 11, 2005, with its original cast. Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott will direct the production, which officially opens Feb. 22.

Shockheaded Peter is a musical staging of the 19th-century children's book "Struwwelpeter" (slovenly Peter). According to production notes, the show "illuminates Heinrich Hoffman's cautionary tales and his horrible cast of disobedient children with a whimsical combination of grand guignol, puppetry and Victorian melodrama. Young Harriett and her pyrotechnic tendencies, little Conrad and his insatiable thumb-sucking and a handful of other misbehaving youngsters all come to untimely and gleefully gory ends."

The creative team comprises Julian Crouch and Graeme Gilmour (set design), Kevin Pollard (costume design) and Jon Linstrum (lighting design).

Shockheaded Peter will play Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 8 PM, Thursdays at 10 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 7 PM with matinees on Saturdays at 3 PM and Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets, priced $49.50-$65, can be purchased beginning Dec. 1 by calling (212) 239-6200. The 10 PM Thursday-night performances are priced at $25.

The Little Shubert Theatre is located in Manhattan at 422 West 42nd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.

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Shockheaded Peter was originally announced to play the 37 Arts Theatre.