Sleepy Hollow: A Musical Tale
Sleepy Hollow: A Musical Tale
Music and Lyrics by Janet Yates Vaught and Mark Friedman
Directed by Wade Hair
Starring Andrew Emory, Samantha Cardella, Anthony Marando and Angela Cotto
Breakthrough Theatre, Winter Park FL</strong>
This script is a bowl of anachronism soup, but it’s a fun bowl to swim in. Late one trick or treat night The Kids (Joshua Huff, Matthew Huff and Anna Colletto) make one last stop at the abandoned creepy house up on haunted hill. Kids in horror shows NEVER learn. The scariest part for them? The have to cross…THE SYMBOLIC BRIDGE! Yikes. They man up and woman up, cross over, and rather than getting candy, they get a story. A long, very PERSONAL story. They hoped for a Baby Ruth Bar but they got was a bracketing device role and a trip back to Sleepy Hollow, 1790. Here their cell phones don’t work, their clothes are outrageous, and it’s lucky they aren’t burnt at the stake for babbling on about Harry Potter.
When we’re not making fun of rural cultural norms there’s the timeless love story of Sleepy Hollow. Brutish Bram Bones (Marando) and fussy Ichabod Crane (Emory) tussle for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel (Cardella). She’s a looker but even better, her daddy has a nice farm with cleared land and once you’ve cleared a few hundred old growth hardwoods from a corn field, you’ll appreciate her other charms. It’s the music and lingo that’s out of time: jiving in “A Dance on Hallows Eve”, tap in Emory’s “King Ichabod Crane” and modern jazz appears when you’re not looking and Jazz hands when you are. The modern children seemed to struggle with lines, leaving the interesting stage work to the adults. Mr. Marando’s Bram seemed much too pleasant to be a really meanie, but Emory had the right level of foppishness to fit into the court of Louis the 14th. Ms. Cardella took all this in stride; she regards the men as silly boys until they’re not. There’s a vast army of small children and other supernumeraries up on stage so there’s always something happening on stage. Suitable for the young, engaging to the parent; this is a fun show with a few lumps here and there. Your takeaway may vary, but I’m not crossing any bridges when I go out for candy this week.
For more information, please visit http://www.breakthroughtheatre.com or look them up on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Breakthrough-Theatre-of-Winter-Park/
