In 2014, we had an amazing opportunity presented to us. We had the chance to go back to our Alma Mater, Shenandoah University, and work on an original musical of ours with the Conservatory Students.
Matt had worked on the source material in a different production a few years before, but was not ultimately happy with the end product, as it didn’t match his vision that he painted so plainly and achingly in his score. Knowing his vision and world like none other, I suggested we take this piece up again and revisit it through our combined eyes.
This being only the second musical that I ever wrote, and coming off the heels of our first baby, Night of the Living Dead, I was still very much in a “Full Dark, No Stars” kind of mindset. The first draft I wrote of this show was SUPER dark. Like, I believe the show opened with Katrina chained to a harvest god statue. I remember no more details other than that.
I knew that I had to take it way down. But If you’ve ever read Washington Irving’s short story, there isn’t much “there” there. It is quite an anecdotal tale told in passing, with not many plot points to make a decent scene out of, outside the iconic and climactic ones near the end.
This lack of information put me in mind of the itinerant schoolmaster, and what he didn’t know about the hushed valley of Sleepy Hollow. Why wasn’t there more information in the story? What was being hidden? What could I infer between the lines of Irving’s text?
What I imagined in response, was a town with leftover Germanic/Quaker extreme beliefs that were not so much Christian based, but based more on a Harvest God, and a sacrifice that must be made every year to ensure the success of the crops. An unwitting virgin who is introduced to a stranger brought into town, who has no idea that her part in the grand scheme is to lure a man to death, and by the time she finds out, she is too late to stop it.
I was pleased with this version of the show, and was also pleased we were able to cut some of the songs from the 2011 version, and add back some amazing songs from the 2009 workshop that were very strangely cut from the 2011.
There may very well be a chance on the horizon to revisit this piece again, and would I do the same 2014 version again? I don’t think I would. This piece isn’t quite settled yet, and I think I would go back to Irving’s text again, and instead of trying to be smarter than the simplicity of it, I think I would bask in it, simplify the story to its basest arc, and really just tell THAT story, and make sure our music supports it.
And the music…that score is amazingly beautiful.
The opening number to this show is one of my favorite pieces that Matt has ever written. It takes the poem “The Castle of Indolence”, quoted by Irving at the top of his tale, and brings it to song.
“ A pleasing land of drowsy head it was
Of dreams that wake before the half shed eye
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass
Forever flushing round a summer sky” - James Thomson, “The Castle of Indolence”
There is also the stunning “Boston”, in which Katrina expresses her desire to leave Sleepy Hollow and explore the world beyond. “Be Not Afraid” is sung by the Widow Meer - one of the backbones of the community, and a woman you shouldn’t get on the wrong side of. It is an anthem of the perpetual fear that scripture and religion keep alive inside of us. “Still” is primarily for Brom, but expands to Katrina’s father, and Ichabod, then the entire village - where it seems like everyone has a plan or idea of what Katrina should do or be to them. Katrina wanders through this song, experiencing it, and trying to escape it, and has no opportunity to voice her own wants or desires during it. Cut from the 2011 production (maddeningly), this song is one of my favorites in the piece. There are many others that bear mentioning here, whether they be “Blue”, “Little Things”, “Fire Burn, Fire Red”, “The Chase”, or “Perhaps”, this score is still one of my favorites.
I have a fond place in my memory for the 2014 production of Sleepy Hollow, because it was our second venture writing together. Shortly after this show, we were commissioned to write the Bold New Works 5 year journey, and the rest is history. But back in 2014, the world was new to us as a writing team, and this opportunity to go back home to Shenandoah where we first met in 1996 was a magical prospect. Our first pug, Buddha, was nearing the end of his life then, and we actually took him in his stroller to rehearsal a few times, so this show was the only one he ever actually got to sit in the rehearsal room and watch.
I have very high hopes that when the Fall comes back again next year, you will hear the hooves of the Headless Horseman’s steed galloping your way. But be not afraid…
