If you think the Grimm fairy tales are creepy, you should see what old Dr. Heinrich Hoffman dreamed up for Struwwelpeter. That's the 1845 book of short stories on which Shockheaded Peter, now playing Off-Broadway at the Little Shubert, is based. Hoffman's twisted tales of wayward children meeting their doom is the stuff of nightmares -- and, occasionally, pretty good comedy. It all depends on your sensibilities.

In a series of tales told and enacted by the eight-member cast, kids such as Cruel Frederick, Fidgety Phil, and poor Johnny Head-in-Air unceremoniously lose limb or life, or both. While horrors such as death by fire or blood loss are most tastefully and artistically rendered here [...]