‘Shockheaded Peter’ to return in November

Jobsite Theatre’s recent musical cabaret of fairy tale weirdness, Shockheaded Peter, was the third-best-selling show in the company’s 22-year history.

So they’re bringing it back. Despite the fact that Jobsite’s previously announced 2021-22 season starts Oct. 1 with Dr. Ride’s American Beach House, Artistic Director David M. Jenkins found a way to slip a “revived” Shockheaded Peter into the schedule Nov. 23-Dec. 8, for eight performances.

“As I watched the run march to the end sold out every straight weekend, I felt like we were leaving money on the table and disappointing a lot of folks who weren’t able to get tickets,” Jenkins explains.

“So, we’ve just boxed the whole darned thing up — we saved everything — and we’ll get back together for a week of tech and rehearsals before this two-week run. The iron will be hot enough four months from now that most of it should stay pretty fresh in our minds, we all have excellent video and audio to reference, the light and sound cues are all saved and ready to be brought back up on the boards.”

After Shockheaded Peter ended its run in early July, a videotaped performance was made available for streaming.

Jenkins isn’t a fan of streaming theater. “I can’t get 20 people to watch a stream from their living room, but we got almost 2,500 people into a live theater over the course of the month to see a show that — apart from the songs and a loose sketch of a plot treatment that came to us — was all our big, weird, 18-headed collaborative lovechild.

“You just can’t ask to feel much better as a producer, director, or artist.”

Tickets go on sale here Aug. 2.