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

Shockheaded Peter will not play at the new 37 Arts theater complex as previously announced. The show will now be housed at the Little Shubert Theatre, where performances are scheduled to begin on February 11 in preparation for a February 22 opening.

Shockheaded Peter, which won an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment in 2002, was created and is performed by Julian Bleach, Anthony Cairns, Tamzin Griffin, Jo Pocock and Graeme Gilmour. It is based on the dark children's stories of Heinrich Hoffmann's Strewwelpeter. The show features the music of The Tiger Lillies. Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott direct.

The production began in the U.K. in 1998 and then embarked on a U.S. national tour, which included a stop at New York's New Victory Theatre. That run earned the production Drama Desk Award nominations for Set Design for a Musical Julian Crouch and Graeme Gilmour, Costume Design Kevin Pollard and Unique Theatrical Experience.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times wrote about the show: "As spoof theater goes, Shockheaded Peter is in its own, highly sophisticated league. A send-up of the cautionary 19th-century tales used to frighten children into behaving, the sort in which thumb-suckers soon find the offending appendages severed, this visual treat of a show is masterly in enjoying its poisoned cake and debunking it, too."

Shockheaded Peter is the second show to be announced for 37 Arts that has ended up going elsewhere the first was The Immigrant. There are now no productions announced for the three off-Broadway houses within the complex, which is scheduled to open this winter.