New Musical in Manhattan

Sleepy Hollow (based on Washington living's Legend of Sleepy Hollow; book & lyrics by Russell Maloney, Miriam Battista and Ruth Hughes Aarons; music by George Lessner; produced by Lorraine Lester) is passably tuneful and monumentally tedious. Washington Irving's famous yarn of lanky, spindle-necked Ichabod Crane--who was as ill-starred in love as in looks and was chased into immortality by the Headless Horseman--would seem likely material for a musical. It comes equipped with standard light-operatic fixtures: period atmosphere, picturesque locale, broad humor, folkish fantasy; it seems a cinch to wire for dancing and song.

But Sleepy Hollow has lost the flavor of Irving's old tale. It is part of a world that believes much more in gags than in ghosts. And from Sleepy Hollow you well might think that the old tale had been a trilogy. The show is incredibly poky and protracted; it just won't keep movin' along. Nor has it very much more of musicomedy's factitious lure than of the old Hudson River Valley's drowsy charm; only here & there is a lyric sprightly, or the dancing gay. As Ichabod, angular Gil Lamb is likable and pleasant, but by no means a tide-turner. Best thing about Sleepy Hollow is the singing, which does a lot for the next best thing--the songs.

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