Sherlock Holmes, the Musical

Teddy Hayes may not be a Renaissance man, but he comes pretty close as a writer (of the Devil Barnett crime novels) a producer, a filmmaker and a musical booking agent. Now he’s turned his attention to creating a musical (and writing the lyrics) out of Conan Doyle’s canon, and Tangled Web’s Bob Cornwell went to see a preview of The Baskerville Beast, which will be expanded to a 2-hour production running at a theatre in Ealing  in March 2005:

Following the source novel pretty closely (Hayes is nothing if not a traditionalist) we are at once transported to 221B Baker Street as Watson is invited by Holmes to deduce what he can from the walking stick left behind the previous night by Dr. James Mortimer. And immediately we are conscious that there will be nothing lacking in the key actors. John Elnaugh makes a splendidly melodramatic Holmes, glinting with flinty intelligence, with just a hint of Jeremy Brett-like arrogance. Paul Engers straightaway exhibits the solid dependability of a classic Watson, whilst Sarah MacDonnell (of whom more later) bustles convincingly as Mrs Hudson. With the introduction of John Pyle as James Mortimer, the stage is set for the first song.

We hear eight highly effective numbers, musically from the Quincy Jones/standards end of the Hayes CV – a hip hop Holmes just might be a step too far! The songs vary from the opening scene-setting and narrative number Do You Know the Baskervilles, via a tongue-twisting Logical Deduction by a solo Holmes, John Elnaugh making up with polished brio for anything lacking in the vocal department, to a rousing finale in praise of The Detective of the Century.Along the way, Barrymore (the butler, also played by John Pyle) impressed with I Got a Little Secret; there was Magic For Me, a touching duet between Beryl Stapleton (beautifully played by Sarah MacDonnell) and Sir Henry Baskerville (Miles Eagling) along with Beryl’s own delightful feature, Bastard with a Capital B. Throughout, the dazzling dexterity of Teddy Hayes’s lyrics is often apparent.

…The minutes zip by and an hour later it is all over. The audience, both black and white, young and old, is delighted. I chat to one or two after the performance, including one elderly lady, clearly a Conan Doyle aficionado. “Watson would never have said `Blimey”’, she tells me, a reference to one of the Hayes lyrics. (Hayes tells me later he will change to phrase to “by Jove”!). But, like the rest of the audience, she also is much impressed by what she has seen and heard.

Although I think in other hands this idea might have withered on the vine, somehow, knowing that Hayes is involved, it just might work after all. Should be very interesting when the full-scale production goes live in a few months.