The headless horseman rides again in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a ghost story that might be too spooky for little punkins at Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre in Little Rock.
Opened Friday night, the hour-long stage show rates a caution from the theater: "best enjoyed by third grade and up." Frederick Gaines' adaptation retains the scary parts of this nearly 200-year-old tale by Washington Irving.
Director John Isner keeps things safely on the moon-and-shadows level of fright, but still. The woods are dark, and the ominous horseman is the original pumpkin chucker. He lobs a mean one.
Fearful Ichabod Crane (Geoffrey Eggleston) risks a run-in with the legendary horseman to court the beautiful Katrina Van Tassel (Lauren Linton). Eggleston gives the role a long-legged, crane-like strut. Ichabod is a dull teacher and so timid that he can't bring himself to say, "gh-gh-ghost."
Nick Spencer is boastfully daunting as Ichabod's rival, stage-stomping Brom Van Brunt. Brom sets up a mean prank on the teacher, abetted by most of the 14-member cast.
The show starts as ambling as one of Ichabod's strolls and talky as one of his lectures. But it ends with a night's worth of fire and fog, obscuring the lack of a horse for the horseman.
What happens to Ichabod is faster than the flash of a jack-o'-lantern grin. In fact, it might be hard to get the scary joke without already knowing the story. But the story is a Halloween tradition, and who doesn't know?
The latest expression for this sort of mischief is perfectly suited to a stage setting of pumpkins: Ichabod Crane gets punked.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow runs 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday through Nov. 8 at the Arts Center, East Ninth and Commerce streets, Little Rock. Ticket information is available at arkansasartscenter.org or by calling (501) 372-4000.
Metro on 10/24/2015