The Legend of Sleepy Hollow @ Hip Pocket Theatre
Photos by Shannon Atkinson Cahoon
—Review by Jan Farrington
If it’s October, it’s time for a spooky story—and Hip Pocket Theatre has brought back one of the best, founder Johnny Simons’ lively take on Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It’s well-directed and choreographed by dance-savvy JoAnn Gracey with an energetic cast, and with fab music director Joe Rogers onstage, accompanied by Antonia Valdez and Eddie Dunlap.
HPT did a version of the “Sleepy Hollow” story in the early 1990s. For this show Rogers used bits of melody from that “back in the day” production, but the music is mostly brand-new. It’s a seasonal, nostalgic, and very pleasant way to spend an evening, and don’t forget: You can go early and stay late to hear “BackYard Music” from Bruce Payne and others at tables outside the theater.
Best of all, Hip Pocket has a great clown in Grainger Esch, who all but steals the show (as Ichabod Crane should). He’s a baggy-pants vaudeville throwback with a talent for mime, eccentric dancing (this is an actual technical term, people), deep-note singing, and tripping over any step he gets near. Hip Pocket produced Esch’s show about local TV star “Icky Twerp” in 2021, and in Sleepy Hollow, of course, he makes the perfectly absurd Crane. Esch has a long background as a Ringling Brothers clown, a Stan Laurel impersonator at Universal Hollywood, and much work in theater and on film—including a theater company of his own down in Salado for some years. In terms of offbeat stage magic, he and Hip Pocket seem like a match.
Simons’ adaptation harks back to the flowery, old-fashioned source, Irving’s original story—whose quaint language (the story is narrated by various actors) flavors the evening. It’s a quirky contrast to Rogers’ jazz, pop, gospel, hip-hop mix, and to the snarky but fun lyrics Simons wrote years ago (blended with some new ones Rogers added in). Ichabod teaches the disrespectful kids of Sleepy Hollow; they think he’s a bore, and make merciless fun of his peculiar ways. (The big, lively cast also includes Tyler Dorney, Peggy Bott Kirby, Gary Payne, Lauren Riley, Damek Salazar, and young Nathan Saul, with ensemble members Marcos Barron, Jozy Camp, Ron Fernandez, Kristi Ramos Toler, and Rebo Salazar.)
Yet somehow, awkward Ichabod is a “catch”—and he’s introduced to the beautiful Katrina (Riley) by her ambitious mother (Kirby). Predictably, there’s a rival, the muscle-bound Brom Bones (Damek Salazar), determined to get rid of Ichabod. Brom and the other young folk start dropping hints about a “headless horseman”—and gather in the woods, in the dark, around a flickering lantern, to scare the pants off jittery Mr. Crane—with the help of Lake Simon’s galloping shadow puppet and a fiery jack-o-lantern.
The whole Legend of Sleepy Hollow takes an hour to tell—sassy, spooky, and satisfying—and the show closes just shy of Halloween.
WHEN: Through October 30
WHERE: Hip Pocket Theatre, 1950 Silver Creek Road, Fort Worth
WEB: hippocket.org
