first night review: Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson - APT 2B

Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson - APT 2B
Presented by Crescent City Stage at Loyola’s  Marquette Theatre
Review by David S. Lewis

Plenty of games are afoot in this rather slapstick take on the legendary detective. Playwright and actor Kate Hamill’s post-Covid resetting of Sherlock’s London is achieved with lush set design and lighting: colors are saturated, costumes razor sharp, Rachmaninoff loud (as was the Stravinsky), and famous duo Sherlock and Watson are women(!). 

This one is meant to be fun. The writing does less work to convince you that a great mystery is being unraveled by clinically astute deduction…in fact, for fans of the original denizens of Baker Street, these crimes solve themselves on somewhat familiar lines, nearly identical. But we do have two actors, Jarrod Smith (primarily Detective Lestrade) and Sarah Colbert Cutrer (primarily Irenne Adler) playing multiple characters, giving the small cast a frenetic pace and ample opportunity to show off their acting chops. 

Brittany Chandler’s comic sidekick Joan Watson is given an interesting update from the original’s army veteran. Every Watson has had to decide how much to lean into the corn, from Basil Rathbone’s utterly bumbling Nigel Bruce to Martin Freeman’s decidedly less self-effacing take in the BBC serial. Chandler hopes to split the difference, but brings tremendous physicality to the comic portions of her turn as the doctor.

Lorene Chesley’s Sherlock offers a vivacious rendition of the eagle-eyed and unrelenting consulting detective. Her Sherlock is high-energy, bounding about the stage with a saber rather than pensively sawing a violin. She avoids the frigidity sometimes draping the character and replaces it with nigh-manic energy. The deerstalker hat makes its inevitable appearance, but she’s less to blame than Rathbone and a general confusion over early 20th century English countryside garb. 

Director Elizabeth Elkins Newcomer is at the helm of her fourth production for Crescent City Stage, and although this is a light work, she is making use of the entire stage, as well as the projection screen behind it. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit on this one, and Newcomer, a gifted actor in her own right, has made use of the entirety of playwright Kate Hamill's text. 
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For a gender-fresh take on the famous detective and a fast-paced evening of light theater, this one will be hard to beat, even if hardcore fans of the famous duo might wish for something that feels a little fresher yet.

Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson - APT 2B runs at the Marquette Theatre at Loyola through September 14th. Click here for more information and ticketing.