Photos by Nile Hawver
‘A Sherlock Carol’ – Written by Mark Shanahan; Directed by Ilyse Robbins; Featuring Paul Melendy; Leigh Barrett; Christopher Chew; Jon Vellante; Mark Linehan; Michelle Moran; Scenic Design by Erik D. Diaz; Costumes by Sophia Baramidze; Lighting Design by SeifAllah Solotto-Cristobal; Sound Design by Alex Berg; Presented by Lyric Stage Boston, Boston, MA running November 14 through December 21.
By C.J. Williams
Famously, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol opens with the line, “Marley was dead: to begin with.” Playing now at the Lyric Stage until December 21st, A Sherlock Carol, opens to the tune of “Moriarty was dead: to begin with”. The famous consulting detective is in a black, offensive, depression (throwing out friends and spitting “Bah!”). Moriarty is dead, and Holmes, self-obsessed and shut in on Christmas Eve, refuses all invitations from Watson to partake in holiday cheer…and Moriarty is dead. But that might just as easily have been said of Scrooge at the opening of his story, and Holmes, as we enter A Sherlock Carol, are dead themselves: They’ve both lost the thing that gives hope to the human heart.
Scrooge was essentially brought back to life. Can Holmes be?
Both in the plot, and through the play between the famous stories, the production gallops through a Christmas Eve haunting − and murder? − at a breathtaking pace, beginning with Holmes in his post-Moriarty death depressive turn, and Scrooge’s natural (or unnatural?) death across town. A visit from the now-adult Tiny Tim requesting Holmes’ help in investigating Scrooge’s death gets the game afoot again.
Shanahan clearly has a lot of fun with the two stories, and if you know your Dickens and your Holmes, you’ll find the quotes and mysteries referenced (and tweaked) all the more amusing.
At the heart of this play − just as in A Christmas Carol − we have the human heart. In the Sherlock Carol, there’s the contrast between Scrooge’s journey from walled-off miser to magnanimous old man, and we can only hope that Holmes will be haunted out of his addictive, obsessed intellectual isolation to become a generous friend and receiver of holiday warmth.
The parallels could have been played up for poignancy, and, at points, not just for parody.
Just as well, and appropriately, the dissimilarities could have been accented, allowing the subtleties of the difference between Holmes and Scrooge to move the plot and the characters forward. Then again, the play is as much a holiday pantomime as classic drama. In that respect, it plays for all its worth. Lyric Stage has assembled a lively, well-rounded cast. They’re all the more impressive for playing multiple roles within the play. Michelle Moran deftly (and comedically) switches from Irene Adler’s young costume assistant to playing Inspector Lestrade (fake moustache and all). Dr. Tim Cratchit (Jon Vellante) is side-splitting in his leap from soft-spoken, bent-legged doctor to blowhard baritone side-burned hotel manager. And Leigh Barrett steps into the shoes of Scrooge’s colorful past housekeeper just as fully as she inhabits Tim’s incisively witty sister, Martha. Paul Melendy’s take on Sherlock Holmes is hilarious and believable, by turns eccentric and melancholic.
All in all, mystery and comedy marry to lead the audience through a story that is both entertaining and a seasonal transformation. Just when we think we’ve got the carol part pinned down, the mystery slips back in, and just when we’ve gotten comfortable following Holmes’ purely intellectual puzzle, the heart transformation throws our expectations (and Holmes) on its head. By the end, the mashup is just familiar enough to be comforting, and the clever interplay of the two stories is just unexpected enough to keep us on our toes until the curtain closes. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.lyricstage.com/show-item/a-sherlock-carol/
